The Real Story Behind the First Pipe Masters

Opening Day

On December 16, 1971, Fred Hemmings set up a small card table, wrapped in in red, white, and blue bunting just off the public access walkway to the Banzai Pipeline. He had convinced ABC television to film the event while they were covering the Smirnoff World Cup which Fred had talked them into moving from Santa Cruz California to the North Shore the previous year

Using some of the $1,000 he had talked Continental Airlines into putting up as prize money, he had collected a set of judges, invited six top surfers known for their excellence at surfing Pipeline, blew the horn, and started the first-ever Pipe Masters contest.

“I wanted to bring the excitement of challenging surf to people in middle America, Fred explained. “And the Pipeline was the perfect venue.”

It was an inauspicious beginning. Initially titled the “Hawaiian Masters,” the first event was a six-surfer affair, a motley crew of Pipe aficionados, judges, and cameramen cobbled together with a lot of chutzpah. Randy Rarick, Fred’s cofounder in the creation of Professional Surfing remembers “Not everyone even made it to the event because the surf had been bad at Pipeline all winter. So Gerry Lopez (the reigning Pipe rider of the time and first choice invitee) thought the event was off and didn’t show up for the first heat.”

A 6-Star Competition at a 5-Star Wave

Along with Lopez, Fred had invited five other surfers to compete. The first three were top local stars: Jock Sutherland, Surfer Poll winner, and already a man with the moniker Mr. Pipeline. North Shore prodigy and contest Wunderkind Jeff Hakman, who had won the Duke Kahanamoku contest at 15. And Pipeline standout and style icon Billy Hamilton, already a legendary surfing figure was an obvious pick.

Additionally, Fred Hemmings selected future World Amateur Champ and Sunset lifeguard Jimmy Blears, and three-time US National Champ Corky Carroll. But when his starring invitee – Gerry Lopez – didn’t arrive for the opening heat, Fred needed a sixth competitor.

“Someone said ‘Army’s out there, he’s a great Pipe rider’,” remembers Randy Rarick, whose knowledge is both first-person and encyclopedic. “So Mike Armstrong was drafted as the final invitee to take the place of Lopez.

Conspicuous in his absence from the “guest list” was Jeff Crawford, the first Floridian to make an indelible mark on the spot, win the event, and elevate the East Coast’s stature in Hawaii. Rory Russell, who would win the event twice in row, was also oddly MIA. But no matter, the starters on this six-man squad were bonafide bad-asses at Banzai beach. All were OG’s of their era.

A Missing Pipe Star and a Debunked Myth

Lopez, the reigning Mr. Pipeline himself, was sorely missed since this was the inaugural Pipe event and he was its heir apparent. According to legend, California’s Corky Carroll duped Lopez into missing the historic competition by concocting a fib about the event being postponed. But that myth was debunked long ago by Lopez himself.

“The day the competition was supposed to run, I drove to the beach park—back then it was just an empty lot—and Corky Carroll was the only other person there,” Lopez remembers. “The surf was junky onshore and not clean. Neither of us thought they would run the contest. When no one showed up, he decided to leave and so I left too.”

“After that, I went down to Mokuleia and just hung out all day thinking the contest was off. There were no cell phones back then so if you weren’t at home they couldn’t contact you. Later that evening I was watching the news on TV and they said, ‘The Pipe Masters ran today and Jeff Hakman won’ and I’m going, ‘What?’ That’s all it was,” he shrugs. “No trickery…I just missed it.”

Will the Legacy Remain Intact?

In his absence, Hakman dominated the event and took home the top trophy. But Lopez would win the Pipe Masters twice in a row in 1973 and 1974. He would go on to become the sport’s most well-known icon.

Looking back on it now, 53 years later, Hemmings was thrilled with the success of one of the most prestigious and long-running surf events in history.

“I’m really proud of the things I was able to contribute to professional surfing,” he notes. “And this was a big one.”

What will happen to the Pipe Masters now that it is no longer part of the WSL World Tour and Vans has returned to an invitational event? Will all that rich legacy become moot? The winner this year will no longer be part of the WSL event champion history. There will be debates about who the future Pipe “Masters” will be.  But the song remains the same. No matter what, the heritage will not be lost.

History, as Hemmings likes to remind everyone, is defined by those who write it. But it will be remembered by those who lived it. Hemmings will certainly be remembered for his entrepreneurial drive and visionary outlook that defined an era and brought us one of the most memorable events in surfing’s long history.

Jim Kempton, like Gerry Lopez, missed the first Pipe Masters contest. But at SURFER – in an era when there was lots of opposition to contests – he championed the Pro Tour mostly because so many friends in his generation were going to starve if it didn’t succeed.