Bodyboarding as we know it now is largely down to one man, Tom Morey, also known as ‘Y’. The fact that such a widely enjoyed sport can be attributed to an individual is a testament to Morey’s innovative mind. You could argue that Tom is responsible for getting more people in the water surfing than anybody else on the planet. Not bad for a guy from Detroit.
Tom Morey Surfboards
After moving to Laguna Beach when he was 9 years old, Tom started riding a surf mat, and then he moved to Santa Monica where he first tried stand-up surfing. He graduated in Mathematics at the University of South California and worked briefly as an engineer at Douglas Aircraft before he founded Tom Morey Surfboards. His creations and innovations were ahead of his time. He created the first removable fin system, called W.A.V.E Set, way ahead of Futures Fins or FCS, and he also developed spray-on traction for surfboards, called Slipcheck, as an alternative to surf wax.
The World’s First Surf Contest
You can also credit Tom for organising the first ever surf contest with prize money, the Tom Morey Invitational. Held in 1965, with $1,500 up for grabs, the contest was a nose riding competition, with scoring based on how long surfers rode the nose of their surfboard for. Check out this old video shot at the event:
https://vimeo.com/51969737
However, Tom’s most revolutionary achievement was in 1971, when he cut out a rectangular mat from some polyethylene foam using an electric carving knife. He then proceeded to cover the foam template with newspaper, and behold, the world’s first bodyboard was born. He called it the ‘boogie board’, influenced by his passion for music, and Tom developed and produced thousands of bodyboards under the Morey Boogie name until 1977 when he sold the company.
The Morey Mach 7
Even though Tom Morey sold his bodyboard business back in 1977, the name lived on and bodyboards steadily cemented themselves as serious surf craft, but they lacked the extra development and emphasis on performance that surfboard design was experiencing at the time. What happened in 1982 blew open the doors for professional bodyboarding, and even though Tom was not directly involved, it was he who planted the seed. The new Morey Mach 7 released in 1982 brought with it the ‘ion speed’ slick bottom and the crescent tail, a huge step forward in terms of performance design for bodyboards. The line of Mach 7’s have changed slightly over the years, but this model is still available, which just goes to show how much of an impact it had on the world of bodyboarding. Now a whole range of bodyboards are produced under the Morey Name, including the iconic Mach 7, the Morey Woody, Morey Cruiser, Morey Big Kahuna and more.
Find out more about Tom Morey and his contribution to the world of surfing in this video by Matt Wybenga.