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Tom Money aka "Y" has passed away. R.I.P.

I never really rode one but from what I've read an innovative guy.

Some interesting stuff here: https://www.ocregister.com/2021/10/15/t ... at-age-86/

Anyone know about Morey's flippers? He talks about them in this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWZ2aPhHN70

Of all the famous "surfers" I've known, Tom might be my favorite.
Tom Morey was one of the nicest smartest coolest surfiest people ever.
He will be remembered as the creator of the Boogie board but he was so much more. The man was a certified genius and I will miss him.
FWIW "Boogies" typically outsell surfboards 6-1.
I always tell folks Tom Morey put a smile on more faces than Hugh Hefner.
Deepest Condolences to Marchia and the kids.
RIP Spaceman. I'll see you in the aether.

Uncle G,

I just watched a video with him and his wife, they both seemed pretty cool people.

Do you know anything his flippers?

Thanks

Bob

Hey Bob,
Like so many of Tom's ideas, I don't think the fins went any farther than his experiments.

I too was sad to read the news. I didn't know Morey at all other than a passing email communication a couple of decades ago but I've known of him my entire surfing life. I'm an "old surfer" at this stage, and lately I try to keep my peanut gallery comments on most anything wave-riding to myself or select friends. The passing of Tom Morey is one of those things that shouldn't go unobserved.

While Morey came to surfing in the Laguna area, he was absolutely one of the top Malibu surfers of the late 50's-early 60's. Dora, Cooper, Carson, Munoz, Doyle, Aaberg etc, and Morey was one of them. Cover of an early Surfer Magazine...on standup board. Opened a surf shop in Ventura in the early-mid 60's. First pro contest which gets the press but it was a noseriding contest meant to spur innovation in design etc, still talked and written about over half a century later. Shop owner but also designer and inventor, brought first non-wax traction product to market (developed by Bill Delaney and Blinky from what I've read). Morey-Pope surfboards brought out the original tri-sect sectional surfboard. Bob Mactavish made boards there while living with Greenough in that famous winter at the start of the shortboard revolution. Cooper worked there, the (John) Peck Penetrator was built there.

Later in the Transition Era Morey-Pope would advertise the displacement volume of their models - 50 years ago. Something today's Cutting Edge should be mindful of when they jabber displacement stats for their new boards in the same manner they do the physical dimensions.

When he bugged out for the Big Island Karl Pope went on with Bob Johnson (I think I have that name correct) to create the W.A.V.E. Hollow surfboards, which had a few years. Ultra high tech. The original shop has long been known as the Ventura Surf Shop, still going strong in a different location.

All that took place before he invented the Boogie...

If you ride a wave, you're surfing. Doesn't matter what you ride. Morey didn't seem to have any blinders; in fact he seemed to seek limits to push. So when materials presented themselves that would allow people to create a surfcraft that can hardly break, doesn't catastrophically ding like conventional surfboards can, is light and safe and soft and flexes and doesn't really need wax, allows people to ride breaks that weren't really ridden to to safety considerations...that was absolutely mindblowing. Still is to this day - but its been around long enough for many to think it was always that way.

I used to rail a bit about the lack of "progress" in bodyboard design, how they look so similar to the original product. It can seem like there has been more progress in the materials. Sometime back I realized that I may suffer a bit from having been young and coming into surfing just before and during the shortboard thing. Pretty exciting time, never repeated as far as so much change in such a concentrated time. Once I realized that it crossed my mind that maybe the Boogie was say 75% "done" at inception. Mindblowing again.

I'm back on a boogie again, a Science bodyboard. I'm over wood, which was fun to play with, and don't want to mess with foam and fiberglass. It's goofy in these times, unappreciated, fun, pretty, and gets me in the water in any wave. Freedom. Magic. Fun, above all else, fun. For that I thank Tom Morey.

A couple years ago I wanted to buy a new "Boogie" and I asked Tom what should I get?
His reply? Mike Stewart's Science.

I was graced with meeting Tom Morey outside the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian. We had a good chat with the help of his wife. Morey was also engaged with innovating removable skegs (board fins).

Morey was also engaged with innovating removable skegs (board fins).

Forgot all about that, good call Rod. W.A.V.E. Set fins. Via the Mactavish/Greenough connection I suppose Greenough fins were commercially available through them. Stage IV - that was a good fin on a 7'9" Morey Pope I had back in the day.

Since we're dredging up the past and present, here's a fun read about Morey I remember from long ago, now conveniently available online:

https://vault.si.com/vault/1982/05/10/t ... aks-to-you

Another fun one...who knew at the time the 1970's were going to be such a hoot?

https://eos.surf/video/entry/tom-morey-boogie-72/

Thanks Nels. I liked his boogieboard style .

I also thought this quote was pretty good:

“Hey! A lot of my multimillionaire friends . . . they’re gone,” Mr. Morey said in 2007. “Nobody’s trying to kidnap my kids, because they don’t have any money! I’m not running from the IRS. I don’t have any kind of income that’s of importance. Life is about riding in the curl.”

from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/ob ... story.html

I'll post that Famous Surfer Article One page at a time

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Page 6

The stuff in the article is not mere conjecture.
Here is one of Tom's Air Injection boards.
You can see the bottom of the air vents in the shadow of the "louver".
He told me he rode it on Maui. Said it was too fast.........

Thanks for posting that stuff, fantastic, especially to see those boards.

Maybe we need to update the old Endless Summer/Phil Edwards lines about "being here yesterday" or "an hour ago"...

You should have been here half a century ago!

Seems like he was a great guy, R.I.P Tom !