Joe Quigg, Father of the Modern Surfboard, Has Passed Away | The Inertia

Last weekend, the surfing world lost one of its most influential figures when Joe Quigg passed away at 96 in Hawaii. In the 1940s, after serving in the Navy during World War II, Quigg began developing the first rockered surfboards, experimenting with design after enveloping himself in the tight-knit Malibu surf scene.

That’s around the same time Quigg built his first redwood-balsa board. According to the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center, “‘the ‘Darrylin board’ would come to be a favorite of Malibu’s best surfers as they got a turn on it and became the precursor to the Malibu Chip, which altered the trajectory of surfing going forward.”

This was a highly creative time for Quigg. He also worked with Bob Simmons to develop polyurethane foam-core boards, fiberglass fins, and even pintails to create more stability in bigger surf. All innovations that were used or modified for years after.

Quigg continued to build surfboards, working for a stint with Hobie and running his own shop, Joe Quigg Surboards in Newport from 1960-1970. The man was a true craftsman of watermen tools: he also built outrigger canoes and prone paddleboards that were long used in the Molokai-2-Oahu race. He was a genius in the surfing world, but almost casually so. He had many other loves. “In those years, what I really wanted to do was design and build small sailboats,” he said. “But the surfboard business was so good, people wouldn’t let me get out of surfboards.”

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