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Manufacturing and pouring the blanks accurately required Sweet's
uninterrupted attention and focus. A single break in concentration
during the several second exercise of pouring the activated liquid
foam then clamping the mold shut would likely yield a reject blank.
Often the work became nerve racking if only because of the discipline
the process required. During periods of back orders and heavy demand,
Sweet tells of how he would come home at the end of the day mentally
exhausted. Maintaining an acute focus for hours at a time occasionally
took its toll, although there was an upside of these seemingly endless
stints of repetition and observations working the mold: Knowledge.
It was during such a time that he discovered how to eliminate the
trapped air that had distressed him from the very inception of his
project. Through the introduction of a special paper laid out in
the mold, the forced air from the rise of the foam was retained
in the porosity of the paper, allowing a nearly perfect, blown blank.
The result was nothing short of exceptional. Immediately he reversed
the mold latches to their original position and began producing
blanks as he had originally engineered and planned.
Using the paper in the foaming process made Sweet a master of the
polyurethane foam formulation. Further experimentation yielded yet
another discovery. Sweet devised a rather unique 60/40 formula mix
of Freon blown and water blown foaming components. The potion produced
an excellent composition within the finished blank allowing the
option of a "hard shell" finish or one that was easily
cut and hand-shaped. Blanks were now coming out of the mold looking
like roughly finished surfboards. Soon he would go on to develop
a close tolerance blank.
Each new success in the foaming room fed the next. With basic foaming
procedures now established, Sweet went on to ice the cake. Shortly
after the paper revelation, he devised a series of multiple inserts
that became infinitely adjustable. When properly positioned, these
inserts made it possible for a finished blank to come out of the
mold to the specifications and dimensions of a custom ordered board,
eliminating the need for hand shaping--a feature unique to the industry.
The mold began laying golden eggs!
To compensate for the extra weight inherent in the higher density
foam formulations Sweet devised a stringer system that was again
unique to the industry. In a free thinking departure from conventional
norms, Sweet elected to rout his stringers into both sides of the
board. The deck and bottom stringers structurally tagged together
where they converged in the last eight to 12 inches of each end
of the board. Additional strength was found in large part in the
eight-pound density outer hard shell foam--more than double that
of other custom surfboards of the day. For those who opted for a
conventional stringer, through-hull stringers remained available.
Sweet believes that about 80 percent of his boards left the shop
with the inlaid converging stringers and the other 20 percent employed
conventional layouts. Supplementary benefits permitted setting the
rocker and locking in the desired curvature with the chosen stringer
system. The engineering of this concept was achieved with the counsel
of Sweet's friend, a helicopter pilot with an aerospace background.
Says Joe Casillas. Sweet's most trusted employee, "Dave was
highly protective of his foaming process. He undoubtedly realized
he was on to something special. Nobody and I mean nobody, got into
his foaming room except for Bonnie, Johnny, myself and God! I remember
an isolated incident when we were busy up front and this guy walked
through the factory and went to open the door to Dave's foaming
room. I heard a yell then saw a bucket of liquid foam hit and shoot
out the door. Dave had thrown it at him to keep him out. Although
it was out of color for Dave to behave this way, he was that protective
of what he had going."
In spite of the many superior qualities of foam surfboards over
their wooden counterparts, they were not universally nor immediately
accepted. Tagged with names like Flexi-Flyers and Speedo Sponges,
the older, more established guard's resistance to change caused
the transition time from wood to foam to bog. Slowly but steadily
the changeover to foam transpired and they were in strong demand.
By late 1958 the change was well underway; Sweet was awash with
orders.
During the early '60s Dave Sweet Surfboards prospered, although
it remained a small operation by choice. The Olympic Boulevard location
expanded into three adjoining industrial spaces over the years.
Annual production rarely exceeded 800 surfboards--a paltry sum when
compared to the giants of the industry in the South Bay where production
totals were more akin to upwards of 3,000 boards a year. Comments
Sweet. "I figure that Dewey [Weber] and the other big manufacturers
had to build three or four boards to my one to generate the same
profit. By blowing our own foam, preparing the blanks, rough shaping
myself and later subcontracting our glass work, we made good money
at our production levels. Not to be overlooked was our direct marketing
strategy. Our customer base was in the greater Santa Monica area,
which was strong on its own accord. Amplified by a well-advertised
mail order business, all our sales were at retail, allowing us to
hold a good margin. Others in the industry required a dealer network
and wholesale level pricing. Additionally, we offered kits on both
the retail and wholesale levels and blanks to other surfboard builders
where labor was less of a factor. Make no mistake, Dave Sweet Surfboards
was quite profitable."
Sweet's advertising in period surfing publications was methodical
and constant. Beginning with the very first issue of Surfer Magazine
in 1960, the only deviation from core promotion were scattered ads
distancing himself from Robertson/Sweet popouts that many in the
surfing world erroneously believed he was associated with.
The enduring theme of the ad campaigns was the Sweet Surfboards
Surf Team with a roster impossible to ignore: Jackie Baxter, Les
Williams, "Baby" Dave Rochlen, Harry Linden, Denny Waller,
Jamie Budge, Tom Morey, J. Riddle, Ray Kunze and Steve Litscher,
among countless others; but certainly the "white knight"
of the campaign was Buzz Sutphin. Sweet ran an ad in Surfer (Vol.6,
No.6) celebrating Sutphin as the "giant killer." Sutphin
won the 1965 Malibu event in what Bill Cleary called "The War
at Malibu," a feature article for Surfer Magazine that issue.
Leroy Grannis, then editor of International Surfing Magazine, entitled
his account "Malibu, The Greatest Contest Ever?" circulating
at the same time. Seventeen-year-old Sutphin captured first place
honors on his trusty Dave Sweet surfboard that he had secured only
the day before. Sweet made very sure that the surfing world would
never forget the victory during the almost armed conflict. The final
heat of six found the contestants in a dogfight, running one another
over in the water, all in their attempts to gain supremacy. Sutphin's
strategy steered him clear of the conflict. Those in demise read
like the who's who of the longboard epoch: Fain, Dora, Weber, Linden
and Newman, among the casualties. In what may have been among the
most memorable and certainly most exciting of small-wave conferences
of the times, "The Great Shoot Out at Malibu" elevated
Sutphin's underdog victory as the glowing ember that refused to
burn out. Those aligned with the "family" of Dave Sweet
Surfboards savored the conquest for a very long time to come.
The Dave Sweet Surf Team successfully set a strong company image.
Equally impressive was Sweet's list of Hollywood movie star clientele
that regularly frequented his Santa Monica shop. The stars often
purchased surfboards for themselves or family members, and included
Doug McClure, James Arness, Dick Van Dyke, Peter Lawford, Bruce
Johnston of the Beach Boys, Robert Conrad, Nelson Riddle, James
Whitmore, Clark Gable and Kay Spreckles, Eddie Albert, Jack Lemmon,
even George Goble. The list seemingly had no end. Often the Hollywood
stars and starlets came by referral.
The work force at Dave Sweet Surfboards comprised a small but special
group of people. Among them was Sweet's then wife, Bonnie. Bonnie
covered the business end of things including bookkeeping, checks,
payroll, ordering, payables and receivables, even the customer walk-ins
when necessary. Dave concentrated on foaming, surfboard production
and promotional aspects. Joe Casillas Jr. placed stringers, set
rocker and often assisted Dave in foaming. Johnny Santana and Kent
Sherwood held various stations in manufacturing. Early on, for considerations
that included efficiency, the fire Marshall and operating costs,
Sweet Surfboards began to out source their fiberglassing as some
of other big shops were doing, to Jack Pollard.
Shortly after the birth of their son in 1964, Bonnie Sweet left
the retail end of the operation and moved her accounting duties
to the home front. Taking over, as manager of the surf shop was
Sweet Surf Team member, Denny Waller. Waller helped with the expansion
when Sweet moved his showroom to the corner building of the 14th
and Olympic location and created one of the most esthetically appealing
surf shops of all time. Waller was also one of the few privy to
the secrets of the foam room and often helped Sweet with design
concepts and board testing. As shop manager, Waller was in charge
of the increasing mail order business that Sweet was starting to
accrue. He would correspond, answer questions, process orders and
then pack and ship the new out-of-state bound surfboards. Sweet
also sent Waller to the East Coast for a summer of promoting in
1966 to fuel the burgeoning new market starting along the shores
of the Atlantic. Denny Waller managed Sweet's shop until 1968, when
he walked away from surfing in protest of leashes and short boards.
Waller did not surf again for 14 years. He began his comeback in
1982 in the traditional way, single fin longboard sans leash with
paraffin on the deck, and continues with the old style to this day.
It was 32 years before Denny Waller and his old friend, Dave Sweet,
reunited in 2000.
Dave Sweet Surfboards, with its distinctive arrowhead logo, held
an acknowledged position among the most well respected brands in
the surfboard business. From its early beginnings during the '50s
all the way into the early '70s, the company prospered and played
an active role in the sport.
The legacy left by Dave Sweet Surfboards was the polyurethane foam
surfboard, with origins rooted almost a half a century ago.
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