sting, stinger
-
(VIDEO) The Sting
SUBSCRIBE TO VIEW -
Ben Aipa (left) and Buttons Kaluhiokalani with stings, 1976
SUBSCRIBE TO VIEW -
Ben Aipa with sting surfboard, 1975
SUBSCRIBE TO VIEW -
Sting rider Dane Kealoha, 1976. Photo: Chris Gardner
SUBSCRIBE TO VIEW -
Sting rider Larry Bertlemann, 1975. Photo: Jeff Divine
SUBSCRIBE TO VIEW -
Joey Buran with sting, 1977
SUBSCRIBE TO VIEW
See Also
History of Surfing
Above the Roar
Contributing To This Entry
High performance surfboard design, invented in 1974 by Hawaiian surfer Ben Aipa. The stinger's main feature was a bifurcated outline; two-thirds of the way from the nose, the rails abruptly cut in about one inch toward the board's center strip, then continued down to the tail. "What the stinger does," proponent Mike Purpus wrote in 1977, "is allow an extremely active and expressive form of small-wave shredding."
The sting (Aipa's original name for the design; it immediately became better kno...