In the Spring of 1963 my Hobie big board (9 foot 6) arrived by the only means possible - rail. I went to the train station concerned about shipping damage, but there was none. The board was flawless, built exactly to my design. Some buddies and I from the Beach Patrol had been surfing since 1961, but with inferior boards. Then Hobie began shipping the quality ones to the East coast. The waves get larger when storms are moving off-shore in August. This is Atlantic City - August, 1963.(Click on image to enlarge) Here I am hot-dogging, surfing backwards on one leg, riding a gentle wave, while in the second frame I am falling off another gentle wave, for no apparent reason. All surfers have a style, and mine was to ride on the forward third of the board (the wave had to be large enough to support the displaced weight forward) with my hands clasped behind me, maneuvering only with small shifts in body motion. (A keen sense of balance, and strength in the ankles - built up with years as a kid playing ice hockey - allowed me to skip the surfer's requirement of waxing my board. My board was totally clean.) Unfortunately, I could not take my own photographs and I was never captured in my common pose. But here I am - on a typical mid-summer 5 foot wave in New Jersey - walking toward the front of the board, a characteristic Atlantic City afternoon in late July. In late August, and early September, with hurricane action a few miles off shore, things got a lot more robust.