Founding Father of the Surfing Industry

Founding Father of the Surfing Industry

Sometimes, the right people are in the right place at the right time.

The February 3, 2014 print issue of Fortune magazine contains an interview (p. 23) by Dinah Eng of Hobie Alter, who pioneered the American surfing industry.

Mr. Alter spent much of his childhood bodysurfing at Laguna Beach, CA. In the 1940s, proper surfing existed in Hawaii, but was little-known in California.

Hobie Alter began building surfboards from balsa wood and fiberglass when he was 14 years old in his parents' garage.

Later, his father encouraged him to go into the surfboard business and to get a shop. From his parents' garage, Hobie had sold many surfboards. From a shop along the highway, he would be able to sell even more.

The strategy worked. Hobie's biggest challenge was keeping up with demand.

In 1957, Hobie began experimenting with using foam instead of balsa wood in his surfboards. After two years of experimentation, he was able to replace the balsa wood in his surfboards with foam.

Competitors were moving in, but in 1959 the movie Gidget boosted demand.

When skateboarding became hot in the 1960s, Hobie licensed his name to a skateboard company, while continuing to build his surfboard business.

Mr. Alter also started a separate catamaran company that built sailboats out of surfboard foam.

The final paragraph sums up Hobie Alter's story well:

I started selling surfboards 64 years ago, and I'm proud that we've been a leading surfboard manufacturer and catamaran manufacturer. We've survived and are still out there. Hobie has become a national name, and I got to build things I like.