Jeffrey "Jeff" Hakman is a world

surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...

champion, now a businessman, who together with friend Bob McKnight convinced Alan Green, the co founder of

Quiksilver Quiksilver is a brand of surf-inspired apparel and accessories that was founded in 1969 in Torquay, Australia, but is now based in Huntington Beach, California. It is one of the world's largest brands of surfwear and boardsport-related equipm ...

(then a small surf company from Torquay, Australia) to allow them the rights to trade the name in America in 1976. Hakman started surfing in 1956 at age eight in Palos Verdes, California and at the age of ten moved to Hawaii with his parents. He surfed Waimea Bay at fourteen years old and at seventeen won the prestigious surfing title,

Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Championship The Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Championship is named in honor of the "Father of Modern Surfing", Duke Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku. The contest began in 1965 by invitation only at Sunset Beach on the North Shore of Oahu unt ...

. Hakman graduated from

Punahou School Punahou School (known as Oahu College until 1934) is a private, co-educational, college preparatory school in Honolulu, Hawaii. More than 3,700 students attend the school from kindergarten through twelfth grade, 12th grade. Protestant missionar ...

in 1967. Between the ages of 21 and 27 he won the most major surfing titles in the world including the first Pipe Masters at

Banzai Pipeline The Banzai Pipeline, or simply Pipeline or Pipe, is a surf reef break located in Hawaii, off Ehukai Beach Park in Pupukea on O'ahu's North Shore. A reef break is an area in the ocean where waves start to break once they reach the shallows of a r ...

, 1976 Bells Beach and was the unofficial World Champion in 1974 and 1975. In 1976 Hakman founded Quiksilver America with Bob McKnight and in 1984 founded Quiksilver Europe with Harry Hodge, Brigitte Darrigrand and John Winship. He is currently the Marketing Director for NaPali SA (Quiksilver) in France. He is a 2009 inductee into the Surfers' Hall of Fame in

Huntington Beach, California Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County, California, Orange County in Southern California, located southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. The city is named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population was 198,711 duri ...

References

Surfline bio of Jeff Hakman
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hakman, Jeff American chief executives American surfers Punahou School alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people)