Pepperdine University Libraries Malibu, Calif John Mazza Historic Surfboard Collection, Pepperdine University Special Collections and University Archives
Copyright to the photograph is retained by Pepperdine University. Physical rights to the item are retained by John Mazza, the John G. Mazza Loving Trust Dtd 5/17/90, and the Malibu Surfing Museum. Images are intended for educational and research use, and may be used for non-commercial purposes with appropriate attribution. Organizations and individuals seeking to use images for publication must assume all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any claimants of copyright, patents, trademarks, and other service marks.
Description
Bob Simmons is one of surfing’s greatest post-World War II innovators and is hailed today as the sport’s first true design genius. Born in Pasadena, California, Simmons first took to the waves as a means to rehabilitate his arm following a serious injury sustained in a biking accident. He attended the California Institute of Technology and worked as a mathematician for Douglas Aircraft. He soon learned to apply these skills to surfboard design while working with Gard Chapin, an early surfboard shaper. Simmons’ innovations include light, balsa-only boards, the use of resin-saturated fiberglass, Styrofoam/balsa “sandwich boards,” double-finned boards, split-rail “slot” designs, and (as seen here) “spoon nose” boards. The spoon board features a wide, round, upturned nose, which prevents “pearling,” or digging into the water. Simmons constructed this board from scraps of balsa wood harvested from war surplus lifeboats. This board also features a shallow fin, which has been shaved down for wall-hanging by a previous owner. The fine (or “skeg”) was just gaining popularity in the mid-1940s having been invented by Tom Blake a decade earlier. Simmons, a bit of an eccentric who lived in his car, tragically drowned in a surf accident in 1954. 10 ft.
Surfboard collection exhibited at Payson Library, Pepperdine University. The collection is owned by John Mazza, the John G. Mazza Loving Trust Dtd 5/17/90, and the Malibu Surfing Museum. Mazza (John) Collection of Historic Surfboards 0172: https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8j67q1b/
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