San Clemente surf innovator boogies to a different beat
Tom Morey – jazz musician, surfing pioneer and inventor of the Boogie board – is
still producing fun stuff at 72
SUN POST NEWS
Tom Morey at his shop in Oceanside, CA.
PAUL BERSEBACH, SUN POST NEWS
At 72, the man who made surfing easy and accessible to the masses is finding new ways for people to have fun riding a wave.
Tom Morey of San Clemente is the inventor of the Boogie board. He keeps busy these days producing a line of hybrid wave-riding vehicles that he calls "Revolastic," combining distinctive new shapes and materials with elements of traditional surfboards, bodyboards, skimboards and paddleboards.
He starts with a new kind of surfboard foam, covering it with a new kind of shell. "Revolastic is 'revolutionary' and 'elastic,'" he says. "The surfboard of the future is going to be properly elastic. It's not going to be rigid or too soft. Because getting it right is a tough problem, it's been avoided. We've been pioneering that for about eight years. We put a tough skin on the outside."
Morey promotes his Revolastic surfboard as a high-performance board that is forgiving if it smacks you. Traditional soft surfboards tend to be slow and mushy, he says, while hard boards can whack you hard. His, he says, is forgiving but doesn't compromise the responsiveness of a conventional surfboard.
"It rides betterthan a conventional surfboard," Morey says. "It's got a porpoise feel. It's slicker on the water, and it has a little bit of give to it."
Morey produces a selection of board styles at a factory in Oceanside, marketing them at www.tommorey.com. His latest product is a standup paddleboard he calls the Maui SUPS (stand-up paddle surfer).
The Sun Post News asked him about his contributions to the sport. We also asked if some surfers still give him a hard time because of the Boogie board revolution that he launched in 1974, crowding the water with swarms of bodyboards.
Q:When you rode your Boogie board invention for the first time, could you begin to see how wildly popular it would become?
A:I thought, you know, this could be really big. It's not going to leak water, and it's safer, and anybody can use it. I got some waves and I got some turns, and it held in as I went across the wave. It has to have been one of the great days of my life.
Q:Any idea how many Boogie boards have been sold and how many are being ridden now?
A:It's a millions figure. It's 20 million or 10 million or 50 million. I don't know.
Q:You brought surfing to the masses. There's no learning curve, like with a surfboard. You made surfing accessible.
A:Yeah, it's the ball-point pen. No more quill dipping into the ink. It's like the ukulele is to music.
Q:Do board surfers ever give you a hard time? They mock Boogie boarders as 'spongers.'
A:There (got to be) so many guys (on Boogie boards) at Banzai Pipeline, and it was such a drag for the surfers, that somebody came up with a black T-shirt that says '(#@*&) Tom Morey!' I'd like to get one!
Q:What do you tell people who give you a bad time?
A: I'm basically a longboarder. But I do ride a Boogie board if the surf is the right kind of surf and it's warm. Whether you're standing up, standing on your head or standing on your feet, do you really need to stand up? It's not the only way to ride a board to ride waves.
Q:Did it make you wealthy?
A:I sold out of my royalties. I didn't like the company that had bought it from me. They did a nice job. But I didn't jell with these guys. I got royalties and they were good. They'd be as low as $2,000 a month and as high as $25,000 a month. But I was in a partnership I wanted to break off. I figured if I could do it once, I could do something else. So I sold. I got a good chunk of money. I spent some of it wisely and I spent some of it unwisely. I've been up and down and over and out. I haven't had royalties ... for decades. But I have acted as a consultant. As to 'wealthy,' I'm 72. I can surf. I'm healthy. I'm creative. Hey! A lot of my multi-millionaire friends ... they're gone. Nobody's trying to kidnap my kids, because they don't have no 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.
Q:Are you still inventing?
A:Well, that's what I do. This world is an old-fashioned place to me. Anything I would want to look at, I can see how to change it. In the surfing field, we're making a really great product called the One … which is the bodyboard in the back and the skimboard in the front.
Q:How do you ride it?
A: You lay prone and you Boogie board it. You can go stand-up skim it. You can stand-up surf it. You can take it to the lake and go behind the speedboat. So it's one board. If you want to get in the water, just get one!
Q: What's the Tom Morey Trio?
A: The Tom Morey Trio and the Tom Morey Quartet. Tom Morey is a jazz drummer. I have been since I was 12. I really love it. So I've gone to the local jam sessions and picked up the best guys I can and got us a gig. We've been at Salt Creek Grille for 40 months on Sundays from 11 till 3. Really great players. Straight-ahead jazz. We've been 15 weeks at Cannons.
Q:Who is your family?
A:My wife is Marchia. Together we had four boys, Sol, Moon, Sky and Matteson. Then I had two daughters by a previous marriage – Michelle, who has since passed away of cancer, and Melinda, who is at StudioOMO.com who is just a heck of a bodysurfer and commercial artist ... has a gallery on Kauai. My kids are grown. I have grandchildren.
TOM MOREY
Born Aug. 15,1935
Rode his first wave at 16 on a borrowed surfboard
Formed the Four-Eyed Five in 1952 (five guys wearing glasses)
Formed the Tom Morey Jazz Quartet in 1954
Invented the concave nose pocket in 1955
Invented the wing tip (a turned down nose for a surfboard) in 1955
Co-invented the Fan Topper Hat, 1956, making the cover of Parade Magazine in 1957
Appeared on the cover of Surfer Magazine, 1964
Produced the Tom Morey Invitational Nose Riding Championships, billed as the first pro surf contest, 1965
On July 7 1971, in Hawaii, invented a revolutionary style of board that became the Boogie
Established Morey Boogie in 1974, manufacturing in Carlsbad
Sold certain rights to Morey Boogie in 1976, staying on as a consultant
Gave up Morey Boogie consulting in1999 and launched Y Surfboards
Launched tommorey.com in 2001