Milestones in Surf History Part Thirteen (#77 - #83)

Milestones in Surf History Part Thirteen (#77 - #83)

by Sam Bleakley

#77 : 1951 Hugh Bradner Designs the First Neoprene Wetsuit : We might take for granted the science behind the insulation properties of our coldwater wetsuits. Quite simply, enclosed bubbles of gas reduce the ‘suits ability to conduct heat, and give the ‘suit a low density providing buoyancy in water. Hugh Bradner, a University of California physicist, invented the modern wetsuit in the early ‘50s. Bradner figured out that a thin layer of trapped water could be tolerated between the ‘suit fabric and the skin, as long as insulation was present in the fabric in the form of trapped bubbles. In this case, the water would quickly reach skin temperature, and the air in the fabric would continue to act as the thermal insulation to keep it that way. Bradner understood the ‘suit did not need to be wet because it is not the water that provides the insulation, but the gas in the ‘suit fabric. Willard Bascom at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography suggested neoprene as a feasible material to Bradner. However, Bradner and Bascom were unable to successfully market their version to the public. But the science was out there, and Jack O’Neill started using closed-cell neoprene foam, shown to him by Harry Hind, and founded O’Neill in a garage in 1952, later relocating to Santa Cruz, in 1959 with the motto “It's Always Summer on the Inside”. Bob and Bill Meistrell from Manhatten Beach started experimenting with neoprepne around 1953, founding Body Glove. Neoprene was not the only material used. The Pêche-Sport suit in France and the Siebe Gorman swimsuit in the UK were both made out of sponge rubber. And the Heinke Dolphin suit, also made in in the UK, was made from natural rubber lined with stockinet. Wetsuits evolved as fragile neoprene was backed and sandwiched with thin sheets of tougher material such as nylon and Lycra. Improvements in the joints were made by gluing, taping and blindstitching, to reduce flushing. Today a good wetsuit will keep you toasty in the most frigid of seas. Pictured here Matt Smith makes a saltwater toast to Hugh Bradner (and the coming barrel) in a fine Finisterre wetsuit, captured by Chris McClean.

 

#78 : 1951 Makaha Drowners Boardshorts : Makaha is a brilliant diamond-tipped right reef pointbreak, sprinting 100 metres into a deep lava valley on Oahu’s west coast. Makaha is Hawaiian for ‘fierce’ and this rushing ride can show its teeth to the uninitiated, tearing boardshorts into oblivion. The inside backwash offers an infamous full body rinse. Hosting the inaugural International Surfing Championships in 1954, and serving as THE wintertime big wave spot at that time, Makaha was famously charged by ‘da Bull’ Greg Noll, in trademarked striped boardshorts. By the 1970s, the North Shore had seemingly attracted as many cameras as surfers, and other breaks began to gain greater magazine exposure. At 4-8 ft, from November to April, Makaha is a bubbling performance wave. Leading the pack is the historic Keaulana family, including Richard ‘Buffalo’, and three times ASP/WSL World Longboard Champion Rusty. Rell Sunn, the ‘Queen of Makaha’, died in 1998 of cancer and her ashes are scattered at this sacred spot. But Makaha is also home to the bespoke surfing boardshort. After WWII more and more Hot Curl riders started coming out of Waikiki 40 miles west to Makaha. When the waves got the better of their shorts, they went to a shop in nearby Waianae to have them stitched up. Recognizing the need for durability and comfort, the tailor, Minoru Nii, began making specialist twill shorts for the surfers. With feedback from some of the best riders of the time, Minoru Nii added stripes, wax pockets and patches. They earned a nickname: the ‘Makaha Drowner.’ Minoru Nii's Makaha Drowners also became a badge of honour: fading, wax beads, salt stains, food marks…all spoke of marathon long sessions, late-night luaus and goodtimes. A few pairs of the original Drowners survived - cut from heavy cotton twill with a button-fly front, tight stitching and button flap back pockets. Randy Hild and John Moore decided to re-launch the brand www.mnii.com/collections/trunks “We mimicked the original as close as possible.”

 

#79 : 1952 Jack O’Neill Opens ‘Surf Shop’ in San Francisco : In the 1940s when Jack O’Neill was bodysurfing and surfing San Francisco’s Ocean Beach (at Kelly’s Cove), only a handful of hardy souls joined him in the frigid waters. The best way to deal with the cold was a post-surf bonfire. O’Neill had a creative mind (and a B.A. in Liberal Arts from San Francisco State), and started experimented with plastic foam to keep him warm in the waves. “I knew from my physics classes that air was a good insulator. It (plastic foam) worked good, except it didn’t have tensile strength.” In 1952, pharmacist and fellow Kelly’s Cove bodysurfer, Harry Hind, turned him on to an elastic compound originally developed by DuPont in 1930 - neoprene. O’Neill began to construct vests, soon selling them in his newly opened surf shop (quite simply titled Surf Shop) on the Great Highway near Wawona Street. In 1959, O’Neill and his family moved to Santa Cruz. His first dedicated Santa Cruz surf shop overlooked Cowell Beach, before moving to 41st Avenue in 1960. O'Neill lost sight in his left eye in 1971 after his leash-tethered surfboard snapped back and hit his face; the surf leash, ironically, had been launched the year before by his son Pat. O’Neill’s eye patch became iconic. In addition to surfing and sailing, he was passionate about hot-air ballooning, famously landing a balloon on his 65 ft catamaran to fly over Monterey Bay. The catamaran had no mast and would follow the ballon and position underneath for landing. Once a mast was added the catamaran was fully rigged, O’Neill launched Sea Odyssey in 1996, taking schoolchildren into the ocean to learn about sailing and marine ecology. “Teaching kids about the ocean — that it needs to be taken care of — that really works.” Pictured here is a late 1970s master class : O'Neill, Shaun Tomson, Reno Abellira and Dane Kealoha.

#80 : 1950s Dale Velzy is Hawk : ‘Dale Velzy is Hawk’ by Paul Holmes is a momentous story of the late iconic Californian surf hero. Author Holmes was raised in Newquay, Cornwall, where he started surfing, ultimately becoming a legend in surf journalism, editing Tracks and Surfer. Holmes was the last journalist to get close to the enigmatic Velzy. Few (if any) of the characters who have shaped surfing have been as gregarious as Hawk. Holmes explains how Velzy “built an empire in balsa shavings and foam dust, and lost it all even before surfing’s popularity boom of the early ‘60s,” and therefore was largely forgotten until the retro revival of the 1980s. Post-war shapers Bob Simmons, Joe Quigg and Matt Kivlin had already made big improvements in board design with the Spoon and Malibu Chip. Through the 1950s Velzy dropped the wide point back toward the tail, massively increasing maneuverability. The Pig became the premier platform for early performance surfing. Velzy personified the new hotdog approach, breaking trim, turning, stalling, and walking to the nose (the first to hang ten at Manhatten Beach). Simmons made surfboards light, Velzy made them turn. He opened the world's first surf shop in Manhattan Beach in 1949 and at his peak ran five shops and two factories, selling as many as 200 boards a week. He was a master paddleboard shaper, a great salesman, a teacher of a new generation of soon to be famous surfers, shapers and filmmakers (including Bruce Brown), a real cowboy, biker and hot-rodder. He teamed up with Hap Jacobs in 1954 to open Velzy-Jacobs Surfboards. Holmes explains how they “promoted their label not just with team riders, but in another highly prescient way: screen printing their logo as tee shirts. It was the first time any surfboard maker had done so, and was a novelty for any business of the time.” But Velzy’s business suffered a wipeout when all his shops were padlocked shut in 1959 due to a tax dispute. Velzy left surfing. “And then,” as Holmes continues, “something extraordinary began to happen…that would lead him to return to his real roots in surfing: a revival of longboarding and a growing consciousness of a rich history… in which Velzy had played a huge and important role.”

#81 : 1953 Makaha Goes Global : In 1953 a photo by Clarence Maki of Woody Brown, George Downing and Buzzy Trent speeding across a giant wave at Makaha was purchased by Associated Press and appeared in newspapers around the world. Makaha’s Kuho'oheihei ‘Abner’ Paki was probably the break's first local surfer in the 19th C, but the spot remained unsurfed until 1937 when it was rediscovered by Hot Curl riders John Kelly and Wally Froiseth. The group was soon joined by Downing, Trent, Bob Simmons and Walter Hoffman. Surfing was beginning to boom in California, with surf clubs from Santa Cruz to La Jolla. The Makaha photo galvanized a large group who began an exodus to Hawaii. Fred van Dyke and Peter Cole were two lured by the siren call of Makaha. Cole was a student at Stanford and Van Dyke was teaching in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Van Dyke was in the teacher's lounge when he saw the newspaper photo. He quit his job the next day, moved to Hawaii, and lured Cole. They took teaching positions at the prestigious Punahou School in Honolulu (absent from a few staff meetings when the swell was smoking). The Makaha Bowl produces a steep drop that meets the Blowhole section, then the Inside Reef, unzipping into an outlandish backwash. Van Dyke had such a hatred for the Bowl section that in 1958 he planned to level the responsible area of reef with dynamite. The plan failed, and the Bowl remains a great challenge. An early standout was Hawaiian Anona Napoleon (pictured here). She was temporarily paralyzed in a diving accident at Waimea Falls, but made a miracle recovery, a year later (in 1961) winning the women's division of the Makaha International. Anona was a college humanities lecturer and researched a PhD in Education at the University of Hawaii on ethical curricula and Ho'oponopono, the Art of Peacemaking. Makaha, like many breaks around the world, captures the bittersweet balance between over-exposure and localism. “You want to come to Makaha?” local Melvin Puu told Surfing magazine in 1991. “Don't.” Rusty Keaulana, Makaha legend and multiple Longboard World Champion, for a while sported a bumper sticker: “Welcome to Makaha - Now Go Home!”

 

#82 : 1954 George Downing Wins the Inaugural Makaha International : Downing was born and raised in Honolulu, taught to make boards by Wally Froiseth (developer of the racy Hot Curl designs). Froiseth introduced Downing to the big surf at Makaha, while Downing and Russ Takaki became the first to ride Laniakea on the North Shore in 1946, and Maui's Honolua Bay in 1947. Downing studied weather maps to understand swell formation, snorkeled reefs to learn about offshore bathymetry, recorded meteorological patterns, and embraced the latest in surfboard theory and construction, including an early introduction to fibreglassing from Bob Simmons. In 1950 Downing built The Rocket: 10 ft, narrow-tailed, balsa, fiberglass and resin, with a removable fin - the first of its kind. Downing's line across the wave was precise, and he rarely wiped out. He also invented a cannonball dismount off the back to sink beneath the whitewater explosion. Downing mentored Joey Cabell, Reno Abellira and Michael Ho and was knicknamed The Teacher, while Ricky Grigg called him The Guru. But he was at large a private person, and a note in Nat Young's 1983 ‘History of Surfing’ says “George Downing has been omitted [from this book] at his request, although he has played a significant part in the sport.” Created by Waikiki Surf Club founder John Lind, and organized by Wally Froiseth, the Makaha International was scheduled to launch in 1953, but was cancelled due to lack of surf, leaving just paddling races, and a dispute over the luau. California Flippy Hoffman recalled tensions flaring between different groups of surfers. “They had this luau, and a big hassle developed over how to cook the pig. Things got pretty hot.” They settled in 1954, there was surf, and Downing won the first Makaha International. The contest was soon known as the unofficial world championships and became the first televised surfing event, running from 1962 to 1965 on ABC's Wide World of Sports. Heats had as many as 24 surfers, each wearing a numbered T-shirt. There was no interference rule. Each ridden wave was scored from one to 30, with a shared emphasis on length of ride, wave height and manoeuvres. In 1965 there were over 500 competitors. George Downing, Joey Cabell, Martha Sunn, Fred Hemmings and Nancy Nelson each won three Makaha titles. Downing is pictured here (courtesy of the John Lind archives) receiving 1st place in 1965.

#83 : 1954 Hobie Alter Opens Surfboard Factory at Dana Point : Surf historian Matt Warshaw explains that Hobie Alter started building and selling balsa boards out of his parents' Laguna Beach garage in 1950. Three years later, his father bought him a small plot of land on Pacific Coast Highway in Dana Point, at the time only housing two other businesses. Alter designed and built a factory and retail unit, and Hobie Surfboards opened. It was the first commercial surfboard outlet in Orange County. Stock boards sold for $65. Looking for an inexpensive and readily available replacement for balsa, Alter and surfboard laminator Gordon ‘Grubby’ Clark experimented with polyurethane foam, leading to Hobie Surfboards going all-foam in 1958. Clark left the company in 1961 to found Clark Foam. In 1962, with dealerships and licenses in San Diego, across the East Coast, Honolulu and Peru, Alter rebuilt a larger shaping facility and shop, and began to promote a sparkling team including Phil Edwards, Joey Cabell, Joyce Hoffman, Gary Propper and Corky Carroll. Of course, they all had signature models, another Hobie innovation, Carroll's advert pictured here as "one of the most versatile and creative surfboards on the market today." Top board craftsmen who worked for the label included Edwards, Renny Yater, Mickey Muñoz, Joe Quigg, Terry Martin, Don Hansen and Robert, Raymond and Ronald Patterson. Surfboard sales in the mid-'60s peaked at 6,500 boards per year. Yet boardmaking overheads were high, and Hobie admitted “I only made $50,000 the best year I ever had building surfboards.” By the shortboard revolution, Hobie had introduced his Hobie Cat catamaran (another story altogether, along with the work Hobie did in skateboarding). His label dominated boardmaking from the late 1950s to the early '70s, and even before the retro revival would re-ignite demand, Hobie (in 1987) was the second-largest producer of beachwear in America, behind Ocean Pacific, and ahead of Quiksilver and Gotcha.