It’s been nearly a yr because the 20-year-old grandson of a legendary surfboard shaper was killed whereas “automotive browsing” on an e-bike alongside Pacific Coast Freeway in Huntington Seaside.
Now, the younger man accused of towing Kolby Aipa whereas driving at speeds of greater than 50 mph faces a felony cost.
Brandon Scott Soleau, 21, of Huntington Seaside, has been charged with one felony depend of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence in Aipa’s loss of life, in line with the Orange County district legal professional’s workplace. He’s scheduled to be arraigned Thursday and faces as much as six years in jail if convicted as charged.
Aipa was the grandson of iconic shaper Ben Aipa, recognized for pioneering surfboard types such because the sting and refining the design of the swallowtail within the Seventies.
Surfer Journal described the youthful Aipa as a “surf royalty inheritor,” noting that he had a promising surf profession himself, in addition to sponsorships from a number of surf clothes manufacturers.
In September, Aipa turned the youngest member of the Surfers’ Corridor of Fame when he was posthumously inducted and honored with a plaque subsequent to his grandfather’s handprints within the cement in entrance of Huntington Surf & Sport.
Aipa was fatally wounded on Aug. 2, 2025, after attending a film premiere throughout the U.S. Open of Browsing in Huntington Seaside.
At round 10:30 p.m. that night, eight passengers piled into Soleau’s 2015 Toyota Tacoma, together with three individuals within the mattress of the truck, prosecutors mentioned.
Aipa was using his e-bike alongside Soleau’s truck on a service highway parallel to PCH when he requested his good friend if he may seize on and “automotive surf,” prosecutors allege. Soleau is accused of claiming sure.
Aipa, who was not carrying a helmet, then put his arm via the truck’s entrance passenger window and grabbed on, prosecutors mentioned. Below the California Car Code, it’s unlawful for anybody on an e-bike, bicycle, motorbike or curler skates to connect themselves to a different car on a highway.
A passenger filmed Aipa being towed whereas Soleau merged onto southbound PCH at round 50 mph, prosecutors mentioned. Shortly thereafter, Aipa misplaced management of his e-bike and crashed. He was taken to a hospital in important situation and died three days later from blunt head trauma.
“This can be a stark reminder that each motion and each resolution have a consequence, and on this occasion the worth of these choices was the lifetime of a 20-year-old man and that could be a worth nobody ought to ever need to pay,” O.C. Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer mentioned in a press release Friday.
Aipa’s loss of life has been broadly mourned in Hawaii, the place his household is from, and in Huntington Seaside the place he lived.
“I used to be working laborious on this life, perpetuating my father’s legacy, considering I had this surf legacy that I wanted to move on to my son and my son would run with it,” Kolby’s father, Duke Aipa, mentioned at his son’s Corridor of Fame induction ceremony. “That didn’t occur, however what did occur is that Kolby discovered a technique to come again full circle to the essential rules of affection and aloha.”
Aipa Surf, the board firm based by Kolby’s grandfather, shared a assertion following his loss of life saying that the younger surfer had “a means with touching the lives of whoever he met.”
“His acts of kindness and caring was his reward of Aloha to mates and strangers alike,” the corporate acknowledged. “To everybody that reads this … move his Aloha on.”
Instances Neighborhood Information workers author Matt Szabo contributed to this report.
