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Surfing


Bob Simmonds made some of the earliest dramatic changes to the surfboard. A Californian surfer who was forced to find a lighter weight board because of an arm injury in 1948. He had the idea to sandwich styrofoam between plywood and fiberglass over it. .
             This was the start of the shortboard revolution. Surfing was due for a change, and this looked to be it. Boards turned from 150 pound wood planks that ha rounded noses and tails to little 30 to 50 pound rockets that had pointed noses and square tails. Many different types of short boards began to appear. Boards such as the 'fish', a split tailed, twin fin short board was invented by David Nuuhiwa and Steve Lis. Another early short board big wave design, the pocket rocket was developed by Reno Albelara in Hawaii. The balsa version of the "Pocket Rocket" built by Bruce Gabrielson and LaRoy Dennis was a board which could handle big waves but was built out of balsa for better stability. .
             The exchange of the longboard for a shortboard was not easy, it wasn't an instantaneous jump either. Long and short board riders were still competing against each other in 1969. Some surfers are reluctant to give up their longboards because it was and still is well known that paddling and being able to catch more waves in poor quality surf was a lot harder with a shorter board that has less volume. In defense of the short board, the lighter, smaller board gave the rider the freedom to move more and change direction more rapidly on the wave. .
             In 1968, Huntington Beach, California had a rule that board surfers were not allowed to surf after 11:00am. Kneeboarders were allowed as long as their boards were under four foot in length. David Nuuhiwa,who just happened to have had a broken longboard which was cut to three foot eleven inches in length. After attaching a fin, he paddled out to surf with the kneeboarders. Nearly twenty world ranked surfers watched from the pier and after David caught the first wave in, they were ecstatic.


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