Regardless of our sport, we are all looking for something that soothes our soul. We long for that feeling that we had when competing. For Gerry Lopez, he has found many ways to replace surfing in Hawaii while living in Oregon. This interview from last year gives you a glimpse of Gerry's life in Oregon from surfing on the Oregon coast to snowboarding to river surfing, Gerry does it all with a spirit of Aloha.
Legendary surfer Gerry Lopez talks Oregon, river surfing and Duke
They call him Mr. Pipeline. Gerry Lopez is considered to be among the most influential surfers in the history of the sport. Lopez, born and raised on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, helped pioneer the shortboard revolution that in many ways led to much of what surfing is today.
Lopez made Pipeline his home, dominating the world-famous North Shore wave starting in the 1960's and claiming the Pipeline Masters title consecutive years in 1972 and 1973. Lopez mastered the art of tube riding and would garner the reputation as one of the greatest surfers in the world. And inexplicably, despite his popularity (and the warm, beautiful waves of Hawaii), Lopez left his home state in the early 1990's and moved with his family to the Bend area of Oregon to start a new life of snowboarding and river surfing, while repping his longtime sponsor Patagonia and still shaping his world-famous surfboards.
