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Sometime around 1952, Jack opened the first Surf Shop
in a garage across the Great Highway. He shaped a few balsa
surfboards and sold accessories like paraffin wax and a few
vests he started gluing together from neoprene. When the
vests started selling, Jack decided to go into the wetsuit
business. His friends laughed. They asked him what he planned
to do for business after the handful of surfers in the area
had bought one. Jack said he'd cross that bridge when he
got to it.
The Surf Shop became a local gathering place, and the
number of surfers began to grow. O'Neill flew in talented
surfer/shapers like Phil Edwards to make boards, and wetsuit
sales climbed. Jack developed designs for a shorty and
a long john, and eventually a long-sleeved beaver-tail
jacket. Soon surfers were riding more waves, and riding
them better, in large measure because they could now enjoy
longer sessions in cold water, thanks to Jack's neoprene
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As Jack improved his wetsuits- new styles,
features, accessories, etc., surfers' territories expanded. Northern
California became a year-round surf zone. Guys were surfing New
Hampshire and Rhode Island in January! Explorations and transplants
opened up Oregon, Washington, and Canada. Meanwhile, divers, waterskiers,
snow-skiers, and then windsurfers were wearing wetsuits. As business
boomed, O'Neill relocated to 41st Avenue, where there was plenty
of room for a large manufacturing facility, and he put all six
kids to work: Mike helped dad design suits, Kathy got the whole
operation computerized, Pat worked in promotion and organized Team
O'Neill (marquee stars and hot young kids in a range of watersports),
Bridget moved into a new sportswear division, Shawne tested and
multi-tasked, and Tim ran all crews for ongoing product-testing
expeditions and promotions, as O'Neill began to sponsor major competitions
around the world.
By 1980, Jack O'Neill's surf shop had morphed into a thriving
international company, dominating the world's wetsuit market
and one of the leaders in beach lifestyle sportswear in the
U.S., Japan, and Europe. In 1985, having run Team O'Neill for
years and effectively coordinated the company's operations
in Europe and Japan, Pat assumed the CEO position, freeing
Jack to surf, sail, and work at a variety of environmental
projects. Besides a strong interest in saving the great white
shark from extinction, Jack has also developed the O'Neill
Sea Odyssey program-a free, educational cruise aboard the Team
O'Neill catamaran that acquaints kids with the microbiology
of the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary, which begins at Jack
O'Neill's doorstep.
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