Gerry Lopez / “Life is like riding a wave. There is no way to know what the ride is going to be like from the vantage point of the takeoff, but inevitably there is always more ahead,” a sentiment reflected throughout legendary Hawai’i surfer and shaper Gerry Lopez’s recently penned book, Surf Is Where You Find It. “Sometimes the ride is fun and wonderful. Other times it’s scary and dangerous. Anticipation gives rise to expectations, but more often than not there will be surprises along the way.”

There are innumerable cliches and sayings that try to describe the ethereal feeling of surfing: “It’s not destination, it’s the journey,” “Only a surfer knows the feeling” and the downright ridiculous “Cowabunga dude.” Strip away the generalities, the preconceived notions and stereotypes of surfing and you’re left with a raw and true-to-life collection of short surf stories from one of the greatest modern watermen.

Born in 1948 and raised in Honolulu, Lopez gained stature and respect in the surf world from his groundbreaking surfing at Pipeline on O’ahu’s North Shore. Through the ’60s and ’70s he recognized the importance surfboard design and seeing the need to support his board-breaking habit of surfing the dangerous barreling waves at Pipeline, he quickly became one of the most sought-after surfboard shapers in Hawai’i. He opened his legendary Lightning Bolt Surfboards outlet in the summer of 1970.

During that era, surfing and surfboard design were evolving in great leaps, from heavy and plank-like longboards to the sleek and modern big-wave and shortboards we see today. Lopez was in the nucleus of that progression and was surrounded by all the key players and surfers that went on to shape today’s surfboard industry.

Surf Is Where You Find It is an anthology of that once-in-a-lifetime progression of a tribe of core surfers who followed their passion for the love of the sport–the money came later. Lopez gingerly chronicles his surf adventures from boyhood to the present, entailing aquatic exploits with his best friends, the top surfers of his era, all icons in the surf world. With simple narrative and witty dialogue from eccentric characters, Lopez spins stories of his surf trips to neighboring islands, his surf pioneering days in Indonesia and discovering the famed left named G-land, tow surfing huge waves with Laird Hamilton among other watermen and his love-affair with snowboarding.

Wipeouts, timeless barrels at Pipeline, avalanches, near-death experiences, the riches of new discoveries and the people that shared these adventures with him send the reader back in time to a nostalgic and historic period in Hawai’i and Indonesia. Lopez recalls standing on the road in front of what is now ‘Ehukai Beach Park and trying to hitchhike back to town. When not a single car passed in either direction for more than an hour, he was relegated to taking the bus.

In person, Lopez is humble and soft-spoken and his book takes the same tone. His life-long pursuit of yoga, meditation and reflection has helped him survive critical and life-threatening wipeouts that kept him underwater for two waves in a row, and in turn, has shaped his memories of the events of his life. “Sometimes, however, those critical moments when a person’s whole life flashes before them is an opportunity to see into their inner self. The inner self is a part of each of us, and holds answers to complete happiness and a life free from pain and suffering,” Lopez asserts in his story “Caught Inside Again.” “This inner place of harmonious bliss is layered over with ego, individual belief systems, and mundane concerns. We live in the past where nostalgia makes us sad, or in the future where our worries cause anxiety. We fail to grasp that this moment we are in is all there ever was or ever will be. Life is, was, and ever will be, simply now.”

Surf Is Where You Find It

Gerry Lopez, A Patagonia Book, 246 pp., $29.95

---