Surfing legends - MR, Slater, Laird Hamilton, and Greg Knoll
Shapers - Bruce Jones and The Salick brothers
I have to say that Kelly Slater became my favorite surfing legend over MR
just this year. But I still love the “Wounded Gull”, he is truly the Superman
of my younger surfing days!
Peace
Jimbo (aka SALT)
You know, it’s kinda sad that there are all these contest-winner types mentoned, a slew of johnny-come-latelies ( except Ben, of course… ) a shaper or six…
and nobody mentioned Duke Paoa Kahanamoku… who essentially took surfing from the Hawaiian Islands and gave it to the world.
If there is somebody who’s acheived ‘legend’ status, it’s the Duke. Nobody else comes close.
http://www.dukefoundation.org/odkfmemories.html has more.
Surfing is a transient kinda thing. We make tracks on the water and in only a moment they’re gone. The maneuver, the contest that caught everybody’s attention will be forgotten in a surprisingly short time. The board that outperforms everything will in turn be outperformed soon.
Maybe it’s about something else, no?
doc…
You hit it right on the head, Doc. Without Duke sharing his stoke and aloha none of this would exist.
I suspect even Duke looked up to the real surf legends – the dolphins… talk about outperforming and “something else”…
PS “so long and thanks for all the fish”
I have to say that my favorite legend has to be Mike Diffenderfer that man could lay down some very sweet curves and I am honored to have had the chance to actually witness him doing it. He was a load of fun as well!
–Robin
Blake, Lopez, Greenough, Frye and Curren !
Stevo
Howzit Robin, Yeah Diff was one crazy dutchman, we were lucky to have him here in Hanalei for a few years in the early 70's and he shaped the first modern longboard for Kauai in about 1976. He didn't even have a template and borrowed an old Takiyama to make the template. The board was made for Marty Bryan.Aloha Kokua
Aloha Kokua:
Yes! I cannot believe how Diff pulled boards out of thin air. I watched him shape a board in South Africa where he had no template, he simply hand sketched the outline on the blank and then eye-balled it into trueness and it was one sweet outline. In fact I had a copy of the template and used it for about ten years, very inspiring.
To this day I’m grateful for how much I learned from him in a very short period of time in Jeffrey’s Bay. I think this must have been right before he came to Kauai, as he was in South Africa around 1970!
Boy! I sure would like to see that board!
– Robin
Flipper, Duke, Phil Edwards, Nat Young, Geoff Mccoy, Cheyne Horan, Kelly slater.
MOIKEHA
oral history 800 dating to years ago?
try google da kanaka,
photos not availiable
Herb Kane painted a picture of him …
era has been compromised as a specific term
legends…?
is it a contemporary market catch phrase?
a legend is a story, is it faast becoming another modified meaning?
or is it already a done deal
is a legend a no longer a thing
but now a person
when will it become a place
on a night much like this
a canoe slipped into the bay at WA MAKAIWA
on kauai at around dusk
the canoe had come from Tahiti
it had stopped at every Island in tthe hawaiian chain
at each island some of the original crew had chosen to stay
Moikeha sailed on to Kauai
the canoe lay offshore
at dawn,residents were seen going for a surf
Moikeha joined them
the begining of a long and loyal life to kauai
and a connection to the remote past
paul bunyan is a legend
repeated and embelished stories
about respected ancestors and peers
grow to grand proportions over time…
the media self stroking perprtuates it self
stars are no longer a viable marketable comodity
we were beaten into submission by the stars of the70’s and revolted
to gain a sense of self credibility
is this new catch word simply another tool to stratify the credibility?
are we slowly being sold into slavery to media /marketing
collecting TITHE to the surfasorial industrial complex
tell the stories
listing legends?
as individuals?
where are the legends of the fallen ?
are they all sponsored?
No
…ambrose…
god bless them all
tomorrow is a day of legendary potential
do somthing worthy of retelling
ralph young borrowed the 8’6 three stringer preformance wide nose board from me I made it in 73 I modified it from the 10’1 cabell gun blank plug
maybe I made it in 72 it was before I started dating em,that was in ‘73,thet series had batik lam emblems…I still have the 6’2 shorty and the 7’6 speeder and the board that ralph coveted til about 78 it has a nose thats less than 1/4’’ tthick glassed…I gotta check the date…100’’ the first modern longboard on kauai… great thought … how bout the first modern longboard in the world…ha!.. oh but longboards dont qualify lest they are 9’…sorry…
Ibsen’s enemy of the people
‘‘every generation rewrites its own histories…’’
I really look up to Ben Aipa as a great surfer/shaper. Seems like he’s been around forever, always at the forefront of modern surfboard design. He can shape anything from a kneeboard, thin potato chip sliver, to a Waimea gun. I don’t know him real well, more of a howzit going kind of thing, but always enjoy talking story in the line up with him about his latest design, travels, surf stories from the old days, or trying to get a few shaping tips out of him. You get him going on the right subject and he’ll go on and on. I think he did have a bit of a “hot head” reputation back in the day, but in the short few years that I have known him, I’ve never seen him get aggravated in the water, probably mellowed with age. Nonetheless, Ben is such a timeless surfer, not caught in any time warp, and even though in his early 60s, still out there ripping and shaping like he always has.
My favourite surf legend:Saun Thompson I had the honour of meeting him as a grom. He is a great guy, a true gentleman and a great ambassador to the sport not to mention his tube riding ability. A good person to know.
My favourite shapers: You guys!
Keep well
Legend: a story of exceptional events or times, handed down over time; can be about good or bad deeds or events.
Legend: one who inspires a legendary tale
Be your own legend. Do something that inspires your own path, worth remembering, if only by you. Nobody else has to know. Maybe the best kind of legend.
Surfing alone. Then telling no one.
Blake, Lopez, Greenough, Frye and Curren !
Stevo
Close to mine as well.
Lopez, Greenough, Frye, Curren, and Billy Hamilton.