Palisades-News-July-8-2015

July 8, 2015 Palisades News Page 21David Sweet, 86; Iconic Surfing FigureDavid Sweet, a long-time resident ofPacific Palisades who invented thesurfboard that helped inspire theboom in surfing in the late 1950s and early1960s, died of renal failure May 18 at theVA Medical Center in West L.A. He was 86.A Celebration of Life gathering andpaddle-out will be held from 8 to 11 a.m.on Wednesday, July 15 at the Paradise CoveBeach Café, 28128 PCH in Malibu. TheCove will provide free parking and lightrefreshments for attendees. Contact: DaveRochlen at (808) 852-1921.Until Sweet came along, surfboards werelong and bulky, crafted mostly from balsawood. He brought this era to a close byproducing and selling the first surfboardsmade with cores of polyurethane foam, anew synthetic material. They weighed onlyabout 25 pounds.“Dave introduced the world to the joyof surfing by providing lightweight surfboards,”said Palisadian Marty Sugarman, awriter and photographer who has chronicledthe sport since the 1950s. “His decal ona board achieved worldwide recognition.”According to the New York Times obituaryby Bruce Weber, Sweet began selling hisfoam-core boards on Malibu beaches by1956. “[His] boards, lighter and thus moremaneuverable than their balsa progenitors,became the choice of many competitivesurfers,” and he also made boards “for Hollywoodstars like Clark Gable, Dick VanDyke, Jack Lemmon, Eddie Albert andPeter Lawford.”Working in his shop on the corner of14th Street and Olympic in Santa Monica,Sweet built surfboards that inspired otherboardmakers (especially Hobie Alter) andhelped the sport gain worldwide popularitythroughout the 1960s.“Sweet’s business, including a mail-orderdepartment, prospered through the 1960s,”Weber wrote. “But other small boardmakersemerged—in the late 1960s, shorterboards became a trend—and Mr. Alterseized a large part of the market.”As Sweet himself admitted, “At my peak,I was probably selling 800-900 boards ayear. Hobie did that in a month.”Sweet closed his shop in 1974, but reemergedfrom 2000 to 2007, selling “signature”reissue models, one of which is nowavailable at DaveSweetSurfboards.com,operated by his son, Greg, a singer/songwriterwho lives in Los Angeles.Born in Seattle in 1928, Sweet movedto Los Angeles with his parents, Ralph andNell, and two brothers when he was inPASSINGSjunior high. They lived in Silverlake, butrented a cottage every summer in lowerTopanga Canyon, close to a popular breakpoint where Sweet learned to surf on aborrowed redwood board that weighedclose to 120 pounds.After graduating from John MarshallHigh School, he attended USC (graduatingwith a degree in business administration)and then served briefly in the Navy beforestarting a business building balsa-coreboards in the late 1940s.Sweet moved to the Palisades in 1979with his second wife, Janey, and his son,Greg. In addition to his son, he is survivedby his brothers, Dick and Roger.Despite his pioneering role in the sport,Sweet was largely overlooked for decades; hewas finally inducted into the InternationalSurfboard Builders Hall of Fame in 2007.“He wasn’t a showman; he didn’t want tobe a surfing personality,” Matthew Warshaw,author of The History of Surfing (2011), toldthe N.Y. Times. “He was an R&D man. Hejust wanted to make a better board.”Sweet’s obscurity was reflected in an e-mail to the Palisades News from surfboardcollector Bart Tucker, who recalled thetime he and his wife visited Washington,D.C., in 1997: “While viewing the AmericanHistory Museum at the Smithsonian,we noticed a 1960s exhibit. It had Fonzie’sleather jacket, lava lamps, and smack inthe middle was an early ‘60s Dave SweetDavid SweetPhoto: Leroy Grannislongboard. It was the only one there.“Being a collector I took some photosand moved on. Six months later, at a surfingevent in Newport, I heard that Dave Sweetwas there. I found him, said hello and complimentedhim on his display at the Smithsonian.He gave me a very strange, ‘Whatdid you say?’ look. He didn’t know! One ofthe greatest museums in the world andSweet has the only surfboard on display, andgets informed by a complete stranger. Heasked a bunch of questions and was ecstatic,but still seemed in disbelief, so I told himI would send him a few pictures as proof.”—BILL BRUNSNEXT ISSUE: WEDNESDAY, JULY 22Send us your comments and suggestions tospascoe@palisadesnews.comGet Your Advertising in Place Now!Contact Jeff, (310) 573-0150 or jeffridgway@palisadesnews.comor Grace at gracehiney@palisadesnews.comTHANK-YOU TO OUR ADVERTISERS!Please patronize them, and tell themyou saw their ad in the News!Acupuncture • Massage • Organic FacialsWe would like to introduceMaria Iorillo (Full-Time Esthetician)and offer thisCelebration Introductory Special:a 60-minute Eminence Organic Facialfor $60 (reg. $85).16704 Bollinger Drive, Pacific Palisades310-454-5855 • OasisPalisades.com