Majoring in Surfing
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- Publication date
- 2019-09-03
- Topics
- californiarevealed, Surfing, Surfboards
Note:
Surf equipment innovator Tom Morey on his lifelong love of surfing and the invention of the Morey Boogie Board.
Recorded for OC Surf Stories; San Clemente, California
Transcript:
When you're young, whatever it is that you're involved with, you think you're stunned, you're amazed, so cool, you know? Surfboards were so cool. Hobie made 19em, man. Dale Velzy made 19em up north, man. And it was like the designs were locked in stone. Everything was taken care of, everything wasbut after a while, I realized, well, no these designs are not good, I thought to myself. Maybe there's something that could be changed on these boards and their design. 0:00:39 - Having a strong interest in the waves and the growing uprenting out surf mats and umbrellas on Main Beach and learning how to be a body surfer. I got to be a good body surfer, and then, walking south one day and seeing a guy riding a skin board , riding just a plank of wood at Thalia Street, I got drawn into surfing, evermore. And as I got a driver's license and I could hang out with other guys, and drive and I was heading south, I was at Salt Creek. All the places down here. And then when I went up to SC in 1953 when I graduated, I chose that because that was close to Malibu, which is the best summer-time surf spot in the United States. And it was quite a bit closer to Rincon which is the best winter-time spot. I eventually went into the surfboard business up in Ventura, andwhich was not that far from Rincon and developed a lot of surfing accoutrements that have prevailed to this day. 0:01:55 , Text: The First Boogie Board Well, I felt really good with that board on the water. Just being out there, just paddling out and just sitting. Sitting on the water and feeling the waves under me, you know? A few days later, the surf came up to about four feet at a local surf spot. I went down there and I was delighted because most of the surfers were leaving. The tide was going down and there was a lot of sea urchins there. Vana , V-A-N-A , and, nobody wants to hit the rocks with their scags or get involved with that, but I'm coming out there with a scagless board and if it works it's gotta enable me to surf without that scag, y'know? And my first wave I steered it to the side. I went down the drop. Steered it-steered it instead of letting go straight. Steered it to the side and just skidded straight. On the second wave I realized I need to bank it. I steered it to the side, little bit, but I banked it and it went phhhhhhhhoop and banked across this wave and then I banked it back. 0:03:12 , And the thing took over , after a while the thing took off on its own. I had a very wide , very extensive experience. I am not some genius. I'm not some guy that just popped up, so brilliant. USC on its webpage up to a couple years ago, maybe even to this day, has me as one of their outstanding graduates. It doesn't mention that I had a 2.001 grade point average. Because after all, I was majoring in surfing [laughs].
For additional information see California Revealed.
Surf equipment innovator Tom Morey on his lifelong love of surfing and the invention of the Morey Boogie Board.
Recorded for OC Surf Stories; San Clemente, California
Transcript:
When you're young, whatever it is that you're involved with, you think you're stunned, you're amazed, so cool, you know? Surfboards were so cool. Hobie made 19em, man. Dale Velzy made 19em up north, man. And it was like the designs were locked in stone. Everything was taken care of, everything wasbut after a while, I realized, well, no these designs are not good, I thought to myself. Maybe there's something that could be changed on these boards and their design. 0:00:39 - Having a strong interest in the waves and the growing uprenting out surf mats and umbrellas on Main Beach and learning how to be a body surfer. I got to be a good body surfer, and then, walking south one day and seeing a guy riding a skin board , riding just a plank of wood at Thalia Street, I got drawn into surfing, evermore. And as I got a driver's license and I could hang out with other guys, and drive and I was heading south, I was at Salt Creek. All the places down here. And then when I went up to SC in 1953 when I graduated, I chose that because that was close to Malibu, which is the best summer-time surf spot in the United States. And it was quite a bit closer to Rincon which is the best winter-time spot. I eventually went into the surfboard business up in Ventura, andwhich was not that far from Rincon and developed a lot of surfing accoutrements that have prevailed to this day. 0:01:55 , Text: The First Boogie Board Well, I felt really good with that board on the water. Just being out there, just paddling out and just sitting. Sitting on the water and feeling the waves under me, you know? A few days later, the surf came up to about four feet at a local surf spot. I went down there and I was delighted because most of the surfers were leaving. The tide was going down and there was a lot of sea urchins there. Vana , V-A-N-A , and, nobody wants to hit the rocks with their scags or get involved with that, but I'm coming out there with a scagless board and if it works it's gotta enable me to surf without that scag, y'know? And my first wave I steered it to the side. I went down the drop. Steered it-steered it instead of letting go straight. Steered it to the side and just skidded straight. On the second wave I realized I need to bank it. I steered it to the side, little bit, but I banked it and it went phhhhhhhhoop and banked across this wave and then I banked it back. 0:03:12 , And the thing took over , after a while the thing took off on its own. I had a very wide , very extensive experience. I am not some genius. I'm not some guy that just popped up, so brilliant. USC on its webpage up to a couple years ago, maybe even to this day, has me as one of their outstanding graduates. It doesn't mention that I had a 2.001 grade point average. Because after all, I was majoring in surfing [laughs].
For additional information see California Revealed.
- Contact Information
- Orange County Public Libraries, 1501 E. St. Andrew Place, , Santa Ana, CA 92705, Telephone: 714-566-3055, Email: Jon.Gilliom@occr.ocgov.com, http://ocpl.org/
- Access-restricted-item
- true
- Acknowledgment
- Source material provided by Orange County Public Libraries. Preserved and made available online by California Revealed. California Revealed is supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.
- Addeddate
- 2020-03-03 19:58:19
- Call number
- OCDS MORT 01
- Editor
- Gilliom, Jon
- Genre
- Oral histories
- Identifier
- corcl_000131
- Interviewee
- Morey, Tom
- Interviewer
- Gilliom, Jon; Enos, Lee
- Projectidentifier
- caps016326
- Rights
- Copyrighted. Rights are owned by OC Public Libraries. OC Public Libraries has given California Preservation Program permission to provide access to the digitized work online. Educational use is permitted. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owner. In addition, the reproduction of some materials may be restricted by terms of gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions, privacy and publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
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- OC Stories
- Title-series
- OC Surf Stories
- Values
- Note:
Surf equipment innovator Tom Morey on his lifelong love of surfing and the invention of the Morey Boogie Board.
Recorded for OC Surf Stories; San Clemente, California
Transcript:
When you're young, whatever it is that you're involved with, you think you're stunned, you're amazed, so cool, you know? Surfboards were so cool. Hobie made 19em, man. Dale Velzy made 19em up north, man. And it was like the designs were locked in stone. Everything was taken care of, everything wasbut after a while, I realized, well, no these designs are not good, I thought to myself. Maybe there's something that could be changed on these boards and their design. 0:00:39 - Having a strong interest in the waves and the growing uprenting out surf mats and umbrellas on Main Beach and learning how to be a body surfer. I got to be a good body surfer, and then, walking south one day and seeing a guy riding a skin board , riding just a plank of wood at Thalia Street, I got drawn into surfing, evermore. And as I got a driver's license and I could hang out with other guys, and drive and I was heading south, I was at Salt Creek. All the places down here. And then when I went up to SC in 1953 when I graduated, I chose that because that was close to Malibu, which is the best summer-time surf spot in the United States. And it was quite a bit closer to Rincon which is the best winter-time spot. I eventually went into the surfboard business up in Ventura, andwhich was not that far from Rincon and developed a lot of surfing accoutrements that have prevailed to this day. 0:01:55 , Text: The First Boogie Board Well, I felt really good with that board on the water. Just being out there, just paddling out and just sitting. Sitting on the water and feeling the waves under me, you know? A few days later, the surf came up to about four feet at a local surf spot. I went down there and I was delighted because most of the surfers were leaving. The tide was going down and there was a lot of sea urchins there. Vana , V-A-N-A , and, nobody wants to hit the rocks with their scags or get involved with that, but I'm coming out there with a scagless board and if it works it's gotta enable me to surf without that scag, y'know? And my first wave I steered it to the side. I went down the drop. Steered it-steered it instead of letting go straight. Steered it to the side and just skidded straight. On the second wave I realized I need to bank it. I steered it to the side, little bit, but I banked it and it went phhhhhhhhoop and banked across this wave and then I banked it back. 0:03:12 , And the thing took over , after a while the thing took off on its own. I had a very wide , very extensive experience. I am not some genius. I'm not some guy that just popped up, so brilliant. USC on its webpage up to a couple years ago, maybe even to this day, has me as one of their outstanding graduates. It doesn't mention that I had a 2.001 grade point average. Because after all, I was majoring in surfing [laughs].
For additional information see California Revealed.
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