Author Topic: Tom Blake wind powered paddleboard.  (Read 5245 times)

surf4food

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Tom Blake wind powered paddleboard.
« on: October 15, 2014, 03:19:26 PM »
Probably the first. 

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Re: Tom Blake wind powered paddleboard.
« Reply #1 on: October 15, 2014, 03:57:45 PM »
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_1935
http://library.thinkquest.org/2804/windlink.html
http://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.
Mahalos...{:~)

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Re: Tom Blake wind powered paddleboard.
« Reply #2 on: October 15, 2014, 07:18:20 PM »
I went to Amazon looking to buy the book by Gary Lynch.  $645 is a little more than I wanted to pay!  Must be a limited edition of some sort.  FYI, the May 1935 National Geographic has an article about Blake, and also Amelia Earhart leaving Hawaii (which I thought was interesting).  They are cheap since nobody throws away National Geographics.

 


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