I only know of Lopez through how he has been portrayed in the media. Seems like he has surfed his way through life just like his surfing out in the water…with a lot of style. He looks to be in good health, sucessful at his business, snowboards and surfs. He could have chosen other paths like some of his other contemporaries and crashed and burned, but he chose to “live clean, surf clean and shape clean” like the Brewer motto from the late 60s. I personally look up to how he has lived his life up to this point. Viva Gerry…
Hey Josh, i still get to ride some cool boards!, at 55 my boards are a little longer now, but i do have a “short” diamond tail that i regularly make for myself, single fin,it’s 6’-8", 19 1/2" wide, wide point up 5 to 7 inches from center…the old singles have a sweeter feeling to me than thrusters did…they drift a little, a little slippery feeling…i got the temp from one of the lightning bolt shaping rooms at the glassing shop that i worked at, there was more fun and less business it seemed back then, i only saw mr. lopas at big alamoana bowl, or pipe, so the boards he was on were kind of larger6’-10" up to 8’-0’‘, i never went out at pipe when it was huge, maybe he had some bigger boards too…one kid that i made boards for, mark wildman , always wanted short boards for pipe, 6’-10" for pretty big pipe, he made it look so fun and easy , always liked watching him…there’s always been people surfing that nobody ever heard of, there’s always been people making really fun riding boards that nobody has ever heard of too,the purist fun has always been just being in the water with friends, nobody photoing or doing adds, i hope you get to do that sometimes! i hope you’re making your own boards too sometimes… that’s when it gets really fun…my last board that i bought was a hobie tri-plane that i bought in 1968 for 200 dollars and i found out i could buy materials for 6 boards for that , so i figured at least one out of 6 would probably float, i’ve had a blast ever since
Howzit dnick, While living on the north shore in the I got to know Gerry a little and i agree he is one nice guy. Happened to be out at pipe when they shot the Timex commercial with Gerry. It was a 4 foot day that grew to about 8 feet in an hour. What was funny was they taped the watch to the rail of his board and he was to ride a wave to shore rip off the wacth and then the old keeps on ticking line was said. But on the first wave the watch fell off so thay taped another on and tried again only the second time the watch was taped on so good Gerry couldn’t get it off the rail. Finally after a couple more tries they pulled it off and during the whole time the waves just kept getting better.Had a great session and some good laughs to boot.Aloha,Kokua