Philip Hoffman, whose pioneering big-wave riding in Hawaii in the 1950s charted the way for surfing pilgrimages to Oahu’s North Shore from around the world, died on Nov. 10 in Mission Viejo, Calif. He was 80.

The cause was complications of pulmonary fibrosis, said his younger brother, Walter, now the surviving owner of Hoffman California Fabrics, a textile manufacturer the two had operated in Mission Viejo. Hoffman, who was known as Flippy, lived in Capistrano Beach, Calif.

At a time when there were perhaps only a few hundred surfers in California and Hawaii and no magazines or films about the sport, Hoffman helped “pave the way” for the surfing boom that followed, said Steve Pezman, publisher of The Surfer’s Journal.

“Because he was the first guy on the North Shore, he opened the faucet and more and more came after that,” Mr. Pezman said.

Mickey Muñoz, a respected surfboard designer, said Hoffman’s “biggest contribution was pioneering big waves.”

“He appeared not to have fear,” Mr. Muñoz added. “He wasn’t an exceptional athlete. He just had exceptional confidence in his skills.”

Hoffman’s father, Rube, founded Hoffman California Fabrics as a woolen business in Los Angeles in 1924. It now serves the quilt, craft and surfwear industries. The family spent summers at Laguna Beach, and Philip and Walter Hoffman learned to surf in 1946 at nearby San Onofre and Salt Creek.

After graduating from Hollywood High School in 1948, Philip Hoffman worked as a commercial abalone diver for 15 years and served in the Coast Guard Reserve before joining the family business.

He made his first surf trip to Hawaii in 1952 after his brother, who was stationed at Pearl Harbor, showed him film of huge waves at Makaha. The next year, Hoffman and the surfboard designer Bob Simmons rented a house at Sunset Point, a wild and sparsely populated place at the time.

“They were probably the first surfers in the modern era to live on the North Shore from anywhere, including Hawaiians,” Mr. Pezman said.

His training as an abalone diver had taught Hoffman to hold his breath for long stretches, which came in handy in powerful surf. “He never panicked when holding his breath,” said Walter Hoffman, an accomplished surfer himself.

Philip and Walter Hoffman took over the family business in the early 1970s. With one foot each in the surfing and textile worlds, they supplied tropical prints to emerging surfwear companies like Surfline Hawaii and Ocean Pacific and later the industry giants Quiksilver, Billabong and O’Neill. One of their Hawaiian prints was worn by Tom Selleck in the “Magnum, P.I.” television series in the 1980s and later acquired by the Smithsonian Institution.

Philip and Walter Hoffman were inducted together into the Surfing Walk of Fame in Huntington Beach, Calif., in 2006.

Philip Rube Hoffman was born Jan. 24, 1930, in Glendale, Calif. In addition to his brother, he is survived by a son, Marty; a daughter, Dana Cederberg; his partner, Suzy Aplanalp; five grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

After a diving accident several years ago, Hoffman was required to use a walker. Still, until January, when his health deteriorated, he would ride waves on his stomach on modified surfboards during regular trips to Mexico.

“He was one of the last old-school watermen,” Mr. Pezman said.