In the winter of 1963, Butch Van Artsdalen rode the first documented barrel at Banzai Pipeline, less than two years after Phil Edwards semi-pioneered the North Shore break in Bruce Brown’s “Surfing Hollow Days”. The inaugural visit into the world’s most infamous pit was also captured on 16mm color motion picture stock by a similarly-named Bud Browne in “Gun Ho!”. The exploit was largely credited with surfing’s most paradoxical character being dubbed the very first Mr. Pipeline.
“Fueled by rumors of the new surfing spot, Butch returned to Hawaii the following year and built his reputation at Pipeline by pulling into barrels that even the best surfers of the day wanted no part of. Iconic movie footage from that time shows Butch on a red board, fading, cranking off the bottom, locking in his rail and disappearing behind the curtain. Those on the beach couldn’t believe it. Surf movie audiences went nuts. Butch not only made the wave, he rode inside of it, deeper than anyone had ever been **before sitting down and rubbing his hands together** like a man savoring his favorite meal. It blew away everything that came before it and opened the surfing world up to new possibilities. Butch didn’t invent tuberiding, but he popularized it for general audiences, getting closer to the curl than anyone had ever been, or would be for another half a decade. Because of his dominance at the spot, he earned the title ‘Mister Pipeline,’ and owned it until a new generation tackled Pipeline on shortboards in the ’70s […] Still, after decades of the surfing world becoming familiar with the place, it’s doubtful that anyone today could ride the Pipeline tube any better on the flat, 35-pound, round-railed planks that Butch rode there in the early ’60s.” (Chris Ahrens, Longboard Magazine, June 2000)
While Artsdalen cut a fine enough figure to make the first Pipe barrel a memorable scene, the 10′ plus red board he rode that session made an equal statement. It shone like the most iconic and highly sought-after car in American automotive history—the Riverside Red Corvette Sting Ray, also released in 1963. The board was widely admired, but it has also ignited a wave of inaccuracies over the past six decades, not just from enthusiasts who claim to know a guy who has a cousin who owned the vessel at some point, but from board builders who were a part of the Artsdalen entourage.
In his autobiography, Transcendental Memories of a Surf Rebel, Hynson reported that he loaned Butch a board named the Red Devil which was purportedly used to nab that first barrel. Artsdalen – who was not a big fan of Hynson – may or may not have taken the Red Devil for a ride at Pipeline at some point, but the logo block on the one Butch rode in 1963 was not a match for anything Hynson developed then, or at any point in the future. Let’s not forget that Hynson was an active participant in the psychedelic movement from the late 1960s into the 70s, with memories being obscured across the Rainbow Bridge. Hynson wasn’t the only one to stake a claim. The Surfboard Project fittingly published a short feature on Valentine’s Day of 2013 on what they perceived to be the red board ridden by Artsdalen, backed by Mike Diffenderfer’s accounts of being on the scene when Butch tucked into the shack.
“This beautifull 10’6” Big Wave Gun Carl Ekstrom was shaped by Mike Diffenderfer and taken to Hawaii for the 1963-1964 winter on the North Shore of Oahu by Butch Van Artsdalen. Awesome to come across a board that was one of the first to be ridden at Pipeline shaped by the man who named the wave “Banzai Pipeline”.
A jeweler’s loupe isn’t required to quickly dispel validity of any declaration that the ruby Ekstrom-Diffenderfer was the board Artsdalen used to enter the emerald-green room. The visible t-band stringer and oval offset logo are dead giveaways. The Ekstrom-Diffenderfer board may have been the one that Five Summer Stories (1972) inaccurately identified as the board used during the first barrel—a claim later perpetuated by Longboard Magazine in 2000—with Butch rubbing his hands together at the conclusion of the ride. However, it was not the board from the actual 1963 session featured in Gun Ho!.
It’s the decennia of confusion that led filmmaker Richard Yelland, of Birth of the Endless Summer fame, to recently seek out a final verdict. Is Yelland producing a documentary on the red board? Not quite, but at press he is in the throes of a production titled “Mrs Pipeline”. The film traces the linear timeline from the first man to bear the moniker (Butch Artsdalen) to the next (Gerry Lopez) and on to contemporary contenders (John John? J.O.B.?) through to the other side of the gender spectrum where viewers will arrive upon Moana Jones Wong. Understanding that he can’t tell the story of women warring for their place in the ‘Ehukai lineup without beginning, at the beginning, Yelland is dissecting Artsdalen’s big day. An accompaniment for touring the upcoming film in 2027, will be an exact replica of the red board that has been lost to the passage of time. Upon completion of the tour the reproduction will find a home either at the Surfing Heritage and Cultural Center (SHACC), if not a shared exhibition piece at Surf Museum Hawaii. To up the ante, the inspired filmmaker came up with the idea to have a modern-day Pipeline standout attempt to recreate Artsdalen’s famous ride during a barreling winter swell on the board. Third-generation Hawaiian goofy-footer Makana Pang has been selected as the test pilot.
In order for Yelland to fully piece together the scene, he had to overcome a pair of conundrums. First, whom would he turn to restore a vintage board—rather than shape one from a fresh blank—in order to produce the replica? Second, who could provide a trusted and definitive conclusion as to the origins of Artsdalen’s red board? An epiphany struck Yelland from his Laguna Beach lair—one that would allow him to fell two frigatebirds (‘iwa) with one stone.
Randy Rarick.
On Sunday, March 22, 2026, Richard Yelland along with Enich Harris, surf cinematographer Dave Homcy, Marcus Maraih (yours truly), and the world’s most renowned surfboard restoration and valuation expert all pored over stills at Rarick’s abode at Sunset Beach on the North Shore, O’ahu.
True to form, Rarick was able to identify that the blurred and elongated Times New Roman text framed within a white rectangle on the log Artsdalen logged Pipeline’s first documented barrel in fact belonged to SURFBOARDS HAWAII. It was shaped by none other than the most prolific Hawaii-based board builder of the era, Dick Brewer.
The image was then cross-referenced with known Dick Brewer craft from the same time period, including this near-identical red surfboard (pictured at right) which was uploaded by Gregory Hall from the Legendary Surfers Facebook group.
We ran the photo of Butch wiping out at the end of a wave during the same session through an AI enhancer for good measure. In the image below the distinguishing label is even more evident.
Photo: Dick Graham
Armed with a definitive answer, Rarick was freed to select a delaminated tobacco-yellowed board from the era to use as restoration-hardware for the replica. He had just the piece in his quiver of to-be reborn boards, a mid-1960s Dick Brewer with the subtle “R.B.” on the inch-wide redwood stringer, serendipitously positioned where an original SURFBOARDS HAWAII laminate would be placed.
The board underwent its procedure over three months. Rarick expertly removed the lifted fiberglass and repaired the degraded foam core before taking it to Ed Searfoss of Country Surfboards. Searfoss applied a carefully matched crimson hue over the entire surface of the board, save for the space reserved for the rectanglar logo block on the deck. He then glassed, polished, and delivered the vintage reproduction back to “Rarick’s Beach House” for safekeeping until the appropriate winter swell of late 2026.
Most will have to wait until the 2027 film premiere (and tour) for the unveiling of the new Butch Van Artsdalen Pipeline board. Meanwhile, those reading this are treated to a sneak peek courtesy of SMH.
Image: Copyright protected by SMH
How will the slight 5’4 Makana Pang and other possible candidates fare on the Butch Van Artsdalen resurrection? Follow @mrspipeline to find out and accompany Richard Yelland as he closes the first chapter on Mr(s) Pipeline.
~ ALOHA ~
