Although his early mastery of the tubular North Shore break earned him the title “Mr. Pipeline,” Gerry Lopez, 66, doesn’t surf there anymore. He still writes about Pipeline, though, which the Ala Moana sensation first surfed at age 15, thanks to a “tip about angling on the takeoff” from local phenomenon Jock Sutherland, as Lopez recounts in his 2007 memoir, “Surf Is Where You Find It,” now out in a new, expanded edition.
In the 1960s and ’70s, “Surfers were still categorized in the same group as beach bums, con men and gigolos,” Lopez writes. Now, of course, the sport has gone mainstream, along with his other passion, yoga, Lopez said in a phone interview from his home in Bend, Ore., before coming to Oahu for book and yoga events.
Question: How did you become a writer?
Answer: I was an avid reader as a child. My dad worked at the (Honolulu) Advertiser for a long, long time, and at one point, in the early 1970s, I was the surf columnist for the paper. Surfing back then was very small, wasn’t anything like it is now. It had this outlaw-ish mentality.
Q: Why don’t you surf Pipeline anymore?
A: In the ’70s Sunset was the main break, but now it’s all at the Pipeline. It’s a small area with a lot of people, and they’re very hungry. They don’t have time for an old guy like me. I can go out to Sunset and have way more fun.
Q: But you’re goofy foot. Does Sunset have a good left?
A: Not really. Sometimes I go right.
Q: Why did you move to Bend, Ore.?
A: We went originally one winter because Sunny Garcia said the snowboarding was really good, and ended up buying a place to spend the school year when our son, Alex, was starting first grade. I also have a surfboard factory here in Bend.
Q: In October you’ll be leading a yoga session in Honolulu as well as teaching at a surf-yoga retreat at Turtle Bay Resort from Oct. 12 to 15. When did you get into yoga?
A: Well, I’ll be instructing, not teaching. In all those things, you get little pointers and guidelines and help along the way, but it’s the experience that teaches you. I started yoga when I was a student at (the University of Hawaii) in 1968.
Q: Will your family be coming?
A: Yes. My wife, Toni, helps with the yoga part. Alex is 26 now and a pro snowboarder, but in the last few years all of a sudden the surf bug bit him. I love snowboarding, but I don’t think anything will ever take the place of surfing for any surfer.
Q: How did yoga change your surfing and your life?
A: When I got into yoga, that was about the same time that I was really starting to get a little more deeply into surfing, and they really kind of resonated with each other for me. For instance, the lifestyle that’s the healthy-living surfer lifestyle of today, that was all from yoga, the healthy eating, the exercise, the proper thought.
Both yoga and surfing go back thousands of years, and ultimately they (both) lead to elevation of your consciousness. I think that’s the reason we’re here, and so you might as well get to it and start sooner than later.
Q: As a Patagonia ambassador for that green-minded brand, can you speak about surfing and environmentalism?
A: George Downing and John Kelly started Save Our Surf in the early ’60s, and there weren’t that many people interested in (environmental protection) until they brought attention to it. Groups like Save Our Surf and Surfrider Foundation resonated with me because my life has always been about the ocean.
Patagonia goes much further than just the oceans. I think the purpose of environmental groups is to raise awareness and let people decide for themselves.
Q: Can you talk about how surfing has changed and how you feel about it?
A: I think the same thing that attracted me and all my friends is still alive and well, and why shouldn’t it attract other people as well? It’s a great thing. But in our lifetime it’s taken that quantum leap. The good thing is that a lot of people kind of turned on to it. I guess one of the downsides is that there’s a lot more people in the water, and when it gets really crowded, there can be tension.
Nowadays every serious surfer has lots of boards. Back in 1958 a surfboard was really a rare thing. So maybe before you owned your own, you got to use someone else’s, or rode a paipo board or bodysurfed.
It seemed like it was much more carefree and just less serious back when I began.
Q: Any advice for coping with the crowds and tension?
A: Every time before you paddle out, set your intention that you’re going to surf with aloha. And even if you forget for a few moments, keep reminding yourself. Surfing’s a great metaphor for life.
