It's been almost a year since the 20-year-old grandson of a legendary surfboard shaper died while “car surfing” on an electric bike along the Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach.
Now, the young man accused of towing Kolby Aipa while driving at speeds of more than 50 mph faces a criminal charge.
Brandon Scott Soleau, 21, of Huntington Beach, has been charged with felony vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence in Aipa's death, according to the Orange County District Attorney's Office. He is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday and faces up to six years in prison if convicted of the charges.
Aipa was the grandson of iconic shaper Ben Aipa, known for pioneering surfboard styles like the sting and refining the swallowtail design in the 1970s.
Surfer Magazine described the young Aipa as an “heir to surf royalty,” noting that he himself had a promising surfing career, as well as endorsements from several surfwear brands.
In September, Aipa became the youngest member of the Surfers Hall of Fame when he was posthumously inducted and honored with a plaque next to his grandfather's handprints in the cement in front of Huntington Surf & Sport.
Aipa was fatally wounded on August 2, 2025, after attending a movie premiere during the US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach.
That night, eight passengers got into Soleau's 2015 Toyota Tacoma, including three people in the bed of the truck, prosecutors said.
Aipa was riding his electric bike next to Soleau's truck on a service road parallel to PCH when he asked his friend if he could hold on and “car surf,” prosecutors allege. Soleau is accused of saying yes.
Aipa, who was not wearing a helmet, reached his arm through the truck's front passenger window and grabbed him, prosecutors said. Under the California Vehicle Code, it is illegal for any person on an electric bicycle, bicycle, motorcycle, or skates to attach himself to another vehicle on a highway.
A passenger filmed Aipa being towed as Soleau merged onto southbound PCH at about 50 mph, prosecutors said. Shortly after, Aipa lost control of his electric bike and crashed. He was taken to a hospital in critical condition and died three days later from blunt force trauma to the brain.
“This is a stark reminder that every action and every decision has a consequence, and in this case the price of those decisions was the life of a 20-year-old man and that is a price no one should have to pay,” OC Dist. Attorney. Todd Spitzer said in a statement Friday.
Aipa's death has been widely mourned in Hawaii, where his family is from, and in Huntington Beach, where he lived.
“I was working hard in this life, perpetuating my father's legacy, thinking that I had this surfing legacy that I needed to pass on to my son and that my son would run with it,” Kolby's father, Duke Aipa, said at his son's Hall of Fame induction ceremony. “That didn't happen, but what did happen is that Kolby found a way to come full circle to the basics of love and aloha.”
Aipa Surf, the board company founded by Kolby's grandfather, shared a statement after his death saying the young surfer had “a way of touching the lives of those he met.”
“Their acts of kindness and caring were their gift of Aloha to friends and strangers alike,” the company stated. “To everyone reading this… spread your Aloha.”
Times Community News staff writer Matt Szabo contributed to this report.
