Ben Aipa was a very big part of my life. he was a surf coach back in the 1980’s when surf coaches never existed. so yeah, you can call him the first surf coach ever. Ben spent countless hours of his valuable time coaching me for 3 years. he coached me at Kewalo’s, Diamond Head, North shore, Sandy Beach, and even in Japan. after we trained, i would go to his house and we would look over the video. he taught me about competition, about the ocean, about surfboards, and about winning. there are so many wonderful memories throughout three decades of knowing him. and the one thing Ben taught me that i will never forget was to “fake it.” i’ll explain what that means later.
thousands of people around the world will surely miss Ben. so saying goodbye was pretty emotional for everyone. 
my friend Kevin Kamakura took this photo of me riding one of Ben’s “stinger” surfboards back in 1988. Ben hung this on his shaping room door for many years. he told me “that’s how i want you to push my board on every turn you do.” that inspired me a lot and every time i did a turn like this, i would do it for Ben Aipa…
