About Me
Gerry Lopez was born in Honolulu, Hawaii and cut his teeth as a young surfer at Ala Moana. His hero at the time was Paul Strauch, whose wave riding style would later influence his own.Lopez initially pursued a degree in architecture from the University of Hawaii, but dropped out in 1969 to become a professional surfer, surfboard shaper and entrepreneur.Some six years after Butch Van Artsdalen had established himself as the original "Mr. Pipeline, not long after Jock Sutherland had left Ehukai Beach to join the military, Lopez assumed the alpha position at the Banzai Pipeline. During the winter of 1969-’70, Lopez set the standard for hollow wave tube riding at the world’s most foremost barrel. He went on to win the Pipe Masters two years in a row and become a perennial finalist throughout the 1970s.In 1971, Lopez established Lightning Bolt surfboards with Jack Shipley. As his identity catalized and he continued to amaze audiences with incredible grace and style in the most precarious situations, Lopez became a brand. The Lightning Bolt trademark likewise became an icon for the Hawaiian North Shore surfing lifestyle.Later, Lopez sold his stock in Lightning Bolt and cashed out, prefering instead to explore the exotic reefbreaks of Indonesia. He was one of the first to master the precision tubes of Uluwatu and G-Land.In 1978, film director John Milius provided Lopez with a beachhead into the acting profession, offering him a cameo role in Big Wednesday. He then co-starred as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s sidekick, Subotai, in Conan the Barbarian. Next he portrayed a local heavy in North Shore and a Bornean native in Milius’ 1990 release, Return of the King.In his later years, living on Maui, Lopez took up the sport of windsurfing. This progression lead him to strapped-in surfing as one of the pioneers of tow-in sessions at Jaws. His traveling lifestyle and conquest of huge outer reef waves earned him a key role in Bruce Brown's Endless Summer II and other films such as Riding Giants.
