Through the decades, Orange County has been home to many of the great “surfing families:” The Hoffmans, the Alters, the Sizemores, the Calhouns, the Fletchers, on and on … it’s a great place to both surf and raise a family.
Today I wanna talk about one of the biggest and coolest Surf Ohanas (Hawaiian word for family) that currently live and thrive right here in Huntington Beach. The Pais.
This is a huge family and they all surf, work and play together. It’s amazing.
At this summer’s induction ceremony for the Surfers’ Hall of Fame, of which Aaron Pai is the host of each year, and they were foolish enough to give me the microphone, I couldn’t help but notice and point out, “They got more Pais out here than Marie Callender’s.” It’s true.
Aaron Pai, the dad, was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. The family moved to California when he was a kid and he became a surfer.
There is a huge difference between “became a ‘surfer’” and “learned to surf.” Aaron (AP is what everybody calls him) is a true, full-blooded “SURFER.” He also owns Huntington Surf & Sport. At this point I am going to let him tell it in his own words.
“I fell in love with surfing. It was 1968 and I got to see legends like David Nuuhiwa, Corky Carroll, Dwight Dunn, Carl Hayward, Bob Hurley charge Northside. Every summer I got to stay at Grandma Choi’s. She owned some apartments in Waikiki and I surfed Pops, Threes, Canoes …
“(I) surfed all day … then I would come home to Grandma Choi’s and she would have a huge dinner prepared where everyone was welcomed! Everyone was welcomed at Grandma Choi’s!
“She taught me what “aloha spirit” was all about! Grandma Choi was a small woman with a huge heart!
“As a teenager I surfed Northside every day … saw surf movies at the surf theater … camped out at the cliffs at 16 years old … at School I wrote stories about surfing … and dreamed of owning a surf shop.
“Fast forward to 1978 and…
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