Definitely a step on the evolutionary ladder to windsurfing...I read up on Tom Blake over 10 years ago and found a few other fascinating things...
Here's a better pic...
Also, going through a stack of old WindSurf mags from a couple decades ago that i squirreled away, I ran across this article titled "The First Board Sailor in Maui" by Doug Hunt...
Here is an excerpt from the definitive Tom Blake
biography: "TOM BLAKE: The Uncommon Journey of a Pioneer Waterman."
http://www.legendarysurfers.com/surf/legends/ls07_blake.shtml#skeg_1935 From the Gary Lynch book:
> In 1931, Tom Blake went on to invent the sailboard. "Actually," Gary
> corrected me, "1931 was the start of the invention of the sailboard. That
> was gradual. Tom used an umbrella at first, then a crude sail and so on
> until a first version of the first complete 'sailing surfboard', as he
> called it, was up and running and even in competition by 1935. 1940
was the
> first production models by L.A. Ladder."
> The year 1931 also saw Blake's first production surfboard,
manufactured by Thomas
> Rogers Company, Venice, California. The 1931 hollow board now
featured transverse
> bracing.
>
> Around 1934-35, the Robert Mitchell Company Tom Blake boards featured
the "Tom
> Blake Approved" logo. Later on, the 1940 version of the "Hawaiian
Hollow Surfboard,"
> U.S. Patent Number 1872230, was manufactured by the Los Angeles
Ladder Company,
> This model also was "Tom Blake Approved."
>
> Hollow boards, camera housings and sailboards were soon overshadowed
by Tom's
> application of fin to surfboard. One of his most enduring
contributions, the surfboard
> skeg -- or "fin," - eventually caused a quantum shift in surfboard
riding and development.
From the Tom Blake autobiography by Gary Lynch:
http://www.legendarysurfers.com/surf/legends/ls07_blake.shtml#skeg_1935http://library.thinkquest.org/2804/windlink.htmlhttp://sport.iafrica.com/extreme/activities/192264.htm > The modern sport of windsurfing can be traced back to the 1930s when
a surfer named Tom Blake, whose arms became particularly tired one
afternoon from paddling his board out to catch the waves, thought he
> should be able to use the wind for propulsion.
>
> After some experimentation, he added a mast and sail to his
surfboard. Later, he added a foot-controlled rudder and called his
invention "a sailing surfboard". Blake's invention, however, was not
widely received and it was another 30 years before S. Newman Darby took
the idea a step further.
>
> Darby invented a rectangular sailboard to which he solidly attached a
mast and sail. Steering was accomplished by moving a horizontal lever
attached to both sides of the sail. Darby's invention was published in
"Popular Science" magazine in 1965.
>
> Today's boardsailing or windsurfing is the product of a new sailing
idea developed by three Californian surfing enthusiasts named Hoyle
Schweitzer, Jim Drake and Allen Parducci in 1966 and 1967. Their
invention, initially called a 'Baja Board', consisted of a free-sail
system that allowed the mast,
> boom and sail assembly to move in all directions around a universal
joint.
>
> In 1969, Hoyle Schweitzer started a business which he called Windsurfer.