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Rare Surfboards Hawaii 7’2 single fin shaped by Ben Aipa in 1972. Featuring a double pin line design, tri-color single fin, and the original Surfboards Hawaii swallow-tailed bird logo. This was the very first logo Aipa used when shaping under the Surfboards Hawaii label. Years later, after creating the infamous AIPA block letter logo, Donald Takayama asked Aipa if he could incorporate the swallow-tailed bird image into the Takayama surfboards logo. Aipa happily passed the design on to his good friend. See below excerpt from Ben’s son, Duke Aipa describing the origin story of the Hawaiian swallow tail surfboard.
“One of my favorite stories my dad tells is the story of the swallow tail. Like a shaman in a cave he reflects on it like a piece of Hawaiian folklore and with great pride and enthusiasm he talks about how two Hawaiian kids worked and made their way into World’s Contest at Oceanside in 1972. “These two kids sat off the left side of the jetty and made it all the way through the finals to win on swallow tails”. Those “kids” were Michael Ho and Larry Bertlemann. The most classic part of this is Dad said that after LB and unko Mike ripped their heats, the next day the mainlanders took saws to their boards and hand cut swallow tails into their boards! (…and we still making um) A little known fact is back then when he was shaping at Surfboards Hawaii, his original logo was that of a swallow tail bird with his name inside. Once Dad changed his logo to the Infamous block logo, his friend Donald Takayama asked if he could have the bird image to use as his logo. Dad happily passed it on.”
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