The Yin & Yang of Gerry Lopez - Full Video
My father was my “spirit guide” into surf culture meaning that I was given videos of Gerry Lopez owning pipeline before I even knew who Kelly Slater was. Fast-forward past the very tempting notion to wax poetic about soul surfing and my unique upbringing of growing up on a horse ranch in Oregon with a father who surfed and skated with me like we were a pair of Southern California types, I ended up working for Lighting Bolt as my first full-time creative gig in the world.
At the time I was living out of the RV I bought from my Australian friends I had met only a couple of months earlier during my week of graduation from college. Those brawny fellas managed to convince me to bail on moving to Sweden for an internship and instead join them on what was one of the funniest left turns I could have ever taken in life.
Was it a bad idea? Maybe and maybe not, but my first job not juggling college courses was working for Lightning Bolt Surfboards out of their US Headquarters down on Venice Beach. I worked part-time in the design department and part-time in the store so I could get a full 40 hours per week. I had my RV parked behind the building, I used our surf shower for my usual showering needs, and ate MOSTLY peanut butter and avocado wraps I kept stored in a cooler.
If the surf was down then I would skate the park and if the surf was good then I would do both! I say all of this to say that Gerry Lopez went from being someone I idolized as a kid to being somewhat of my boss. This was also a time that I was drinking and using other drugs pretty heavily, but back then I was excusing it as what someone my age did. Little did I realize that my excuse would push out my daily practices of yoga, meditation, surfing, and skateboarding for just more drugs and booze.
So I interrupt the usual content of what The Ranch will bring to the Truckee Tahoe region to bring this up because Patagonia just released the Yin & Yang of Gerry Lopez and it made me feel rather nostalgic.
- All The Best, J.B.
From award-winning documentary filmmaker, Stacy Peralta comes Patagonia’s The Yin & Yang of Gerry Lopez, a film that lifts the veil on one of surfing’s most enigmatic heroes. While “Mr. Pipeline” is famously known for his calm demeanor in the tube, Gerry built his early career on cutthroat, aggressive surfing. Gerry is as radical as he is Zen; he transcends categorization. He’s one of the most influential surfers and surfboard shapers of all time, an entrepreneur, a family man, a movie star, and a lifelong yogi who brought surfing to new frontiers. His influence on modern surfing is immeasurable, and his story is being told in full for the first time.