Duke to foam - who's left?

General Discussion
1

I’ve been holding off on this - but it keeps biting at me. Seeing the “some history” thread tipped it.

We’ve lost so many of the seminal surfers and shapers, even within the last five years. It is something parallel to the dwindling number of WWII vets (I used to work at the VA) - fewer every day. Even the early foam guys are going.

We are losing a living connection from what was essentially the thread from the form of the origins of surfing (the Hawaiians, Duke, George Freeth) to what it is now. If you take it from the 30s and 40s, who might have been in the line up with Duke, Blake, and carried it over from redwood and balsa into foam, who is left?

Rabbit, Wally Froiseth?

It just seems that something important is going away.

Sorry if this seems maudlin, yeah, I know everything changes, but I think that it is good to remember those guys.

 

2

We still have Rabbit and Wally, but George Downing, John Kelly, Abel Gomes, Bob Shepard were some of the Hawaiian influence, here in California Pete Peterson, Hobie, Joe Quigg, Velzy, Jacobs, Woody Brown,  Pat Curren and dozens of others made the transition from wood to foam.

It is sad to see several generations passing on, with so many of the young surfers having absolutely NO interest in how we got to today

 

3

still pissin’ in my diaper in that day. Surfing as we know it, we owe it.