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Aaberg, Kemp

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academia and surfing

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advertising and surfing

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aerial

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alaia board

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angle

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Benson, Becky

Benson, Blanche

Benson, Linda

Bermuda

Bertlemann, Larry

Resourceful and long-overlooked surf world figure from Santa Barbara, California, regarded by some as the inventor of the commercially made surfing wetsuit; also a mid-1960s 

 magazine photographer, writer, and editor.

Morgan was born (1932) in Los Angeles, raised in Southern California and Kentucky, began riding waves in 1946, and soon became close friends with boardmaking genius Bob Simmons, future big-wave icon Greg Noll and future surfboard manufacturing giant Bing Copeland. In 1952, Morgan got a copy of a just-completed U.C. Berkeley study on wetsuit design and construction, and the following year began making full-length neoprene wetsuits for his scuba-diving friends at the beachfront Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla. Morgan soon opened Dive N' Surf in Redondo Beach, out of which Body Glove Wetsuits was later formed.

In 1962, when the general consensus among surfers was that wetsuits were for sissies, Morgan decided to try and change some minds. "I got 10 of the leading boardmakers together," he later told surf journalist Paul Holmes, "and told them they could all make money on wetsuits if they'd just put their logos on them, and get their team riders to wear them all at the same time. They didn't believe me, but I said I'd pay their rent for a year if it wasn't true." Morgan then made 100 short john wetsuits, added the logos, and handed them off to be distributed among the team riders. Within a few weeks, Dive N' Surf had orders for 2,500 wetsuits. It was surfing's first great marketing coup.

Morgan, a weekend writer and enthusiastic self-taught photographer, worked as associate editor at 

 in 1963 and 1964, producing six feature articles and three cover photos; his shot of Oceanside surfer Linda Merrill was the first shot of a woman to be used on a 

Morgan later worked as a commercial diver, and built high-end molded fiberglass diving helmets used by sea-going military units worldwide; at one point, his company was believed to be responsible for 90% of dive helmet sales worldwide. Morgan is a member of the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame.

Morgan, Bev

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Features

The Sunday Joint

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Features

The Sunday Joint