Shaper Profile. GERRY LOPEZ TURNING PLAY INTO HIS LIFE’S WORK GERRY LOPEZ KNOWS THE VALUE OF ‘SHOWING UP.’ BY LOGGING, POSSIBLY THE MOST AND VERY ARGUABLY THE BEST, WAVES OF ANY SURFER/SHAPER IN THE WORLD GERRY DEVELOPED AN INTUITION THAT DEFINED AND CONTINUES TO INSPIRE HIS SHAPING STYLE. Can you tell me about the best surfboard you ever rode? Did you
another friend was in the parking lot and he had money in his hand. He
shape it? Where did you surf it?
said, “I want that board. “ I took the money and just like that I was in the surfboard business, you know, and then it’s been a long long process
Oh, boy. You know, when you’ve been surfing as long as I have, there’s
ever since I’ve just, you know, one board to the next. And a lot of them
really a lot of good boards, and I don’t know, there’s no real best one,
along the way have been boards for myself and I see that with my son,
but yeah, I’ve been shaping boards for 54 years now. Holy cow! Yeah.
you know, he’s made so many boards for himself. And that’s part of the
And, you know, All the way along, there’s been some really great ones,
process is that there’s a lot of experimentation, you know, and you got
but it wasn’t so much the last one as the next one. It’s just kind of like in
to try stuff to see if it works, to see how it works and, you know, to see
surfing, you know, it’s not so much the last wave you had, it’s the next
if you can improve what you already have.
one you’re going to get. And that’s maybe one of the — you know, the downfalls of being a surfboard builder is that every time you’re riding a board, you’re thinking how you can improve it and that’s why you’re always thinking about that next board. There’s never one that’s just perfect. There’s always room for improvement and, you know, some small (or big) modification there’s your next board.
That’s cool. It seems like the more boards you shape, the better your boards are going to get. Can you tell us more about how you learned to shape?
“Every board I made would make surfing that very difficult wave a little easier.”
People don’t realize that it’s not that hard to make a surfboard. And there’s a lot of things that you can’t really explain totally going on in surfing and in surfboards. And a lot of times a guy will just say out of
You make shaping surfboards sound so easy. In fact you seem to
the blue, “I’m going to make a surfboard,” and this is what happened to
make a lot of things seem easy. What was your approach to surfing
me. You know, I mean, actually, it wasn’t even my idea, it was a friend
challenging waves like the Pipeline?
of mine. I just got this board from Dick Brewer in 1967 and it was the very first short board of that period. It was really a great board because
It had more to do with the board than anything else. There was a lot of
it was different. Everybody had long boards and all of a sudden I had a
experimentation with trying to build boards for the pipeline in the very
shorter board. But it was really lightly glass and so it didn’t last that long
beginning. We had an advantage. Going back to that first 8’6” Brewer
and I wanted to get another one, but by then everybody wanted to get
when I took that out of the Pipeline, it was such an improvement over
these same shorter boards and Dick didn’t have any time for me. And
any of the long boards that we ever rode out there. And then, once
this friend of mine goes, “Well, let’s just make our own boards.” And I
I started making my own boards, one board after the other, every
went, “we don’t know how to do that.” And he goes, “we’ll figure it out
board I made would make surfing that very difficult wave a little easier.
along the way, you know?” So we stripped down our long boards so we
But it took a lot of boards, you know, and the Pipeline is notorious for
had some foam and he went first. We only had one pair of sawhorses
breaking boards in half. So because the next day there’s probably going
in his dad’s garage, you know, and he had at it and shaped this board.
to be more waves you go back and make a new board. And each one
And then it was my turn. I don’t even remember what it looked like, but
was an improvement over the last one. And that was the beauty of not
it was short. it was seven foot six, you know, which was a foot shorter
only shaping but, you know, building your own boards, combined with
than the board I had been riding, which was already, you know, one of
wanting to raise your skill level in surfing to become a better surfer. You
the shortest boards around. We shaped them up and then we glassed
know, you wanted to improve your surfing skills, but you only could
them up and then when they were done and we took them down and
to a certain point, then you had to get a better surfboard. That’s kind
went surfing — man, they felt like they rode like the wind. You know,
of been the story of my whole life, you know, trying to make a better
they were just great. And I was coming in from that first session and
surfboard to try and have a little more success in surfing.
