The philosophy behind the iconic Huntington Surf & Sport: It’s all about “ohana,” the Hawaiian word for family.
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Family helped the seeds of the business grow, an act of faith Aaron Pai’s parents had in their surfer son who dreamed of owning a Huntington Beach retail surf shop.
And now, 50 years later, Pai is a father and grandfather, the patriarch of a family with three generations involved in the business and a surfing tribe —19 family members strong — with deep roots in and out of the water in Surf City.
And of course, like many surfing dads this Father’s Day, Pai will be found today riding waves alongside his kids and grandkids, celebrating family at the beach.
Pai draws inspiration from his grandmother, Mung Yee Choi, who owned a furniture store and apartment buildings in Oahu, Hawaii, where he was born and later spent his summers. More important than her business savvy, Pai said, was her “aloha spirit,” the way she welcomed everyone into her home, cooking meals and making sure everyone had a place at the table.
“She was super cool and super nice,” said Pai, whose parents moved to Southern California when he was a year old. “Always giving from the heart.”
While it wasn’t the warm waters of Hawaii, Pai found his love for the ocean — and the surf — on the north side of the Huntington Beach Pier when he was 12.
“It was the start of a lifelong love affair with surfing,” said Pai, now 71.
Huntington Surf & Sport owner Aaron Pai bought the surf shop nearly 50 years ago so he could enjoy the surf lifestyle, which he now passes on to his children and grandchildren. (Photo courtesy of Pai)
Huntington Surf & Sport owner Aaron Pai bought the surf shop nearly 50 years ago so he could enjoy the surf lifestyle, which he now passes on to his children and grandchildren. (Photo courtesy of Pai)
The Pai family. (Photo courtesy of Aaron Pai)
During a fateful surf session in 1978, Pai said a guy paddled up to him out in the water and asked if the 23-year-old wanted to work in a surf shop, the newly opened Huntington Surf & Sport at Pacific Coast Highway and 15th Street.
Pai had graduated from Cal State Long Beach with a degree in business management, but was torn about getting a job away from the ocean. So working retail in a surf shop seemed like a perfect fit.
Pai would become the shop’s first employee, making a whopping $1.65 an hour to sell surf wax, T-shirts and rent out bodyboards. Most importantly, he said, it allowed him to live the surfing lifestyle, making just enough money to fill his gas tank for surf trips down to San Diego and beyond.
It was the late 1970s and surfing was at a turning point. The United States Surfing Championships would bring the top surfers to the Huntington Beach Pier, and with them a new energy around the counterculture sport.
Clothing companies such as OP and Lightning Bolt were popping up to cater to the growing surf population.
“It was just getting started, surfing as a sport and surfing as an industry,” Pai said.
About a year into his new gig, in 1979, the owners were having disagreements and made an offer to Pai: $60,000 and the shop is yours.
Pai asked his parents — his mom, Marion, a teacher, and his father, Jack, a structural engineer — for a loan. It was no easy ask, Pai saying he had never approached his folks, both raised during the Depression, for more than $20.
“It meant the world to me,” Pai said. “To lend me $60,000 back then was incredible. I didn’t want to let them down. I was scared to take that money.”
His father wondered if there was any money to be made in surfing. Pai saw how the industry was exploding, how brands such as Maui and Son, Gotcha and Quiksilver were flying off the shelves, inventory gone after the weekend.
He was able to repay the loan within a year.
“I was stoked to be able to take my love of surfing and build it into the walls and foundation,” he said. “I poured my love into that store.”
To Pai, owning and working in the surf shop never felt like work.
“Everybody just got to know everybody,” he said. “The surfers, the surf industry, it’s like a tribe — and still is to this day.”
Bob Hurley, today an icon in the surf apparel industry, remembers starting out as a surfboard shaper four decades ago in Huntington Beach, Pai giving him his first big break.
Pai put in an order for eight Hurley surfboards for $300 each, far more than the going rate, and wrote a check for $2,400 to fund the shaper’s project.
“He encouraged us to make the most beautiful surfboards, design a label, create a brand, deliver them when finished,” said Hurley, who went on to become one of the most recognizable names in surf apparel. “No strings attached.”
The main shop moved to Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway in 1990, across from the famed Huntington Beach Pier, an area often called the Times Square of Surfing. There are two more HSS shops, one that carries mostly Billabong apparel at Walnut and Main streets, and another farther away on Pacific Coast Highway.
Pai early on also opened Java Point Coffee to be a community gathering spot for surfers to talk about their sessions and the coming forecasts, or to just hang out — a “hidden gem” set within the shop.
He never wanted to be the biggest surf shop; more important was to be the best, he said.
It’s a lesson he’s taught his four children, Lindsay, Trevor, Taylor and Ashlyn, all of whom grew up learning the family business, going with their dad as kids to the Rose Bowl swap meet to buy decor for the shops, greeting customers, learning the ins and outs of the retail business.
Today the four siblings are leading the family business into the future, bringing a “new, youthful energy,” Pai said.
Pai’s wife, Sher, is a women’s ministry leader who is a “not-so-silent” partner helping to steer the ship behind the scenes, Pai said. Taylor Pai is now the CEO and Trevor Pai the CFO of the business. Ashlyn Pai is the company’s creative director and Lindsay Pai Stopnik runs the coffee shop, employing daughters Izzy, 14, and Goldy, 12, making it three generations of Pais running the day-to-day operations of Huntington Surf & Sport.
Taylor Pai remembers sitting down with his father back in 2012, when he was also about 23, to have a chat about his future with the company.
“I loved what my father created; it’s always what I wanted and wanted for my kids,” Taylor Pai said of being part of the family business. “Keep the surf wax stocked and cherish the sport of surfing, the greatest sport of all.”
Pai Stopnik started training in the coffee shop at age 15 with Lee Gatlin, the longtime general manager for nearly 30 years, who is more like family than an employee.
“I like the community and being around family, the customers,” Pai Stopnik said. “I love working behind the counter and meeting people, and the relationships. I feel like it’s an overall family, community spirit kind of thing.”
The biggest lesson she’s learned from her dad: Work hard and have a good work ethic, try your best and connect with people.
“I think it’s what makes Huntington Surf & Sport what it is and sets it apart,” she said. “I think that at the end of the day, it’s really about having fun. If you’re having fun, it doesn’t feel like work.”
Her daughter and Pai’s granddaughter, Izzy, said her favorite part is waking up early and seeing all the regular customers coming in and catching up with them about their day.
Another lesson Pai teaches his kids about the family business: You can’t buy authenticity.
“What we have taught our children, what they’ve passed down to their children, is to be real and genuine,” he said. “They all have those character traits. They don’t put themselves first; they always put others first. It’s a beautiful trait to see, in my children and grandkids, the character they have.”
Grandma Choi’s “aloha spirit” has been passed down through the following generations and passed on through the community, Pai said. When Pai talks about “ohana,” he speaks beyond his kids and grandkids, but also about the greater surfing ohana, the wave-riding family who have a shared love and passion for the ocean.
“We share that aloha spirit with every guest who comes through our doors,” Pai said.
Pai is also the father of the Surfers’ Hall of Fame, a place where, for the past 29 years, the world’s best athletes, innovators, industry leaders and community greats have put their hands and feet in cement and signed their names, a chance to be recognized for advancing the sport and surfing culture.
“That’s our way of thanking the sport of surfing, thanking our community,” Pai said. “We want to be a light in this community, in the sport of surfing, any way we can.”
Behind the scenes, Pai and his family business help in ways others in the community may not know, sponsoring the Fourth of July parade, helping to make and sell merchandise that supports the HB Boardriders Club and donating to the local lifeguards.
Last year, Pai was honored by the Friends of the HB City Junior Guards with a plaque that reads: “Your kindness has made a lasting impact, not only on our program but also on the lives of the countless children you’ve inspired. You will always be remembered as a true treasure to our community.”
Over the years, the family has hosted several massive ocean memorials drawing thousands of mourners, for everyone from Surfline founder Sean Collins to surfing pastor Sumo Sato, surf shop owner and announcer Rick “Rockin’ Fig” Fignetti to, just last year, a young Huntington Beach surfer, Kolby Aipa.
“From the Surfers’ Hall of Fame, to the HB Boardriders, to every memorial paddle out at the pier, Aaron, Sher, their kids and their grandkids carry on their tradition of aloha on a daily basis,” Hurley said. “Then, there’s the community ohana, the surfing community that the Pai family helps gather in times of celebration, and times of mourning, to celebrate their own.”
It all comes from their hearts, Pai said, the desire to do good things for other businesses and the community, to help out in any way they can.
His dream, Pai said, is that all his children and grandchildren — there is also Murphy, 8, Zowie 8, Sid, 9, Jones, 10, Toby, 10, Finn, 12, Rooney, 12, and Rosie ,15, — will be a part of the family’s legacy in Huntington Beach that started with his dream of owning a surf shop.
“That would be my dream, they would be able to live the surfing lifestyle,” Pai said. “The Pai family all share a love for the ocean; we are all a surfing family.”
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