In the best wave since 1980 ⚡️
In the best wave since 1980 ⚡️
Shapin in his factory, 1975
Rio de Janeiro, 1970. A young Lipe Dylong breaks the nose of his board and, with no money to buy a new one, decides to peel-off the fiber and reshape the battered blank into what would become the very first one amongst the countless thousands of boards he’d come to shape in the following decades.
Lipe soon revealed natural shaping skills, immediately spreading his name around the growing Brazilian surf scene of the 70’s.
After leaving the military service, in 1975, Lipe decided it was time to visit Hawaii, to surf the world’s best waves and to improve his shaping skills. In the typical adventurous spirit of the times, he made himself two boards and set off by bus, all the way from Rio de Janeiro to California.
In a yearlong journey, he explored and surfed the South and Central America coasts all the way to California, until finally landing on the Hawaiian Islands.
Once in the surfing Mecca, he became a regular on shaping rooms and factories around Oahu, ultimately taking a handsanding job at Country Surfboards, where some of the best shapers and the most prestigious brands in the world had their boards made. At Country’s facilities, the young Lipe enjoyed the wisdom of legends such as Mike Diffenderfer, Dick Brewer, Owl Chapman, Tiger Espere, Barry Kanaiaupuni and many others, crafting his own talent with surfboard shaping’s greatest masters.
Lipe competing at the Pipeline Masters, Hawaií, 1978
Lipe and Larry Bertleman. A true surfing legend in Hawaii,
Twin Fins pioneer with Mark Richards. Australia, 1978.
That same year, he was one of the 32 surfers to be awarded with an invitation for the prestigious and then exclusive Pipeline Masters event.
Shaping for famous japanese brand, Breaker Out.
In the shaping room, exchanging impressions with south-african top surfer Shaun Tomson.
By the end of the 1970s, Lipe opened the famous Energia brand in Rio de Janeiro, which quickly became a market leader for its pioneering diffusion of innovative models, such as Twin-Fins and Thrusters, while establishing the foundations of the surfwear fashion in Brazil.
Whether as a shaper, a surfer or a competitor, Lipe Dylong has been an active element of the evolution process of surfing for the last 40 years. He was there for the Shortboard Revolution, for the transition from Single-Fins to Twin-Fins, for the Thruster take-over, and for the Longboard and retro models revival.
Interview with australian top surfer, Ian Cairns for the Wide World of Sports, from ABC Television. Sunset Beach, Hawaii.
Lipe improving his knowledge with hawaiian Michael Ho and with australian
shaper and surfer, Jim Banks.
However, his greatest accomplishment in a surf-devoted lifetime is the friends he made around the world and the cheerful satisfaction of thousands of surfboard clients.