By

Steve Hartman

Correspondent

Steve Hartman is a CBS News correspondent. He brings viewers moving stories from the unique people he meets in his weekly award-winning feature segment "On the Road."

Read Full Bio

February 27, 2026 / 8:42 PM EST / CBS News

Add CBS News on Google

Honolulu, Hawaii — For Buddy Wiggins of Honolulu, Hawaii, the end result of a yearslong sports gambling addiction has come to this: soliciting strangers on the beach.

The 32-year-old pool cleaner says he heard a voice, a calling, to take his life in a radically different direction.

"I finally came to a point where I lost pretty much everything," Wiggins told CBS News. "And I'm on my hands and knees, and I'm crying."

What Wiggins felt called to do was to come down to Waikiki Beach, approach total strangers who had never surfed before, and ask them if they wanted a free lesson.

Wiggins calls it the First Wave Project.…