Hawaiian Surfriders, 1935
Tom Blake was born in Wisconsin but soon migrated west toward the Pacific.  He was a champion swimmer and fell in love with the "surf lifestyle" long before it became popular with the masses who have flocked to the coastlines. Hawaii was a natural transition with its warm weather, clean water and tropical breezes.  There he became a beach boy and surfboard inovator.  The hollow surfboard, the lifeguard rescue can and the sailboard are all his inventions.  He was truly an egineering genuis.  He stayed active his entire life traveling between Hawaii and California.  He died at the age of 92 back in Wisconsin where it all had started.