Sweet, Dave (1928 – 2015)

Innovative and irascible surfboard manufacturer from Santa Monica, California; the originator of the polyurethane foam surfboard blank and the first, in 1956, to bring a polyurethane board to market. Sweet was born (1928) in Seattle, Washington, moved with his family to Southern California at age 11, and began surfing at 16, at Topanga Beach. Two years later he started building balsa surfboards on the beach at Malibu, and helped develop what was soon known as the Malibu chip—the first board d...