A-frame

Aaberg, Denny

Aaberg, Kemp

Abberton, Koby

Abbruzzi, Sid

Abellira, Reno

Abubo, Megan

academia and surfing

Adler, Tom

advertising and surfing

Aeder, Erik

aerial

Aguerre, Fernando

Aichner, Scott

Aikau, Clyde

Aikau, Eddie

Aipa, Ben

air-drop

airbrush

Airshow

Ala Moana

Alabama

alaia board

Alaska

alcohol and surfing

Alexander, Kala

Alexandre, João (Dapin)

Allen, Chuck

Alms, Paige

aloha shirt

Alter, Hobie

Alvarez, Pepe

Ancell, Kevin

Andaman Islands

Andersen, Lisa

Anderson, Craig

Anderson, Simon

Andino, Kolohe

Angel, Jose

angle

Angola

Angourie

Antarctica

Apocalypse Now

Arabian Sea

Aragon, Janice

Arakawa, Eric

Archbold, Matt

Arena, Eduardo

Ashton, Juan

Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP)

Atlantic Ocean

August, Robert

Aurness, Rolf

Auster, Ken

Australia

Avalon, Frankie

Azores

backdoor

backside

backside attack, Pipeline

backwash

bail out

Bain, Rob

Baja California

Baker, Bernie

Baker, Grant “Twiggy”

Baker, Tim

Bali

Ball, John “Doc”

Ballard, Bill

Ballard, Rochelle

balsa

Baltic Sea

Banks, Jim

Barbados

Barilotti, Steve

Barland, Michel

Barreda, Sergio “Gordo”

Barry, Michael

Bartholomew, Wayne

Baxter, Jackie

Bay of Bengal

Beach Boys, The

Beacham, Debbie

beachboys

beachbreak

Beachcomber Bills Grand Prix

Beachley, Layne

beavertail

Becker, Phil

Bedford-Brown, Stuart

Belgium

Bells Beach

Bendall, Ma and Pa

Bennett, Barry

Benson, Becky

Benson, Blanche

Benson, Linda

Bermuda

Innovative surfer-boardmaker-coach from Honolulu, Hawaii; a top competitor in the 1960s and early '70s, and creator of the swallowtail and sting surfboard designs. Aipa was born (1942) in Honolulu, the son of a sugar plantation worker, and didn't begin riding waves until his early 20s, after an ankle injury ended his semipro football career. He trained for surfing with the single-mindedness he'd developed as a linebacker, not missing a day in the water for all of 1965, and the following year he won the Hawaiian Inter-Island Championships and was a finalist in the Duke Kahanamoku Classic at Sunset Beach. Aipa also finished fourth in both the 1967 Makaha International and the 1975 Lightning Bolt Pro, and competed in the World Championships in 1968 and 1970.

It was expected that Aipa, at 250 pounds, would put more power into his turns than virtually any of his surfing contemporaries, but he augmented strength with agility, balance, and finesse. He was also one of the era's fiercest-looking surfers, helping him to get virtually any wave he wanted, even in the most crowded Hawaiian lineups. "There's a silently powerful presence about him," 

 magazine said of Aipa in 1972, understating the case. Pipeline virtuoso Gerry Lopez put it better: "When you see Ben coming, don't think, just get out of the way."

Aipa began shaping almost as soon as he began surfing, and in 1968 he made the board that fellow Hawaiian Fred Hemmings used to win the World Championships. Aipa Surfboards was founded in 1970, and Aipa soon came into his greatest influence as a designer, first inventing the double-ended swallowtail in 1972, followed two years later by the split-rail sting; both designs were ridden to electrifying effect by a group of Aipa-led Hawaiian test pilots including Larry Bertlemann, Michael Ho, Buttons Kaluhiokalani, and Mark Liddell. Aipa served as an informal trainer/coach for these surfers, all of whom competed during the early years of the pro world tour, and he continued to coach in the decades to come, working with pro standouts Sunny Garcia, Brad Gerlach, Kalani Robb, and the Irons brothers, Andy and Bruce. Aipa himself continued to enter contests, winning the grandmasters division of the 1989 United States Surfing Championships and the legends division of the 2000 U.S. Championships.

In the early '80s, Aipa began producing a slightly smaller updated version of the longboards he and the rest of the sport had left behind 15 years earlier. "I was targeting the guys who were getting married and had less time to surf and weren't in the best of shape," Aipa told 

 magazine in 1999. "They needed a board that could catch waves." Aipa himself was riding a 7' 6" hybrid in 1998 when 

 called him "the hottest 56-year-old surfer in the world."

Ben Aipa was nominated to the International Surfing Hall of Fame in 1991. In 2004, 

 magazine named him one of the "Top Ten Shapers of All Time"; in 2009, Aipa was elected to the Shaping Hall of Fame; in 2018, he was elected to the Surfers' Hall of Fame, as well as the Surfing Walk of Fame, both in Huntington Beach.

Akila Aipa, Ben's oldest son, was runner-up in the 1989 U.S. Championships, and has himself become a popular surfboard shaper.

Ben Aipa died in 2021, age 78, from a variety of ailments including diabetes and dementia.

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