We love the shortboard revolution because it radically, wonderfully, and forever changed board design. We also love it because it's so well documented. Photos, movies, articles—the whole shebang is there, in primary sources galore, for us to examine and exalt and argue over. But surfboard evolution actually made a greater leap right after World War II. In 1940 we're on 75-pound spar-varnished redwood planks and square-railed paddleboards. By 1950 we're riding balsa, all glassed up neat and tidy and relatively light, with nose-lift, foiled rails, and beautifully templated outlines. In 1940 you could turn a surfboard more effectively than you could turn a flatbed rail car, but just barely. By 1950, on the new boards, Birdman Williams was stringing together three or four 90-plus-degree turns per wave at Malibu. Problem is, that whole postwar business doesn't have a tangy epoch-defining name, the way the late '60s has "shortboard revolution." Even worse, nobody much bothered to document the goings-on. A few photos to tickle the imagination, barely any film at all. (That's Quigg in the white trunks, above, and Simmons in black.)

Bob Simmons gets a lot of the credit for the development of the postwar surfboard, and rightly so. Joe Quigg doesn't get as much, which is unfair. Quigg, the younger of the two, more or less took everything Simmons did and made it work better. Or put another way, Quigg took what Simmons did and aimed it toward the kind of surfing we do today. Simmons wanted to go fast. Quigg wanted to go fast, and also turn, and the boards he made advanced that cause greatly.

It bothered Quigg, particularly as he got older, that Simmon's name was higher in the boardmakers pantheon this his own. Not a lot, but some. Here's a short excerpt from an interview Steve Pezman did with Quigg in 1997, later published in Surfer's Journal. I love how Pezman gets right to the Simmons' mystique, and how the two then struggle to separate the Simmons legend from the actual work he did as a designer.

QUIGG: Why were people so into Simmons? What was it?

PEZMAN: Well, he was a mysterious figure who died in the surf. The story is dramatic, and he was a real different personality, and interesting, bright, inventive.

People that were around him became enamored of him, and he became a cult figure. John Elwell, obviously. And Les Williams, another person who was . . .

Simmons had fresh thinking and a pronounced way of doing things that contributed to the evolution of foiled surfboards. As far as being the “father” of the modern surfboard, many people do think of him in those terms.

Well, I knew Simmons quite well. I’d run into him a lot out surfing, and I’d go hang out at his shop. I would say this about him: For someone to be that devoted to his work was inspiring to me. I couldn’t handle his board shapes, though. They didn’t work for me.

But his rails, and foil, and the rest of his plan shape other than for the real wide tails—the boards were advanced.

But, see, for his first five years he was building these solid 120-pound redwoods. And the thing about Simmons’ math, Simmons only used that math on heavy boards. He was reading all the math books and the naval architecture books, and hanging out with the planing hull speedboat guys. So he's trying to mix it all together in a high-speed board. I liked Simmons. Sometimes we’d sit up all night long talking board theory. He was a very inspiring guy. That’s what Simmons taught me. I got inspirational encouragement from Bob. But his Cal Tech math was all backwards. I’m no mathematician. I’m a hands-on, trial-and-error man. I don’t know what makes a light board go faster. I mean, I can’t explain it mathematically. I just know from watching it.

Sure, for tearing out across a flat-faced wave. But a smaller board is faster when there’s a hot athlete on it, developing acceleration when he needs to. You can’t do that with the heavy board. I don’t know how to explain that mathematically, but it’s a torque thing. [Quigg fishes through a stack of memorabilia.] This is a letter I got from Simmons to me, when I was in Honolulu, dated June 7, 1949. [Quigg explains that, in the letter, Bob is listing the boards he’s made, along with each board's weight, and discussing the fact that he’s now going light.] God, here’s some of Simmons’ math! I don’t understand it at all. I once talked to Peter Cole about this, and he named all these boards without having seen this letter. Bob built a 55-pound board for Cole in 1948; then Dick Jaekel, 45 pounds; Tim Lyons, 43 pounds; George Beck, 40 pounds; Howard Terrell, 35 pounds; and a 34-pound for Buzzy Trent. Then Bob ends up getting down to 30 pounds for himself. [Quigg then pulls out a photo of himself, Matt Kivlin, and Tommy Zahn, leaving for Hawaii in 1948. He continues in a quiet voice.] I consider these three guys as the key. Now mind you, Simmons, early on, he was this powerful figure, this guru, he inspired everyone. Right after the war, his boards helped guys to get back in shape, myself included. I rode a Simmons for six months.

Fortunately, I broke it in half under the pier. Built myself a better, lighter, more maneuverable board. I mean, that thing Bob made me weighed 120 pounds! My shoulder still hurts from carrying it. Still, I loved talking to him.

JOE QUIGG: "WHY WERE PEOPLE SO INTO SIMMONS? WHAT WAS IT?"

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