Orca

In The Wind Waker, Orca is an old man whose home is on Outset Island, a peaceful place where Link also resides. Orca, in his youth with his older brother Sturgeon, set out on a quest to find ten Knight's Crests. Both of them aspired to be great swordsmen, and their quest took many years of hard toil, and honing their skills of the blade. Both fought against beasts and challenged each other to become stronger. Some time at the end of their journey, Orca was injured so seriously that he was unable to become a swordsman. After their journey, they built a house on Outset Island in which Sturgeon lived in the top part of the house, and Orca lived on the bottom. While Orca may no longer use a sword, he may still train and fight with a spear.

It is Orca who first gives Link his sword and teaches him his first moves with it. If Link brings him 10 Knight Crests, he will teach him the Hurricane Spin. Later on in Link's adventure, he gets a chance to improve his ranking of his sword skills. 100 hits makes Link a Knight, and Orca will reward him with a purple Rupee. 300 hits makes Link a swordsman and an orange Rupee is the reward, and if he hits Orca 500 times before he hits hims 3 times, Link will receive a Piece of Heart. If the young hero manages to hit Orca 999 times, he will say that Link has surpassed him, and from that point he calls him Master Link.

Trivia

 * Amusingly, after Link strikes him 1000 times he will say that he has lost count, since the counter only goes to 999, and that his arm has gone numb. Then, he asks: "Hasn't the left index finger gone numb?" He's referring to the player's L-Targeting finger. Don't be too surprised if it has in fact lost feeling. This can easily be avoided by simply changing the targeting mode to "switch" instead of "hold". Then simply pressing the L-Button once and releasing will keep Orca locked on.
 * Strangely enough, when Orca has dropped his weapon (such as when Link first shows him a Knights Crest but there's not enough to learn the hurricane spin), if Link tries to attack him he will instead assume a Karate position and block off Link's attacks.