Tom Blake, Important Surfing Pioneer and Creator of the Surfboard Fin.After George Freeth in 1907 and Duke Kahanamoku through the 1920s, the population of surfers in California grew slowly. Surfboards were mostly made of heavy and unwieldy redwoods and hardwoods with designs adapted from Hawaiian shapes to fit California conditions. By 1928, a Wisconsin-born man named Tom Blake organized the Pacific Coast Surfriding Championships at Corona del Mar. Top surfers from all over California competed for the Tom Blake Trophy from 1928 to 1941, when World War II put an end to the event. Blake was also the first photographer to shoot surfing from the water. Tom Blake, Important Surfing Pioneer and Creator of the Surfboard Fin. Courtesy of Bishop Museum ArchiveJohn H. 'Doc' Ball, circa 1935One of the first southern California men who became enamored with surfing in the '20s and '30s was John H. "Doc" Ball, a swimmer and dentist who grew up near Hermosa Beach, and struggled with the heavy, redwood surfboards until he developed the strength and agility to handle them. Doc Ball got hooked by surfing as seriously as any man ever has, finding it "a great stress reliever" to be away from the close confines and pain of the dentist's chair. Doc Ball was also fascinated by photography and he became the first Californian to go about seriously documenting the surfing lifestyle as it existed before, during and after World War II. He was the second surf photographer, after Tom Blake, to photograph surfing from the water with a waterproof camera housing. John H. 'Doc' Ball, circa 1935California Surfriders 1946 by 'Doc' BallDoc Ball's classic photo book, California Surfriders 1946 is a masterpiece of the time, showing sturdy men and women enjoying a nearly pristine California coast from La Jolla to Santa Barbara, and on up to Santa Cruz and Pacifica: beach parties with fresh lobster and abalone pulled from the ocean, hardly any traffic along the coast highway and a California coast that was still open and undeveloped. It's enough to make a resident of the 21st century long for the good old days. California Surfriders 1946 by 'Doc' BallSFL, 25:03 Photo by LeRoy GrannisDoc Ball became best friends with surfer LeRoy Grannis, and passed the mantle of surf photography to him in 1960. Grannis (known to his friends as "Granny") continued Doc's tradition of documenting the California (and then Hawai'i) surfing scenes with high quality photography. Grannis became the founding photographer of Surfing Magazine in the early '60s. Photo by LeRoy GrannisSFL 16:07 Woody Brown, circa 1950Although World War II curtailed much of the surfing activity in California and Hawai'i, it exposed tens of thousands of men to Hawai'i, to the Pacific Ocean, and to "the Sport of Kings." Woodbridge Parker "Woody" Brown was one of these men. The son of an upper-class New York family, Brown was more interested in freedom and flying than "big-shot money deals." He learned to fly alongside Charles Lindbergh in Long Island, New York, and soon became a world-record holding glider pilot. While living in San Diego, Woody took up surfing and helped to establish the Torry Pines Glider Port, which still stands today. Woody Brown, circa 1950SFL, 11:33In 1939, Woody became a national flying hero when he set world gliding records for both altitude and distance. But his triumph was followed by tragedy when his wife died in childbirth soon after he returned home to San Diego. Brown was devastated and fled to the South Pacific to try and get away from his grief. He toured the islands on a bicycle, a lost soul partially healed by the Aloha spirit he found everywhere. After wandering the islands, Brown settled on the beach at Waikiki where he immersed himself in the ocean lifestyle: surfing, swimming, and sailing. He applied his knowledge of aerodynamics to the hydrodynamics of surfboard design and he also invented and built the first modern catamaran. Brown married a local Hawaiian woman, embraced Hawaiian music and culture and was adopted by Hawaiians as one of their own. When Woody and Rachel "Ma" Brown were first married, they lived atop the Waikiki Tavern in the heart of Waikiki Beach, still a semi-paradise before the hotels and the tourists arrived. Woody Brown and Glider