“BEN” – BEN AIPA PROFILE BY BILL HAMILTON AND GERRY LOPEZ

“Ben,” a two-part profile written by Bill Hamilton and Gerry Lopez, ran in the September 1972 issue of SURFER. This version has been slightly edited and shortened.  *  *  * He’s a big, heavy-set guy, weighing somewhere between 225 and 250 pounds. Amazingly enough, this isn’t a detriment to his surfing, which is remarkably smooth,…