As the decades rolled into the 70’s and beyond, the Hobie brand, which had been firmly seated as hardcore via Hobie Surfboards, Hobie Skateboards, and the Hobie Cat – the largest catamaran sailing class in the world – applied that credibility to a group of 'surf shops'.
Introducing the surf and sport retail concept, plus men’s and women’s surf-wear and swimwear, sunglasses, the Hobie Hawk model glider, and one-man fishing Float Cats. To this day, the surfboard brand operates out of the same Capo Beach location it has occupied since the 1960s.
Today Hobie and his wife, Susan, winter on a manicured golf course in Palm Desert, California, where he has, of course, invented a device to improve his golf game in his garage workshop.
"I opened my store on Coast Highway in Dana Point in February 1954. Stated Hobie. Actually it opened in January, but I started keeping books in February. Velzy had his shop in Manhattan Beach for a couple of years before that, but mine was the first building custom built to hold a surfboard business.
I shaped every balsa board we made. A mistake was to not pursue Yater when he left in 1957 to work for Velzy. He’d been working for me, glassing and making boards outside me too, but he was more into abalone diving and lobster fishing."
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