Buy a ticket for twenty-five bucks, all cash goes to Big Ben’s medical costs…
If you’ve ever seen human bulldozer Ben Aipa bury a rail from the water, you’ll be surprised your eyebrows were left unsinged.
A turn as a fit of rage.
Sexier than hot breath on your stomach.
If you’ve been following BeachGrit, you’ll know that Ben, who turns seventy-eight in August, is having a hell of a time with his health, blood infections, heart issue, diabetes, myriad strokes.
And, because this is the USA, his second wife, Leonore, is selling all his boards via an auction house to cover the catastrophe medical bills.
But, perhaps of greater interest, is a raffle being run by Brooklyn’s Pilgrim Surf + Supply, whom you’ll find just across the Williamsburg bridge from Lower Manhattan on the sun-lavished corner of North 3rd Street and Wythe Ave.
Pilgrim, which is silver fox Chris Gentile, pretty much, is gonna give you a shot at a vintage Aipa from their collection, a six-ten pocket rocket single fin shaped around 1969 under the Surfboards Hawaii label.
The board was masterfully restored by Randy Rarick, one of the founding fathers of pro surfing and, if I may be so bold as to suggest such a thing, one of the game’s most interesting players.
Five hundred tix for sale. Twenty-five bucks apiece or a fifty for three.
Hundred percent of all proceeds, they’re hoping for ten gees or so, go to Benny.
Venmo payment to @pilgrimsurf to buy.
Winner drawn this Friday.
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Love how its unsullied by a leash plug. Beautiful board made for gorgeous waves.
On a big day at Cliffs my friend just in from the Coast asked me, “Who is that fat guy who owns this place?” I just pointed at the signature on my stringer, B. Aipa, yeah, f ing single fin stinger, Ben is down to 150 pounds, that seems impossible … Malama Bruddah … IMUA
I’d say Shawn Briley
Is the only man on earth
With the girth to turn
I’m in if I can figure out what Venmo is and how to use it.
It’s sumpthin that the goddamn kids use like Tiktok or Tictoc or however you spell it. But I will tell you one thingI, if I could draw my bead on it I would blast it of full of holes But since it’s not really physically there, it’s just some kind of hocus-pocus inside the interwebs, I would just end up shootin’ holes in my phone. Dammit.
Will Chas be raffling the ray bans that Ashton slapped?
I really hope Ben gets better but I’ll leave this one for all the kooks at Point Impossible.
Resale value pretty hot, I’d suggest.
Better off to auction on ebay.
Bezos might swing by
Or that we work guy
You could probably say the same for Gabby’s discarded wax strips or his misso’s old sausage. I’m probably more interested in those items than the vintage board market.