Below is a paragraph from the second post I did in September of 2K6.. it's about the blank I got to make a surfboard when I was all of about 13.

Dave Sweet made his own blanks in the sixties and made them available retail.  My parents with the help of my older sisters boy friend Jerry, a surf guy, got this bright idea to get me one of the Sweet blanks for a Christmas present in ’62. I still remember that Christmas day. Everyone opening presents including me, then I get maybe a shoe box size gift. I open it to find a key inside and am told it’s a key to the lock on the garage door.  Everyone says go out unlock and open the garage door.  I have no idea what is going on but go ahead and go out side, everyone following me and open the garage door and what do I see?  A surfboard blank! I was so stoked, a blank put me one step closer to having my own board.

So yes, it was Dave Sweet that made it possible for me to have my first surfboard. I have no idea how I actually figured out how to cut the blank down the middle, glue in a stringer, get the resin and fiber glass laminated on the blank with color, get a fin on it and then get it all smooth and ready to surf.... some how I managed.

I remember going in the Sweet shop in Santa Monica a couple times and vaguely remember talking with him. I was a grom, that's what groms do, go to surf shops all excited, gawk at surfboards and talk story with the top dog if possible.

It would be interesting to know how many of Sweet's blanks were bought to do just what I did. Then I wonder how many guys went on to work for a surfboard company or start their own label.  

I'd have to say Dave Sweet impacted my life in surfing. It's sad that he passed away last month. The surfing world will continue on but once again without one of it's icons.

R.I. P. Dave Sweet.

D.R.

The model 50. A recreation of my first surfboard that was made with a Dave Sweet blank.