hollow surfboard

Type of wooden surfboard-paddleboard popular in the 1930s and '40s. The invention and development of the hollow surfboard is traditionally credited to Tom Blake, but others have said that Honolulu woodworker Abel Gomes, working with and for Blake, actually produced the first hollows.

Judged on its wave-handing characteristics, the hollow board was at best a lateral step in the surfboard's design evolution. But because it was lighter than the solid-wood plank boards used in the early decades ...