Lightning Bolt

HISTORY Gerry Lopez (Company co-founder): “IT WAS ABOUT THE ENERGY.” In 60s and into the 70s, Hawaiian surfers were energized by the Shortboard Revolution. Nat Young shook up the world with his “Total Involvement” surfing, taking his foot off the nose and on the tail of surfboards that were evolving shorter, lighter and faster by the season. In Hawaii, that meant mini-guns – light, narrow-backed pintails that were a universe away from the 10-foot elephant guns of the mid-1960s. Mini-guns allowed surfers to boldly go where no surfers had gone before – deeper, faster, higher and lower: Deep into the gizzards of Pipeline, up high in the lip at Sunset, right into the Backdoor at Pipeline. And then there was Gerry Lopez. Standing 5' 8" and weighing maybe 135 pounds, Lopez came flying out of the late 60s and into the 1970s, engulfed in Pipeline spit, standing limp in the eye of the storm, making something very difficult look like a cakewalk. Thousands of words and images have swirled around Lopez at Pipeline, but Tom Curren might have said it best: “It’s like letting an arrow fly.” The world was mesmerized by a man who matched Pipeline’s power and beauty with grace. Lopez’ fast-twitch, German/Japanese physiology was part of the act, but what was under his feet was also important. Lopez needed surfboards that were as lithe, quick and fast as he was - so in the summer of 1971, Lopez teamed up with experienced Surf Line Hawaii store manager Jack Shipley to form an elite boutique for Hawaii’s best surfer/shapers. The symbol was the Lightning Bolt and the symbol meant energy – the energy of Hawaiian surf, but also the energy of human physicality and artistry to make the surfboards to ride that energy deeper, faster and more radical.