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ONeill

At some point in time, we´ve all heard - or rather, ignored -- a version of the ´´When I was a kid´´ lecture from our elders, squirming through some rambling nonsense about walking to school without shoes or life without video games. Well, if you were one of Jack O´Neill´s children, founder of O´Neill Inc. and surf suit pioneer, you might very well listen as he told ice-cold horror stories that drove him to develop our trusty neoprene armor. Hell, you may end up helping with a few inventions of your own.

In the 1950´s, Jack opened his first surf shop in a garage across the Great Highway in San Francisco, a sand dune away from his favorite bodysurfing break. There he sold his first wetsuits, a few vests he made from gluing together pieces of closed cell foam. From that very garage Jack expanded the average surfer´s playground from Steamer Lane to J-Bay, and from Antarctica to those fun reef breaks off the coast of Iceland. Thanks to Jack O´Neill, ´´It´s always summer on the inside.´´

´´Surfing in the 50s was great,´´ says Jack. ´´You knew everybody and we often took turns on the waves.´´ But surfing in the 1950s also meant short sessions due to the cold water temperatures. Surfers tried anything to stay warm. ´´I remember one guy that tried to keep warm with a navy jumper and he put Thompson´s Water Seal on it,´´ recalls Jack.