Gentle Ben: Ben Fortun brings the Aloha spirit to his old school longboarding
Ben Fortun’s old school style is evident in his heavy, no leash Stickman and his seemingly effortless nose rides. Photo by R. Bickford
Ben Fortun, a 19-year-old, 5-foot-9, 180 pound Redondo High grad, looks like an Ala Moana local.
His dad looks like one of Buffalo Keaulana’s Makaha surf bro’s.
“My father Tony started shoving me into little waves at Redondo’s Saphire Street before I could walk,” Fortun said.
“He was such a good windsurfer that all the windsurfer shops wanted him to surf for them. Instead, he decided to open his own shop, from ‘92 to ‘95 on Calle Mayor in Torrance. It was called Makani’s, which is Hawaiian for Benjamin. When I was 10 years old he made me my first surfboard. It was a 9-foot-8, old school long board. I knew from the beginning he wanted me to be a good long boarder.”
Fortun won several South Bay High School Surf League contests and was a consistent finalist. He is a traditional, old school long boarder who loves the long nose ride and big cutbacks. He rides like a cross between ‘60s Corky Carroll and David Nuuhiwa riding his single fin Stickmans and his, 9-foot-8, single fin Robbie Kegel “Smooth Operator.”
Fortun is shying away from contest’s that don’t appreciate the classic ‘60s style. His perfect surf session is hot dogging with David Fillman, Dan Clark, Josh Gilbert and little Hudson Richie. His surfing influences are David Nuuhiwa, Mickey Dora, Dewey Weber, Joel Tudor, Alex Knost, Robbie Kegel, and Ben, said “Tyler Hatzikian totally influenced my surfing.”
John Leininger, Becker Surf’s manager of 30 years, until his retirement last month, said of Ben, “He is a great addition to the Becker staff because he gets along with everyone and has a great one-on-one rapport with the customers.” Fortun works for Becker part time, between classes at EL Camino Junior College, but rides, designs and helps Vic Otten market traditional ‘60s Stickman Long Boards up and down the coast. He credits Ray Clantz, previously from Vanguard, for getting him sponsored by Stickman and E Z Kine Fins.
Fortun’s nickname could easily be “Gentle Ben.” The straight A student, who graduated last year from Redondo Beach High School, is as polite, considerate, and well spoken as any young man I have ever met. He is the embodiment of the “Aloha Spirit.”
He told me that he loves surfing with everyone as long as they are having a good time riding the waves. “It doesn’t matter to me if they are just beginning or on the pro circuit, as long as they share waves and are having a good time. It just makes surfing better.”
Fortun’s Advanced Placement United States History teacher Phil Comito asked Ben to take his Aloha Spirit one step further in 2010 during his junior year at Redondo High School by forming the Ohana O’ Kekai Waterman’s club. The name is Hawaiian for “Family of the Sea.”
“We started with 10 members and it grew into the largest club on campus. It doesn’t matter if you surf, bodysurf, paddle, stand up, body board, or just fish. You can be a member as long as it has something to do with the ocean. If you just want to learn we will teach you. Jessica Flores and Sofia Eislisvian helped me organize Ohana O” Kekai, teaching water safety and history of the ocean sports,” he said.
“We not only teach people how to surf but we go on surf trips and plan big fund raising events with the profits going to the Jimmy Miller, Coach Art, Surf Rider, and Heal the Bay Foundations. This has given us strong ties with Body Glove and Dive N’ Surf who always help us out.”
Ben Fortun (second from right) with Ohana O’ president Sofia Dislivian, Mike Purpus and Peter Townend at an Ohana O’ Kekai Waterman’s Club event. Fortun founded the Redondo High club.
Fortun’s parents Tony and Nancy work for United Airlines. Fortun has been to Spain, England, France, Mexico and Hawaii several times. But his most interesting trip was to Cuba.
“It was exactly like George Orwell’s novel 1984. All the Cubans loved Americans and really appreciated all the baseball equipment, first aid packages, all kinds of medicine and hundreds of rolls of toilet paper my uncle, brother and I brought with us to give to them. Cuba doesn’t have any toilet paper.”
“It was an awesome experience because surfing is kind of an illegal sport in Cuba. If it’s not an Olympic sport the government won’t recognize it. The Cubans love surfing and have two, big, underground surf clubs. There are no surf shops so the local surfers make their own boards by gluing pieces of foam together from abandoned refrigerators they find in junkyards. The foam is part of the insulation inside the refrigerators. After gluing several pieces together to make about a 7-foot blank they cut out a template and rough shape their boards. Then they have to sneak onto a boatyard to look for scraps of fiberglass and resin to finish their boards. It doesn’t matter how bad the board comes out they are totally stoked.”
When I asked Ben about the waves he just smiled and refused to comment. He said “It’s better if surfers just find out for themselves. If a hurricane is approaching from the right direction certain spots can be epic.”
Ben’s near death surfing experience was with me last winter on a 10-foot day at the Cove. It was a big Wednesday that was hot and glassy with most the surfers out at the Breakwater, Haggarty’s, Lunada Bay and Indicators. There were only about 10 people sitting a mile out at the Cove. Long board wizard and South Bay Boardriders 2012 Contest series winner Dave Schaefer was killing the big rights, zigzagging and nose riding into Boneyards.
A kook on a short board manage to make it out from the other side of Little Reef when the outside set of the day popped up on the horizon. Dave and I were racing toward Hawaii with Ben and the kook about 10 yards behind. Ben, being a long board purist, never uses a surf leash. We made it over the first two, but Dave and I barely pushed through the lip of the third wave. The short board kook bailed shooting his board back into Ben’s forehead. The gnarly monster wave sucked Ben back over the falls ripping his board from his hands, sending him head first straight into the rocks on the bottom. Ben finally surfaced looking pale and groggy. I paddled over to him for assistance when he asked if I could get his board. We were so far out you couldn’t see the beach. I met Ben half way out with his board.
He said, “Do you mind if I get out. I don’t feel so good.”
His forehead was bleeding. I had already caught about 10 waves so we both got out and stumbled up the trail back to the car.
Ben Fortun and his Stickman quiver.