[msb-alumni] Surfing icon Jack O'Neill, wetsuit pioneer, dies at 94
- From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 4 Jun 2017 14:54:50 -0400
BlankSurfing icon Jack O'Neill, wetsuit pioneer, dies at 94 Doug Stanglin , USA
TODAY
Jack O'Neill, the'Northern California surfing world icon who pioneered the
wetsuit and opened one of the world's first surf shops, has died at his home in
Santa Cruz. He was 94.
The bigger-than-life figure who sported an eye patch after a surfing accident
in
1971 died of natural causes Friday while surrounded by family in his longtime
oceanfront home, his family said in a statement.
After opening his first Surf Shop in San Francisco's Ocean Beach in 1952,
O'Neill, a Navy Air Corps pilot in the 1940s, began experimenting with various
materials for body protection that would allow surfers to enjoy their sport
longer in the frigid'northern California ocean. He settled on'neoprene, which
was used by the U.S. Navy, to produce his first foam rubber vests.
An inveterate tinkerer O'Neill, who opened a second Surf Shop in Santa Cruz in
1959, introduced a nylon jersey lining in the 1960s and produced his first full
wetsuit by 1970. Skeptical surfers, who initially rejected the concept as less
than manly,
quickly flocked to the new product, which eventually carried the slogan: "It's
always summer on the inside."
The promotions-savvy O'Neill would visit trade shows with his kids and dunk
them
in ice baths while wearing his wetsuit prototypes, according to Surfer magazine
. O'Neill said at the time his friends didn't have much faith in his invention.
"All my friends said, O'Neill, you will sell to five friends on the beach and
then you will be out of business," he would remark, according to his family.
By the 1980s, O'Neill had become the world's largest recreation wetsuit
designer
and manufacturer and the O'Neill
surf brand had reached Australia, Europe, Japan and other corners of the globe.
He was an intensely private man who rarely gave interviews, preferring to surf,
walk the beach or develop new products in his workshop.
"O'Neill was also one of the least-known, and least-talked-about titans of the
surf world," Surfer magazine said in an obituary . "I'm not much into business,
I'm into the ocean," he told The San Francisco Chronicle in 2012. "I've always
believed in its healing powers. It has proved therapeutic for people with
physical and mental disabilities, for veterans returning from war, for
everyone.
I think in the next 30 years, we'll see the potential of that power become
fully
realized."
He considered O'Neill Sea Odyssey, a marine and environmental education program
for children, his proudest achievement. Founded in 1996, it has taken nearly
100,000 school-aged children in his personal Team O'Neill catamaran to the
Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary to learn about the ocean. "The ocean is
alive and we've got to take care of it," O'Neill said about the program. "There
is no doubt in my mind that the O'Neil Sea Odyssey is the best thing I've ever
done."
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