Teiva Joyeux stood in the backyard of the home near Sunset Beach where he has lived for the past three years and fielded one phone call after another yesterday, from people far and wide.

They were expressing their sympathy over the death of Teiva's younger brother, Malik, 25, who died Friday while surfing the North Shore's fabled Banzai Pipeline.

"The thing that helps me right now is that I know there are so many people around the world who care," said Teiva, 29. "They keep calling and calling. The news was on the radio in France. Tahiti is shut down right now."

In Tahiti, where Malik's skill at riding huge waves had made him a legend, word of the surfer's death had come as a shock.

Malik made history in Tahiti on April 29, 2003, when he rode a 40-foot barreling wave, the biggest wave anyone had ever seen at the famed surfing site of Teahupoo. Teahupoo's waves are considered to be as treacherous as those anywhere in the world.

Pancho Sullivan, a North Shore surfer, knew Joyeux through surfing in Tahiti and Hawai'i.

Sullivan won the OP Pro Hawai'i at Hale'iwa Ali'i Beach last month. The OP Pro was the first event in this year's Triple Crown series.

"He was very humble, and filled with aloha spirit. He made you feel like you were his best friend the first time you met him.

"It's a wake-up call for everybody in the surfing community. So many people are pushing the limits, and when somebody as good as (Joyeux) dies doing it, it makes everybody realize that you're not invincible," he said.

"He definitely was not out of his element, that's what makes it so shocking. He's been riding waves that were almost incomprehensible in how big and intense they were.

"He was recognized as a top big-wave surfer, not just in Tahiti but all over the world. The images of him riding Teahupoo are absolutely incredible."

ALWAYS WITH A SMILE

Throughout yesterday, friends and neighbors dropped by to extend condolences to Teiva Joyeux. One set up a large open-air tent in the backyard so visitors could sit in the shade and talk.

Others brought food, blankets and extra items for those who would be coming to stay the next few days. Among the arrivals would be Malik and Teiva's mother, Helene Joyeux, their sister Thilan, 23, and Malik's girlfriend, Kamakea Bambridge, 23.

Even surfers who didn't know Malik well said they felt sadness.

"That's the thing with surfers," said Jodi Young, media director of Vans Triple Crown of Surfing. "When you go to Tahiti, you end up staying with Malik, his family and friends, when they come here, they end up staying with you and yours," she said. "Surfing has always been an exchange of family, friends and sport. When there's a loss like this, you feel it a lot deeper."

And yet, there were also many smiles and pleasant exchanges yesterday — mostly to do with Malik, whose very name seemed to evoke joy. Next to where Teiva was standing, one of Malik's boards had been taped upright to a tent leg. It was signed by dozens who had known him. Attached to the board was a recent snapshot of Malik, smiling.

Malik is smiling and laughing in every photo ever taken of him, according to Teiva.

"What everyone remembers about him was his smile," he said. "Malik was always smiling.

"Joyeux, the name, it's French," said Teiva. "It means happy."

"He's here laughing too," said Teiva's girlfriend, Nina Heiberg, 27, whose mind raced with stories about the fun of Malik, and how the two joked perpetually. And poked fun at one another. And carried on long philosophical arguments about any topic that came up — such as whether golf is a game or a sport.

"If I said A, he said Z," she said with a grin. "I was like his big sister."

Heiberg recalled how it pleased her to know Malik could be proud of her, such as the time she rode a big wave and he praised her for it.

Practically every person who came by to talk story about Malik mentioned the funny incidents they had with him, said Heiberg.

Teiva said his brother's ashes would be scattered both here and in Tahiti following his cremation in Hawai'i.

Malik had come to Hawai'i to visit, he said, and was also hoping to compete in the trials for the upcoming Pipeline Masters.

Friday's accident took place during an off day from competition in the Vans Triple Crown.

'FREAK ACCIDENT'

Jamie O'Brien, who won the Rip Curl Pro Pipeline Masters last year at the Banzai Pipeline, lives in a house right in front of the Pipeline. He is considered one of the best surfers at that break.

He was sitting on the beach watching the waves when Joyeux wiped out Friday.

"It was a pretty bad wipeout, but nothing like we haven't seen before. The whole time he was under water and everybody was scrambling around looking for him, I kept thinking he would pull through, because he's so strong.

"It's a dangerous wave. It makes you realize how important life is, and how careful and respectful you have to be every time you go out there, no matter how big it is."

Teiva recalled watching his brother's last ride and how the wave — relatively small compared to the giants he had ridden — came down on him with such force that it snapped his board and took him under.

By the time an army of searchers swarmed into the water and pulled his body out 15 minutes later, it was too late.

The wave Malik was riding Friday was less than a 10-footer, he said.

The competition for waves at Pipeline is fierce on noncontest days because the number of surfers is often greater than the number of waves rolling in. However, O'Brien said, the crowd probably had nothing to do with Joyeux's accident.

"He got the wave by himself, and was just in a bad position. It was just one of those things, a freak accident."

Inside the house yesterday, Teiva pointed out a photo Heiberg had taken of the two brothers, their sister and their mom not long ago and had framed to give Helene Joyeux for Christmas.

It was the last photo taken of the family together.

Naturally, Malik and all the others were amused at the photo.

Malik's joy was so infectious, Heiberg said. When she saw his body at Kahuku Hospital after the wipe out, she said it impossible to think of him as lifeless.

"I said, 'I'm going to keep teasing you, Malik.' "

Sullivan surfed at Sunset Beach yesterday and said many of the surfers were still talking about Joyeux.

"Everybody's feeling the shock waves. You never want to lose anybody that way, but when it's a friend, and somebody you know could handle being out there in those waves, it's really a hard thing to understand."

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.