Becoming Mr. Pipeline
Cover image: Art Brewer / gerrylopezsurfboards.com
With nicknames like Mr. Pipeline, the Pipeline Firewalker, and known as the best tube rider in the world and last soul surfer, there is no doubt that Gerry Lopez is one of the most influential surfers in the history of the sport. He defined cool and casual with his zen approach to getting tubed on the beastly barrels at Pipeline on Oahu’s North Shore. His charm and modesty complemented his incredible skill and shot him to stardom not only in the surfing community but around the world. Here is the story of the surf legend Gerry Lopez.
The Early Years
1965, Hawaii State Surf Championships with Bon Ching and Rell Sunn
Gerry Lopez was born in 1948 in Honolulu on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu. He grew up on the East side of Honolulu, where he attended the Punahou School and spent his days surfing the partially secret breaks on the Southside of Diamond Head. At age 14 he won the Hawaii State Championship and began surfing the breaks in front of metropolitan Honolulu, including his favorite, Ala Moana Bowls. Here he honed his cool and casual style and tube riding that eventually would earn him global attention.
By the end of the 1960s, Lopez began to venture to the North Shore to watch the Pipeline legends like Larry Bertlemann, Barry Kanaiaupuni, and Jeff Hakman. His first attempts at surfing the wave were in 1963, and he recalls not making the drop on his first day. For the next few years, he spent a lot of time learning the wave, becoming familiar with the old pros, and eventually getting comfortable dropping into the heavy left barrels.
The Shaper
Shaping at his store in Kahului Shopping Center in the late 1980s
Lopez started to get noticed on the North Shore as a Pipe regular, and in 1968 he began shaping boards. Board design was evolving rapidly, and his down-railed surfboards with a tucked under edge allowed him to ride higher and tighter in the curl. These new designs made Pipe’s steep drops and thick barrels survivable and kick-started a wave of performance surfing at Pipe, led by Lopez himself.
Lopez would paint a lightning bolt about 2 ft long on the stringer of his surfboards. This lightning bolt became his signature, and with his increasing successes as a surfer at Pipe and surfboard shaper, in 1970, he and Jack Shipley founded the Lightning Bolt Surfboards Brand for high-performance boards. As part of their marketing tactic, the brand was the first to sponsor professional surfers with free boards. This tactic paid off and earned them endless exposure in surf mags and made Bolt boards some of the most sought-after surfboards on the market. It became so popular that other brands began to put lightning bolts on their products, in response to which Lopez took out an ad on the back of Surfer Magazine and politely asked other companies to come up with their own symbols and stop using theirs.
The Zen Master
Lopez attributes his famously zen demeanor to his daily yoga practices. While attending the University of Hawaii, he discovered yoga and fell in love with its focus on mindfulness and decided it was the perfect complement to the heavy and chaotic waves he surfed at Pipe. He admits to first signing up for the class to meet girls, but during the session, what he found instead was the start to a lifelong journey towards enlightenment.
Becoming Mr. Pipeline
Lopez perfected his board designs and style on the barrels of Pipeline, and before long, he was the best surfer in the lineup. The challenging nature of riding this wave shows on the grimaces, intense, and aggressive facial expressions of the surfers who charge it. The zen and casual manner with which Lopez skillfully glided down the face and into the tube shocked the surf community. He won back-to-back Pipeline masters in 1972 and 1973 and, in the totality of his career, surfed in 25 Pipeline Master events.
In 1975 a new revolution to the sport was taking place at the famous break. Australian and South African surfers made a name for themselves with their aggressive style, shorter boards, and loud entrance onto the scene. As this shift was taking place and a new version of the surf industry emerging, Lopez silently took a step back from the North Shore Surf scene.
The Actor
Lopez’s recognition as a world-class surf icon won him various roles in Hollywood films. His two most notable features were in Conan the Barbarian, where he played Arnold Schwarzenegger’s sidekick, and in the surf drama, Big Wednesday, where he played himself. More movie appearances include North Shore, Farewell to the King, and surf documentaries Five Summer Stories, Step into Liquid, and Riding Giants.
Unlike other surfers who were branded as sellouts after finding commercial success and rubbing elbows with Hollywood stars, Lopez was able to keep his reputation clean and walk out with every ounce of coolness from which he entered.
Post Pipe Spotlight and the Present
After his silent step away from the main surf scene at Pipeline, Lopez surfed unexplored reefs in Indonesia and other remote locations. He built a three-story dream house right in front of Pipe, then decided to rent it and move to a farm at the base of the Haleakala Crater in Maui. After the Lightning Bolt Surfboard company became a huge, international success, he decided to cash out and walk away. Bolt eventually became saturated and the company expanded beyond boards to surf accessories and apparel. It lost its original status as the “cool” surf brand, however, today Bolt surfboards are still esteemed as artifacts of the early evolutions of surf in the 1970s.
In the early 1990s, Lopez moved away from Hawaii to Bend, Oregon, where he lives with his wife and son. He spends his time with family, snowboards in the winter, still crafts a few beautiful custom-order surfboards, practices yoga, and takes the occasional flight out to Indonesia for a long surf vacation.
Gerry Lopez defined a generation of surfing with his style and indisputable influence of board shapes. His current outlook towards the sport as an aging surfer exemplifies his soulful approach to surfing. In 2004 when talking about surfing, all he said he needed is, “a moment here or a moment there. One good drop, a good turn, a tube. Those kinds of things can carry you for a long-time – months, even years.” With fewer waves but richer experiences, the last soul surfer lives on in surf culture and as an icon of the original Pipe Master.
For a more complete story, visit Gerry Lopez’s website here.
Did reading about Mr. Pipeline himself, Gerry Lopez, make you want to hit the waves? Before you do remember to check out the Jamie O’Brien Surf App here for anytime, anywhere surf coaching.
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