Up Next? Oahu s South Shore surfline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from surfline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Shape like a girl, because it’s awesome. Photo: Laurent Chantegros
Surfboard building is unlike any other trade – there’s no formal training or trade schools. Hand shaping surfboards breeds a culture all its own, interconnecting generations with knowledge and tradition passed down from one to the next. Techniques are often unique to each shaper and refined over time, and eventually given to someone else to progress knowledge. Mentorships, which often spring from within intimate circles in shaping bays or sanding rooms, have mostly been a benefit of the guys-only club. It can be a tough one to break into.
When those defined lines of long-period energy come marching out of the North Pacific toward these famed volcanic gems, the true energy and ferocity of these waves can’t be captured from the beach. The action is best documented from out in the channel, often yards or mere feet from where massive chunks of sea realize their full potential, topping over themselves in nature’s display of beautiful blue violence.
Being that close to the beast is perilous to say the least. A photographer must be equal parts artist, technician and athlete. We interviewed a few of these photographers down on “the Rock” via email about the heroics behind the lens. Christa Funk and Jackie Fiero were still riding a high from all the energy this winter both the long-period energy and the energy shared between the photographers and surfers.
R.I.P. Ben Aipa (1942-2021)
Photo: Jeff Divine
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When Ben Aipa’s big heart finally stopped beating on Friday, January 15th after the man succumbed to multiple health issues including heart problems, diabetes, strokes and dementia, the surfing world lost one of its most remarkable characters and in some ways, one of its least-appreciated. Not due to any lack of respect. Ben commanded respect without even asking for it, from the moment he first took to the waves at Waikiki as a burly 23-year-old. But he wasn’t exactly shy. No other three-letter athlete from Farrington High, semi-pro football player and blue-collar truck driver could get by without occasionally puffing a few lips let alone learn to surf in Hawaii as a full-fledged adult.
Ben Aipa, surfing great, leaves a legacy of aloha kitv.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kitv.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.