NW WIND 20 TO 25 KT WITH GUSTS TO 30 KT. WIND WAVES6 FT. W SWELL 12 FT AT 12 SECONDS.
Pretty remarkably short board given the era...probably the 1930's. Tom Blake is one of the pioneers of modern surfing.
Thomas Edward Blake was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on March 8, 1902. In 1919, Tom Blake headed west. He adapted to life on the California beaches easily and was considered a "natural" waterman and became a world class swimmer, racing against legends like Duke Kahanamoku and Johnny Weismuller aka "Tarzan".
Working as a lifeguard at the Santa Monica Swimming Club in 1924, Blake found an old surfboard being stored and paddled out into the surf, getting his first successful ride...and apparently the surfing bug. Tom traveled to Hawai’i that same year to surf in the warm water, and would, over the next thirty years either live in or travel to, Hawai’i every year.
In the 20's and 30's surfboards typically weighed between 90 and 150 pounds, with some of the Hawaiian 16-foot long Olo boards weighing as much as 200 pounds. In an effort to eliminate weight Tom Blake designed and built his first hollow board in 1926. This board was a redwood plank with hundreds of holes drilled through the deck then layered with a thin sheet of veneer, top and bottom.
The next evolution of the hollow board involved carving chambers in the hull. And finally, Blake utilized a transversely braced hollow hull, using ribs for strength, much like an airplane wing is built. This resulted in a sturdy 40 to 70 pound board, depending on length. These hollow surf and paddle board soon could be found worldwide.
From the 30's to the early 1950s, Blake's hollow boards were produced by manufacturers like the L.A. Ladder Co. and the Catalina Equipment Company. His hollow paddle rescue board was later adopted by the Pacific Coast Lifesaving Corps and used by the Red Cross National Aquatic Schools for instruction. Blake's rescue paddle boards were used on many beaches where lifeguards were employed.
In 1928, Blake won the first Pacific Coast Surfriding Championships at Corona Del Mar, California, using his hollow surfboard. He is considered the first surfer to ride the waves at Malibu. In 1930, he built the first waterproof camera housing for surf photography. In 1932, he started the Catalina Paddleboard Race and took first place. In 1932, he also invented the sailboard. In 1935, Blake placed the first fin on a surfboard and wrote his first book, "Hawaiian Surfboard". Soon after he wrote "Royal Hawaiians", and in 1959, authored "Hawaiian Surf Riders". His final book appeared in 1969, "Voice of the Atom".
Tom Blake was recognized by the National Surf Life Saving Association of America for his contributions to aquatic safety and his personal accomplishments in ocean lifesaving. Their statement, "And most important, the thousands of lives saved because of his inventive contributions in the interest of fellow human beings" pleased Blake immensely.
Tom Blake was a complex, intensely creative yet simple-living man, and is considered to be one of the most important watermen of 20th century. He passed away at age 92, on May 5, 1994, in Ashland, Wisconsin.
~adapted and condensed front the California Surf Museum website...
~art by Rick Griffin
W WIND 15 TO 20 KT...BACKING TO SW.
...but still macking!
S WIND 15 TO 20 KT.
WIND GUSTS OF 25 TO 30 KT DURING THEAFTERNOON.
WIND WAVES 4 FT.
NW SWELL 20 FT AT 14 SECONDS...EASINGTO 15 FT.
After a "weak"end of no surf...and then a quick trip down yesterday to continued windblown slop...it's nice to see things cleaning up a bit. Not that I can take advantage of 20 foot sets at 14 seconds...I have my standards...errr, limits...errr, fears.
I had lunch with friends yesterday and inevitably talk ran back to the unbelievable run of surf in late January and early February. We reminisced about perfect overhead lefts peeling into calm channels, sketchy rock entrys and exits, and other Oregon surfing exploits...then groused about how crappy it was.
S WIND 15 KT.
WIND WAVES 4 FT.
W SWELL 12 FT AT 11 SECONDS.
A mountain on the North Coast of Oregon, was called "Neahkahnie" by the local Indians. The rough translation of Neah is thought to be "Home", while "Kahnie" was the name of their God...so "Home of Kahnie".
One of the primary Hawaiian gods is also named "Kane". Kane was the creator, the god of life and everything associated with life...including water, sunlight, and the winds. Kane was also the king and father of all Gods.
The Oregon North Coast Indians were renowned for their canoe building and ocean skills. As were, the Hawaiians...
Coincidence?
Nineteen-year-old Bostonian Robert Haswell wrote the journal entries reproduced here in August 1788; they were published in the Oregon Historical Quarterly 140 years later. Haswell was third officer of the Washington, an American sloop under the command of Captain Robert Gray that had traveled from Boston to the Northwest Coast in search of sea otter skins.
Haswell’s entry for August 10 begins with a description of two Indian canoes that had come along side the Washington to trade otter skins in the vicinity of presentday Lincoln City. Haswell notes the cautious behavior of the Indians, who were probably Tillamook. He also observes that two or three of them had been scarred by smallpox, a highly contagious disease that was probably introduced by fur traders about ten years earlier. This reference and the reference to iron knives suggest that the Tillamook had previously encountered white trading vessels.
On August 14, a party from the Washington entered what was probably Tillamook Bay looking to buy otter skins. The Tillamook Indians were friendly at first, offering the scurvy-ridden sailors an abundance of berries, crabs, and salmon, as well as otter skins. Things turned sour two days later, though. A young man by the name of Marcus Lopez, a native of West Africa’s Cape Verde Islands, discovered that a Tillamook man had taken his cutlass, a short curved sword often carried by sailors. Lopez chased after the man, but soon found himself surrounded by a group of wellarmed Tillamook warriors, who quickly killed the unfortunate young sailor.
The other crewmen of the Washington, seeing themselves heavily outnumbered, ran to their longboat and paddled as fast as they could for the sloop, narrowly avoiding being cut off by Tillamook war canoes. The fur traders named the place Murderers Harbor in commemoration of what happened to Lopez, who was probably the first person of African descent to set foot in what would later become the state of Oregon.
Heading up coast I checked another rarely surfed open beach break that was usually blown to smithereens and found these head high rights reforming and breaking on an inside sandbar. Sometimes good things come to those who look...only good for about an hour, but better than the whole lotta nothing I had resigned myself too.
...paddled out in the fog by my lonesome, hoping the outside wasn't as messy as the inside. Luckily it was nice outside. But I got vibed off my peak by a big ass sea lion. He didn't bark, but kept hanging out with me, popping the head up, and I pulled out of a wave he was in. Probably about a one ton sizer. The lion and the fog made me pretty skittish. I kept thinking, over and over, 'today is the day' for the worst of meetings--laid prone, wouldn't even dangle the feet. Then the fog lifted, waves shaped up a bit more, and a few others paddled out. Only in Oregon winter time are you thankful for other surfers paddling out to your peak. The vibe of the other folks was good, and everyone was stoked at each other's rides. All and all, good waves and a good wave count day for me.
~gills
