Wetsuit inventor and pioneering waterman Jack O’Neill hosted a rare press conference at his home Friday on Pleasure Point in Santa Cruz, Calif.
Jack, who is almost 90 years old, is coming out with a 256-page book, “It’s Always Summer on the Inside” written by surf author and Jack’s close friend, Drew Kampion. The book talks about the brand, Jack’s invention of the wetsuit, and Jack’s adventurous life.
Besides Jack, the book features other surfing icons including Jack’s son Pat O’Neill, Robby Naish, Shaun Tomson, Tom Curren, Jordy Smith, John John Florence, Martin Potter, Ken Skindog Collins, Dane Kealoha, Aaron Wright, Al Mackinnon, Pat Mulhern , Randy French, Jim Philips, Frank “Tapu” Freitas, Jack, Lalanne, and Fred van Dyke, to name a few.
It will retail for about $40 and will be released this spring at select retail accounts and online.
Listening to Jack, he is as enthusiastic about the ocean as he must have been when opened his first surf shop in 1952. He looks like a pirate Santa Claus with a long grey beard, piercing blue eyes, and warm smile that contrast an intimidating patch on his left eye (an accident while testing his son’s invention of the surf leash.)
At the conference, Jack shared stories about how he created the first wetsuit after getting fired from a job, and shared adventures with his hot air balloon.
Born in Colorado and raised in Portland then California, Jack worked as a lumberjack, served in the Army Air Corps and then moved to San Francisco in 1949 before opening the first surf shop.
He was working as a detail man for architectural aluminum and skylights in downtown San Francisco, and had gone bodysurfing at lunchtime.
“I was showing the clients how to finish up a job, and I leaned over the drawings – those original and very expensive drawings (at the time there were no computers) – and water poured out of my nose… all over the drawings. So I lost my job, and that’s when I decided to buy a load of balsa wood,” he said.
After Jack opened the first surf shop in San Francisco in 1952, and started making surfboards, he started experimenting with wetsuits. “I’d get ice cream headaches in the surf and wanted to stay warm,” he said.
A World War II army wetsuit ripped in the surf or filled with water, making it dangerous to wear swimming in rough surf. Jack found some unicellular foam at an army surplus store and bonded them like a diaper to wear under a bun-hugger bathing suit. “I put that foam in under the suit and that felt good,” he said.
On page 2: Jack’s ocean advocacy
Jack never thought his invention would be as big as it is today.
“I was thinking I would have a surf shop at the beach and have a few friends and I never dreamed anything like this would happen. I went down to Santa Cruz eventually because there were bigger waves and opened up a new shop here and had surfboard rentals and sold surfboards and it worked out pretty well. I remember one day I took in $80 and I thought, ‘Oh boy I got it made now.’ Some said I was gonnna’ go out of business and it just kept going.”
One of the most interesting things I learned about Jack is how strong of an advocate he is for the ocean. He has been very involved in protecting great white sharks.
“The white shark was here before we were and they have as much right as we have,” he said.
“We are having a lot of trouble with seals and the white shark helped control the seals. You go to Monterey and you can’t launch a boat there because the seals have taken over.”
He also been very involved exposing kids to marine life through O’Neill’s Sea Odyssey program.
“We take kids out on a 65-foot catamaran and teach them that the ocean is alive and we need to take care of it. We take a net and they capture sea anemones and plankton and look at them under powerful microscopes. We give them hands on experience. Some of them have never been on a boat or on the ocean. It really gets across to them that the ocean is alive and that most of the world comes from the ocean so we need it,” he said.
More than 55,000 kids have come through the O’Neill Sea Odyssey program as of today.
For Jack, the ocean has been everything for him.
“I think its great to have the ability to appreciate the ocean. I get all screwed up (with problems) and then I jump in the ocean and everything becomes all right. The ocean has helped me so much.”
