"Does Lightning Bolt owe Rory Russell? Technically probably not, morally maybe yes.”
North Shore great Rory Russell is boiling, alleging that head Lightning Bolt USA shaper and licensee Craig Hollingsworth, along with Local Motion’s Pat Rawson, are inappropriately profiting from use of his name and the Lightning Bolt logo. Russell is threatening to take the matter to federal court for counterfeiting.
The two-time Pipe Master tells it gracefully: “What a joke Hollingsworth is, treating Lightning Bolt consumers like they are ignorant. He and Rawson have already damaged my legacy, caused endless stress, irreparable turmoil and duress in my life, especially after three heart failures, cardiac inversion, cardiac ablation and to top it off triple bypass. Lightning Bolt Surfboards USA is trying to steal my identity and accomplishments.”
Russell wants a boycott of Lightning Bolt USA, filling Facebook and Instagram with claims the brand is selling their “Pipeliner” models as authentic Rory Russell-shaped boards, therefore cheating him of “hundreds of thousands.” (A Hollingsworth-shaped board runs about fourteen hundred, while some boards purportedly being shaped by Russell can go for over five grand.)
Both Lightning Bolt and Hollingsworth deny any wrongdoing.
In 1971, Gerry Lopez and Jack Shipley launched Lightning Bolt in Honolulu after both departing from Surfline Hawaii. Also leaving Surfline Hawaii to help start Lightning Bolt were Barry Kanaiaupuni and Reno Abellira. The credibility and popularity of the brand was almost immediate, quickly becoming the dominant brand in Hawaii and sometime soon thereafter, the entire surfing world.
By 1975 most of the surf contests in Hawaii were won on Lightning Bolt boards. By then, a host of other very good shapers and glassers had gotten jobs with Lightning Bolt but most of the contest winners and best surfers were riding boards shaped by the hands of Lopez, BK, Reno, and Tom Parrish. Rory was riding boards made by Gerry and was a standout star for Lightning Bolt at Pipeline as one of Gerry’s main proteges.
The popularity of the brand increased to the point that soon Gerry and his co-founder Jack Shipley decided to license out the rights to make clothing to their old friend from Hang Ten, Duke Boyd. Gerry and Jack were emphatic that they wanted the clothes to be made with the same quality as the boards were being made but this did not happen.
Realizing they had bargained away the controlling rights, they were told that they were powerless to force a change. Gerry decided that he did not want his name associated with polyester, cartoonish clothes, quit and sold his shares, letting out the word that those loyal to him might consider leaving too. BK, Reno and Parrish left when Gerry did.
Although Rory wasn’t making boards for the shop, he stayed on with Lightning Bolt as a rider and personality. Within a couple of months, the power of the brand was reduced drastically and over time it crashed.
Such is the power and charisma of Gerry Lopez.
Shipley stayed on and Lightning Bolt used Rory as an ersatz Gerry in some fun and funny ads and started producing a Rory Russell model supposedly made by Tom Eberly. Apparently, Rory made a board or two over the years but was surfing all the time, not shaping. A brilliant surfer and great ambassador for Lightning Bolt nonetheless.
Jack tried to keep the shop going while the clothes started appearing in Kmart and other discount stores. It was a slow death, but finally a death all the same, and the iconic shop on Kapiolani Blvd closed. The brand got splintered and sold and resold until it was a big mess of who owns what.
Sometime in the 90s when Lightning Bolt was a wisp of its former self, Craig Hollingsworth found one of the entities and apparently got a license authorizing him to make Lightning Bolt surfboards in California. Soon Lightning Bolts were being put on almost any board and Hollingsworth also continued to make several other brands of boards made possible by the computer shaping machines.
Toward the middle of the 90s the collector board market started to gain momentum and prices of old boards which had been kept in good condition started to rise dramatically. Collectors and brokers began hunting boards and started holding auctions for the collectibles, an incredibly lucrative venture for some people.
This led to the beginning of restorations and that was followed by a market for replicas. Old boards commonly go for 10k – 20k and the frenzy to find, restore and replicate vintage boards has been considerable.
Around 2010 Rory started replicating his old Gerry Lopez Pipeline boards and making them all black with Red Lightning Bolts, marketing them for collector prices and alluding to the notion that he had been one of the original Lightning Bolt shapers.
Up to this point there had not been any specific reference to any Pipeliner board, other than the Brewer Bing Pipeliner from 1965 and the common reference to Gerry’s boards as being Pipeline boards. Only Gerry really made a board specific for Pipeline. The Brewers, BKs, Reno’s and Parrishs were more multipurpose boards, but Gerry’s had that distinct pintail with his own rocker and foil.
Craig Hollingsworth tells his own version of this story.
“Rory is accusing me of many things. Most of what he is accusing me of is not real. As far as motivation, I don’t know. I think he is jealous of my success. I work hard to make great surfboards, over 50 years of shaping boards,” he says. “I have shaped boards with Rory Russell logos on them and he was fully aware of this. I was signing the blanks with my name, not his.
“There was no funny business.” Hollingsworth continues, “I make all kinds of Lightning Bolt shapes, including the Pipeliners. Retro Single fin Guns from the 1970’s. So does Gerry Lopez and Pat Rawson. All of our Pipeliners are unique to our own way of Shaping. Mine aren’t like Gerry’s, Pat’s or Rory’s. For some reason Rory thinks he is the only one that can make Lightning Bolt Pipeliners. He doesn’t own Lightning Bolt or even a Licensee of Lightning Bolt. He is Licensed only in Portugal. Not North America, which includes California and Hawaii. He has been offered a slice of the Pie, but he refuses to play by the rules and pay the royalties to Lightning Bolt USA.”
The anger between the two purse swingers swelled in recent years but began amicably. “I met Rory in the late 1970’s. I got to know him in the 2000’s. We became friends as I stated earlier, when he lived in Kona. Then better friends when he moved to California to take care of his Mother. That’s when I started giving and getting him work for Lightning Bolt surfboards. We traveled to Europe in 2019 for Lightning Bolt Europe. A Promotion Tour where we visited five countries in four weeks together. The relationship turned about five-and-a-half years ago. He didn’t want me to make Black Lightning Bolts. He claimed that he owned the color Black. Which is ridiculous, I’ve been making Black boards since 1975. All I ever have done for him is to help him.”
Like the poet Vironika Tugaleva quipped, when things don’t go according to plan, they go according to truth. No matter how painful the reality, it is reality nonetheless. But pride and money cloud truth, and it’s hard to find an objective truth teller.
Tom Parrish, one of the Lightning Bolt shapers, offers a clear-eyed assessment of the dispute.
“Rory was a young, naturally gifted surfer with a gregarious and often hilarious personality. Gerry took Rory under his wing and made his Lightning Bolt boards and helped Rory go from debutant to master at Pipeline. Rory was definitely part of Lightning Bolt, as a surfer and as a personality. But he never made boards except for the one off done backyard style rarely. Never any boards for sale in the Kapiolani or Maui shops for all the years I was there. After Gerry and BK and Reno and I quit, they started using Rory more and made a Rory model that I think Eberly made. They used Rory in those ads with all the girls surrounding him and he was a goofy, lovable sort. So between his very credible surfing and his funny side he contributed a lot. Rory was a great surfer and has reason to be proud of his surfing accomplishments. I will never forget watching him switch stance in the middle of a Waimea monster.”
When asked does he think Lightning Bolt owes Russell compensation Parrish says, ”’owed money’ has a specific definition so I don’t think so. But if you are speaking only ethically or morally, yes all of us lost a lot. For me it wasn’t about the money, it was the heartbreak of seeing Jack and Gerry have to split up. Did Rory contribute to the success of Lightning Bolt as a surfer and personality? Yes, a lot. So, does Lightning Bolt owe Rory? Technically probably not, morally maybe yes.”
He balances his perspective with a note on Hollingsworth.
“I like Craig. He is straightforward and honest. That is important to me. But do I like the direction Craig has chosen to produce and market Lightning Bolt boards? No, it offends me. Putting Lightning Bolts on anything and everything dilutes the power and heritage of the logo. Then the fact that Craig does so many other brands besides Lightning Bolt is kind of a conflict of interest and further challenges his ability to restore Lightning Bolt to a credible presence. Using the computer to make Lightning Bolts is just wrong, no way around it. And now using Rawson is bizarre. Rawson was the Local Motion guy for so many years and had nothing to do with Lightning Bolt or what made it great. Everyone knows that and so doing this actually diminishes the credibility of Lightning Bolt. If your message is that anyone can do Lightning Bolts then what does that say? It would have been more authentic to do something with Local Motion.
“All of this plus the nature of Instagram being a place where people can freely lie and embellish their own self-perceived greatness has fostered an environment ripe for distortion and exploitation. To do Lightning Bolt properly you would have to recreate the spirit and values that made it something great. Craig wasn’t a part of that and didn’t come from that mold. So many guys have been picking at the carcass of this thing, it’s amazing how strong it was to withstand all the bastardizing it continues to endure. Good guy, but as a friend once told me…bad execution.”
Equally stinging is Russell’s charge that Hollingsworth never surfed Pipe.
According to Rory, Hollingsworth “admitted to my face he was a chicken. What a fraud….and he makes a Lightning Bolt Pipeliner. What a stain of the Lightning Bolt brand, selling a Pipeliner while not even knowing what dropping in on a ten-foot pipeline wave feels like. Would you drive a car built by someone that doesn’t know how to drive? I do not endorse and highly admonish their intentions of confusing the consumer into not knowing if the lightning bolt surfboard was made by me, back-to-back Pipeline Champion,” says Russell.
Hollingsworth explains, “I admit I never surfed Pipeline. This is the only thing that Rory has said about me in the last five-and-a-half years that is true. What does that have to do with anything? I’ve been to the North Shore in 1976 and 1978. I Surfed Sunset Beach, Haleiwa, Laniakea, Rocky Point, Backyards, Velzyland and other North Shore spots. Every time I looked at Pipeline it wasn’t that good and crowded. In 1978 I started going to Hanalei Bay on Kauai twice a year. I found something I liked better than the North Shore of Oahu.”
Still, Hokusai could only recreate Mt. Fiji from standing in its shadow.
In whole, we want to believe Rory, that rubber banded frame sliding out from underneath the canopy, smile as broad as the sky. But this is not nineteen seventy-seven, this is now. Some of RR’s ideas appear to take on water when we look closely, possibly more grounded in legacy than legality.
Special thanks for Matt Warshaw for this. Check out EOS here to avoid the work on your desk.
Postscript:
Rory texted me this picture Sunday from Chun’s. Notice the board. Is it a Costco, is it a Gerry or is it a Lightning Bolt?
I’ve known both Rory and Craig for over 40 years so I’ve followed this story at arms length. Unfortunate. I’m no attorney but if Craig is actually using Rory’s name and signature one would think there might be a legit argument here. Black boards with bolts on them, probably not. I’m also no collector but if I’m hanging something on the wall I’m probably going with Rory.
Wasn’t familiar with this story until now, but last week in Encinitas I saw a board in the water with a Bolt on it that was so far removed from the original Bolt shapes my thought was “Wow, looks like they’ll put their logo on anything for a buck.”
Surprised Rory is still kicking ! Met him with kevin “Top Hat” at Haleiwa Joes early 2000,s , They needed papers and I had some, so smoked a fatty with RR and Mr Hat, got some good post joynt rave from the legend . Was a pretty cool North Shore experience
Dude’s been losing his mind on Fakebook for over a week. He’s clearly killed a lot of brain cells in his day. He should relax and have a HamSammish.
My favorite surf movie is Yuri Farrant’s “Crystal Eyes”. Incredible North Shore footage.
Toward the end there is a scene where Rory is talking about going to some fancy party at Diamond Head when he was really young with Grubby Clark. There’s a fancy buffet and, after his first round, Rory asks Grubby if it’s ok if he goes for seconds.
“Get it while you can Kid”, Grubby told him.
Looks at this point any winnings would go to heirs.
things get ugly with age
In every dispute, there is right and wrong, legal and illegal.
If Hollingsworth, Rawson, etc are legally making Lightning Bolt surfboards under license, then Rory doesn’t have anything to say about it, it is none of his business.
If Rory is legally making Lightning Bolt surfboards under license, he should give his time, energy and attention to the boards HE is making, not towards what other people are doing.
A meeting of all parties with mutual respect and consideration at the top of the agenda could end this silly feud and bring Rory back into the Lightning Bolt house, where he belongs.
Tom Parrish strolls through this shitshow and comes up smelling like a rose. Tom thinks and speaks as clean as shapes. Legend.
Rory shaped beautiful boards. A close friend had one when we were teens. White tint with red pinlines and a blue bolt. Snapped in half on a big day at Dolphin St. in Seal Beach when thrusters first started to appear. It was magic until its demise.
Journalism!!
Shocking, isn’t it?
This is BEACH GRIT after all. Thank you Steve Rees!
I just gathered the information. These boys are the real story tellers. Im a typist.
you missed a few points that totally change the story.
Please elaborate with your inside knowledge.
But what about Sid? You forgot to mention Sid.
This stings and I love it
This makes Rory’s ‘writings’ seem mellow and gentlemanly haha.
I’ve been reading the originals and he uses a lot of CAPITALS, SWEARING AND CALLING PEOPLE KOOKS mixed in with general gobbledygook spread amongst other words.
Quite funny, but also rather unsettling…