11-07-2018, 09:22 AM
SBH,
This might be before your grandfather started work at Lockheed, but back in the 1920's the company might have helped develop a completely new design concept for surf boards. It's interesting that science was seen as a boon by all surfers, even Native Hawaiian surfers preferred the light boards to the traditional unwieldy, heavy, solid wood long boards:
To fully understand the impact aerospace had on surfing, you have to go back to 1928, to the Pacific Coast Surf Board Championship in Corona del Mar. This event is legendary among surf historians because it was there that renowned waterman Tom Blake (and Waikiki regular) won the paddling race by drilling hundreds of holes into his redwood board and covering them up with a thin veneer.
Also in that competition was Gerard Vultee, whose day job was designing aircraft at Lockheed. The prior year, Vultee had worked on the Lockheed Vega, the plane Amelia Earhart would later use to fly first across the Atlantic and then across the United States. The Vega’s wing was hollow, with plywood covering wooden struts. We don’t know exactly what the watermen discussed on the sand of Corona del Mar that day, but there was Blake, who was trying to figure out how to make a lighter surfboard, and there was Vultee, who had just designed a lighter aircraft wing.
https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/how-s...ze-surfing
"The great mystery is that such a state may be one of utter happiness, as it provides opinions concerning things, but no knowledge of the things themselves.” - Marguerite Young
This might be before your grandfather started work at Lockheed, but back in the 1920's the company might have helped develop a completely new design concept for surf boards. It's interesting that science was seen as a boon by all surfers, even Native Hawaiian surfers preferred the light boards to the traditional unwieldy, heavy, solid wood long boards:
To fully understand the impact aerospace had on surfing, you have to go back to 1928, to the Pacific Coast Surf Board Championship in Corona del Mar. This event is legendary among surf historians because it was there that renowned waterman Tom Blake (and Waikiki regular) won the paddling race by drilling hundreds of holes into his redwood board and covering them up with a thin veneer.
Also in that competition was Gerard Vultee, whose day job was designing aircraft at Lockheed. The prior year, Vultee had worked on the Lockheed Vega, the plane Amelia Earhart would later use to fly first across the Atlantic and then across the United States. The Vega’s wing was hollow, with plywood covering wooden struts. We don’t know exactly what the watermen discussed on the sand of Corona del Mar that day, but there was Blake, who was trying to figure out how to make a lighter surfboard, and there was Vultee, who had just designed a lighter aircraft wing.
https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/how-s...ze-surfing
"The great mystery is that such a state may be one of utter happiness, as it provides opinions concerning things, but no knowledge of the things themselves.” - Marguerite Young
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves