This reminds me of some shitty disney surf movie I saw as 12 year old kid, Johnny Tsunami. The whole time the mentor was calling the kid "Porno." I kept wondering why'd they say that in a disney movie. Debeguiled's post just made me realize he was calling the kid "Pono."
You want to know the only thing you can assume about a broken down old man? It's that he's a survivor.