Just heard that John Kelly has passed on .I first came across John Kelly in The Surfers Journal profile and found him and his life story very inspirational. He trod his own path politically and his enviromentall philosophy was ahead of its time to the extent that we have laboured to catch up .On a design level he was one of the triumvirate creating the hot curl and then the one off Hydrohull .Great surfer ,great humanitarian ,great man.My thoughts are with his wife Marion
mpcutback
Kelly was more deserving of respect and admiration than all the pro surfers in the world, combined. A real hero in the true sense of the word. Environmentalist, free thinker, graduate of Juilliard. A brilliant man.
The board he invented was the “Hydroplane”. Not to be confused with that Stewart gimmick/joke.
he was old.hope i surf as long as he did.
I remember the Save Our Surf organization from the 60’s and 70’s. John Kelly taught common people to organize and fight against big businesses and over development of Hawaii’s shorelines. See: http://digicoll.manoa.hawaii.edu/sos/index.php?c=1. I meet his daughter at the last Surf Auction this past July. She and Tom Morey had some great John Kelly stories. He was a great man who made a difference!
Aloha,
D
