Aside from a significant
number of good surf spots in the short 42 miles of
The surfboard industry got
it’s start in the 1950’s and by the early 60’s it began to grow exponentially..
There were a few surfboard builders in
VIP had a surfboard production process to make what was later called pop outs because they weren’t made in the traditional hand shaped process. The person that ran the company I believe was a man named Bill Fisher. These boards were sold all across the country in places like Sears. Not unlike the mass produced surfboards you can buy at Costco now days. Though the boards you find at Costco are what we call foamies, VIP boards were built with a fiberglass process.
Tom Hale also made
surfboards in
One of the most
influential people in the business of making surfboards… Tom Morey, started making surfboards in
With the demand for surfboards and media exposure the various surfboard companies sponsored guys and gals that were recognized for their surfing abilities and these surfers would have a special surfboard model made for them. Moery-Pope had 2 of them. The John Peck Penetrator and the Bob Cooper Blue Machine. Of all the surfboard models that were made back then those 2 boards are in the lineup with only a few others as the most iconic of the period. If not the most uniquely different. In 1968 they produced what has been considered the first short board in production. The McTavish Tracker.
They also developed a removable fin system. The system was developed for the industry and several other surfboard labels used the system and were able to have their own proprietary fins made specially for their label.
You know we didn’t have
surf wax in the 60’s either. We used paraffin we got from the grocery
store. Morey-Pope developed a spray on
product to use on your board to take the place of paraffin. That product was
sold virtually everywhere you bought a surfboard. If it was still available
there's hardly a long boarder that wouldn’t be using it today. But alas it
wouldn’t be available because it was a solvent based material… now banned…. At
least in
After Morey and Karl went different ways around 1970 Morey went on and developed the Morey Boogie body board
and Karl stayed in
And yet that’s not all
that's been created for surfing that has come from
D.R.
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