Ben Aipa

Noted surfer and surfboard shaper Ben Aipa was born in 1942 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The son of a sugar plantation worker, Aipa initially planned on an athletic career in football as a linebacker, but switched to surfing in his early twenties due to an ankle injury. Ben was a finalist at the Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Contest at Sunset Beach in 1966; he went on to finish fourth in both the 1967 Makaha International and the 1975 Lightning Bolt Pro as well as competed in both the 1968 and 1970 World Surfing Championships. However, it's as a surfboard shaper that Aipa has made his most significant mark in the world of surfing: He made the board that fellow Hawaiian Fred Hemmings used to win the World Championship in 1968 and founded his own brand Aipa Surfboards in 1970. Ben invented the doubled-edged swallowtail design in 1972 and followed this with the split-tail design in 1974. Moreover, Ben has served as an informal coach and trainer to such top surfers as Michael Ho, Larry Bertlemann, Mark Liddell, Sunny Garcia, Brad Gerlach, and Kalani Robb. In addition, Aipa continued to enter and compete in various surfing contests: He won the grandmasters division of the 1989 United States Surfing Championship and the legends division of the 2000 U.S. Championships. Inducted into the Surfing Hall of Fame in 1992, Ben was named one of the Top Ten Shapers of All-Time by Surfing magazine in 2004. His oldest son Akila Aipa is also an accomplished surfer and surfboard shaper.