O’Neill
In 1952 Jack O’Neill opened the first surf shop in a garage on the Great Highway in San Francisco, CA. a sand dune away from his favorite bodysurfing break.While Dale Velzy, Hobie Alter and others had shops down south, they only sold boards. There O’Neill sold his first wetsuits, a few vests he made from gluing together pieces of closed cell foam. From the garage he expanded the average surfer’s playground to include locations from Steamer Lane to J-Bay, and from Antarctica to reef breaks off the coast of Iceland.