Bolt Block icon crew seagrass

Block Icon from Lightning Bolt.

Rumors swirl about the origin of the Lightning Bolt Logo. Some say the Bolt was a graphic metaphor for a particularly strong strain of marijuana circulating the Hawaiian Islands in the late 1960s. Company co-founder Gerry Lopez fouls that off: “IT WAS ABOUT THE ENERGY.”

In 60s and into the 70s, Hawaiian surfers were energized by the Shortboard Revolution. In Hawaii, that meant mini-guns allowing surfers to boldly go where no surfers had gone before – deeper, faster, higher and lower: Deep into the gizzards of Pipeline, up high in the lip at Sunset, right into the Backdoor at Pipeline.