I can only comment from personal experience, not from photos,
articles in mags, or second-hand stories.
My first vote would be Bennie.
When I was in college, I was so haole, I didn’t know I was
haole. My oldest friend had a roommate from Hawaii that was a
friend of Ben’s and asked me to go with him for Christmas break.
I went and Ben Aipa kinda adopted me as the resident dumb haole.
He took me to Sunset, Pipe, Unknowns & lots of other spots including
Westside. He introduced me to the line-ups & bruddas so I wouldn’t
get beat down. He gave me a board to ride when mine broke and asked
nothing in return. I’m just glad I had the chance to see him in the states
& thank him many years later. True Aloha…
Second would be Oneula…
Bernie carries on the Aloha here and in the water. I’m still tryin to
figure out how to pay it back!!! Us older guys could learn a lot from him.
Lastly, there’s guys out there that I would say that have the aloha
spirit and might not get credit because they aren’t from the islands.
You might have one in mind… mine is George Gall. He has given his
help to many here and should be in our minds when Aloha is mentioned.
Thats it for now, aloha bruddas from the hapa…
BKB