Fifty
years ago, all surfboards were crafted from wood. Dave Sweet remembers
the time well. In large part, he shares in the responsibility for
drawing the wooden board era to a close. Intuitively, he knew there
was a better way to build a surfboard. Sweet had led his life as
an impassioned surfer. His affinity for the sport began in 1945,
during halcyon summer days spent in sleepy California beach towns.
He hitched his first ride on a wave at Topanga Beach with a borrowed
Pacific Systems Homes surfboard. The wooden surfboard weighed more
than he did. Nevertheless, the ride was a memorable one, upon a
wave of unforeseen portent that carried Sweet on a lifelong journey
and enmeshed him in the world of surfing. The ride has yet to end;
the wave is still breaking.
David Milton Sweet was born in Seattle, Washington on December 21,
1928. Along with his parents, younger brother, Roger, and older
brother, Dick, the family moved to California when he was still
a young boy in the sixth grade. The move was somewhat abrupt. His
father was running a successful insurance brokerage in the Pacific
Northwest when a mid-winter business trip brought him to Southern
California. Upon his arrival he looked around and saw palm trees,
the ocean and bright sunshine, and was just overwhelmed by it all.
As Sweet puts it, "My dad returned home from the excursion
and told the family, 'We're outta here!'" With almost reckless
abandon, they packed up and, in short order, relocated to sunny
California.
The family purchased a home in the Griffith Park area of Los Angeles.
The residence provided a solid home base from which Sweet attended
school through graduation from John Marshall High. During the school
year he was a member of the varsity gymnastics team. Summers were
a different story though. Early on, the family secured a summer
cottage at the foot of Topanga Canyon called Rodeo Grounds, several
hundred yards from the blue and wondrous Pacific Ocean. It was here
that Sweet discovered the joys of living at the beach and the sport
of surfing. In the course he assembled a band of lifelong friends.
Sweet learned how to surf on a series of used surfboards. His first
new board remains memorable to this day, a 120-pound redwood, custom
made by Simmons. He vividly remembers his parents driving him in
the family car out to the Pasadena home of Bob Simmons to purchase
the specially ordered board. A genuine friendship with Simmons ensued.
The two went on to make occasional surf trips together, often to
The Overhead in Ventura or sometimes Rincon. Other times they cruised
the coast in search of waves. Simmons' ongoing companionship and
the surfboards he built became a major and lasting influence on
Sweet.
Early days in the water found Sweet surrounded by his new cadre
of friends building their skills in the surf. Ricky Grigg was there,
as was Les Williams, Corny and Peter Cole, Buzzy Trent, Bob McCoy,
Gregg D'Nelly, Don Drazan, Howard Terrill and close friend Freddy
Harrison. Collectively and individually the makeshift crew developed
into a talented bunch of surfers. They would soon abandon the Topanga
shore for the surreal waves of Malibu. Recalls Dave, "Joe Quigg,
Matt Kivlin and Dave Rochlen were already well established at Malibu.
Slowly we gained acceptance and edged our way into the lineup. It
would become our favorite place to meet and surf, regardless if
there were waves."
It wasn't long before Sweet's enthusiasm for surfing spilled into
surfboard building on the beach at Malibu. During such interludes
of summer vacation beginning in 1949 he began making boards from
balsa wood. Over the years he produced maybe 50 such boards there.
Quigg, Kivlin, Rochlen and others had already been doing so before
him. By the early '50s, these full plan shapes, buoyant and lightweight
balsa core surfboards built at Malibu came to be known as "Malibu
Chips." Says Sweet, "It was an exciting time to be building
surfboards. Infinitesimal changes realized in board shapes became
especially evident with lightweight materials." The Malibu
Chips that Sweet and his cohorts constructed during the early 1950s
had far reaching influences.
It was in this period that Sweet found his life's calling as a surfboard
builder. It was a decision devoid of any fanfare or significant
change in his daily routines. The surfboard business had yet to
establish itself as a legitimate trade. In his resolve to make surfboards
for a living, Sweet was among the very earliest commercial surfboard
builders. His presence in what eventually became an industry allowed
him to play a pivotal role in recasting of how surfboards would
be constructed for decades to come.
Nobody knew it then, perhaps not even Sweet himself, but a transformation
of significant scope was about to unfold. A shift in both the materials
used to comprise surfboards and the mindsets of the participants
was underway. Anew order in the art of surfboard building and the
very sport itself was about to begin. This change, ushered in by
Sweet, would reach all the way into the next century-the surfboard
with a heart of foam.
Continued...
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