📍Honolulu, HI, USA
1948 – 1968“Gerard Anthony Lopez was born in Honolulu in November 1948 and grew up in East Honolulu, on the south shore of Oahu, in the shadow of Diamond Head, where the warm, gentle waves of Waikiki and Ala Moana were the playground of local kids. He went to Punahou School, one of Hawaii's oldest schools, and he was a quiet, thoughtful boy who loved the ocean and spent every spare hour surfing. He was a natural, with a smooth, calm style, and at fourteen he became the Hawaii state champion. With his friend Reno Abellira, he surfed Ala Moana Bowls, a hollow, fast left-hander on the south shore, almost every day, learning to ride inside the barrel, and he developed his famously relaxed style and masterful tube riding there. Then he and his friends began heading out to Oahu's North Shore, where they watched surfers like Butch Van Artsdalen and Jock Sutherland ride the terrifying hollow waves of the Banzai Pipeline, breaking over shallow reef. Lopez became the first to truly master Pipeline, riding its huge barrels with such calm that he seemed to stand still, and he became known as Mr. Pipeline, winning the Pipe Masters in 1972 and 1973. In 1970 he and Jack Shipley founded Lightning Bolt surfboards, and he also shaped boards and acted in the film Conan the Barbarian. He practised yoga long before it was popular, and in Hawaii and later Oregon he has remained a calm, wise figure in surfing, still riding waves and writing about the ocean.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
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