My Story post 18

When I showed up there were basically 2 surfboard labels in Ventura in 1967 not including the Ventura Plastics guys. They didn’t have a retail shop and really didn’t sell local.

So it was Morey-Pope and Tom Hale. Tom Hale was completely local. He had a small shop and sold boards through that shop. MP had a local shop but also had dealers so the MP label went out beyond the local area. I’m not sure where Tom Hale fabricated his boards, I think over somewhere around Olive St. in the area that is now a shoping center at the west end of Main St. The Morey-Pope shop was on Front St. They had a small retail shop that was integrated into the factory just over the walking bridge from the Ventura pier.

I remember Tom Hale as being the board that the local guys liked. Morey’s boards were different, though there were guys that had MP boards, the name with the local crowd I think was Tom Hale.

The local crowd did ride other labels from out of town like Yater from Santa Barbara, or Bing from down south. I rode my own boards, or actually a Bud Cravens, the guy that bought out my Ryder label when I graduated high school, still, boards that I made. Tried to get a couple local guys to ride them too.

It would be a rare occasion that you’d see the likes of Tom Morey out surfing at the point but it did happen from time to time. But the MP label was happening. They had the fin system that was used by all the big labels and they marketed the Slip Check decking spray. MP had a top rated surfer riding a signature board, ran adds in the magazines and Morey even staged the first ever professional surf contest with something like $1000 in prize money.

So the MP shop was probably the place a guy like myself would really have liked to get a job. I don’t know how I would have pulled it off, aside from going to the shop and applying for work that is. There’s a novel idea… that I don’t think ever came to mind. Besides I had a part time job making surfboards already.

D.R.