Hoffman, Philip "Flippy" (1930 – 2010)

Gravel-voiced surfer and textile exec from Capistrano Beach, California; a pioneering big-wave rider on the North Shore of Oahu in the early 1950s, and one of the first surfers, in 1975, to ride Kaena Point. Hoffman was born (1930) in Glendale, California, raised in Hollywood and Laguna Beach, and began surfing at age 13 at San Onofre.

In late 1952, after viewing an 8-millimeter reel of the big waves at Makaha filmed by his younger brother Walter—a surfer and navy enlistee stationed at Pearl...