Alex Lopez doesn’t hang his hat on his father’s hat rack. He surely could use his last name to reap some kind of reward, but he’d rather forge his own path. His father, as you’ve likely heard, is none other than Mr. Pipeline himself, Gerry Lopez.
Alex grew up mostly on Maui. At a relatively young age, though, he moved to Oregon and picked up snowboarding.
“Snowboarding was (and still is) an outlet for enjoying nature, although Alex picked up a couple snowboarding sponsors and worked a little for Volcom along the way,” wrote Daydream Surf Shop, a wonderful little place full of surfboards, coffee, and interesting bits of culture. “He had always dabbled with surfing but it wasn’t until he met his girlfriend, Leah Dawson that his surfing and shaping career really began to take off.”
And once that shaping career took off, it was exceedingly clear that Alex is his father’s son. His surfboards are works of art — functional, yes, but almost too pretty to surf. Alex has been shaping Leah’s surfboards for a little more than five years, and his shapes are a part of why Leah is able to express her unique style of surfing the way only she can.
“He’s been able to hone in on specific models that she’s helped refine to allow her to surf with the freedom that reflects her individualistic style,” Daydream continued. “This constant conversation and empirical analysis revolving around refining his surfboard designs is what has accelerated his career into the projection that it’s seeing today. Having a ‘team rider’ that’s also your partner is great but it really kicks it up a notch when that person shreds every board under the sun from big wave single fins on the North Shore of Oahu to logging micro waves here in Southern California and everything in between.”
In the episode of a series called Case Study, that you see above, Daydream dives deep into Alex’s life. “Alex is the last person to drop names, as he flies under the radar with his ultra chill attitude,” they wrote. “One thing that he can’t hide is his ability to shape some incredible boards and we are so jazzed to be working with him.”
