![]() In the 1970s, Nomad Surfboards was one of the best-selling surfboards on the East Coast, turning out more than 40 boards per week and wholesaling boards to dozens of surf shops from Miami to New Hampshire. That cramped corner has now grown into Nomad Surf Shop, a sprawling, 6,000-square-foot maze of surfboards and surfing attire that, over the past five decades, has played a pivotal role in cultivating Delray Beach’s vibrant surf culture and securing its place in surfing history. In 1968, Heavyside’s father offered him a 12-by-16-foot corner in his Briny Breezes TV shop on A1A to sell his boards. Ironically, it was 100 yards from where Heavyside would launch his self-styled Nomad Surfboards just a few years later. In 1965 Warnke and Heavyside worked together as busboys at the Seascape Restaurant in Briny Breezes: “A high-end, white-tablecloth place where we could see the ocean,” recalls Warnke. That board, along with other examples of Heavyside’s innovative shapes and craftsmanship, are part of the collection of the Surfing Florida Museum. Heavyside’s design talent was also recognized by Seacrest High School wood shop teacher Johnny Mac Bird, who was also a surfer and who enlisted the budding craftsman and two other students to make hollow wooden surfboards with plywood decks and pine rails. Its rental business included about 100 surfboards that would all be rented by 10 a.m. The store was also one of the hangouts in town. Reeves remains a premier glasser at Fiberglass Hawaii for the legendary Dick Brewer, who is considered the most influential shaper of the early 1970s. Reeves is among the bedrock of 1960s Delray Beach surfing and who taught Heavyside about shaping (design and construction) and glassing (resin color and finishing). He was original in everything he did.”Īside from being an incredible natural surfer, Heavyside’s talent as a surfboard shaper emerged under the mentorship of legendary surfer and glasser Jack Reeves, who he worked under at Delray Bicycle & Sporting Goods making boards under the Caribbean Surfboards label. “He was one of the first students at Seacrest who shocked everyone by wearing his hair ungreased, dry and over his forehead. “Ron and I met in high school in 1964 after his family moved to Briny Breezes,” reflects Warnke of his friendship with Heavyside that spanned the next half century until Heavyside’s passing in April 2018. The arrival of Ron Heavyside in 1962 would change the local surfing scene forever with his innovative vision for surfboard design and unconventional, trailblazer personality. “You can tell a real surfer by the way they hold the board: under one arm, nose downward.” Tom Warnke with vintage surf relics. “We were real purist surfers, not deadbeats who had surfboards on their cars for show,” says Warnke. “It certainly wasn’t for the burgers!” Once school was out, the same group would change clothes in their cars or at the beach and surf for two hours before going home to do homework. Warnke and several classmates from Seacrest High School would routinely take their 45-minute lunch break at the Boynton Inlet bait and tackle shop lunch counter for a burger and Coke, because it was the ideal spot to check out the waves. ![]() They sold some of their rental boards, which is how I bought my first one.” I could rent a board from Delray Bicycle & Sporting Goods for an entire day with a coupon in the Sunday paper for $1.25. Delray had a good surfing spot at the end of Atlantic Avenue. “I was 8 when I rode my first waves on an inflatable mat. ![]() Warnke says it was a “revelation” when he began surfing in 1956 after his family moved to Boynton Beach. ![]() “Even today surfing history is being made in Delray Beach, as happened in 2018 when winter storm ‘Mars’ created perfect 15-foot waves-some of the best ever recorded here.” “But through our research we hope to uncover more names and photos of these early trailblazers,” adds Warnke. “Credited as being among the first to surf Delray Beach were locals Rick Kohl, ‘Smitty’ Smith, Bob Rex, George Timmons, Johnny Mac Bird, Stewart Iglehart, Allen Carpenter, Henry Kamiya, Bill Terry and Mike Pickering,” says Tom Warnke, executive director of the Palm Beach County Surfing History Project and Surfing Florida Museum, who iscommitted to preserving the history, culture, memorabilia and future of East Coast surfing. A passionate legion of pioneering wave riders are committed to ensuring Delray’s surfing legacyĪs modern surfing exploded in popularity during the 1960s, both its evolution and place in pop culture were on the rise, especially in coastal towns like Delray Beach, Florida, which was a mecca for an entire generation.Ĭoming-of-age local surfers Fred Salmon, Corky Roche, Bill Keeton and Tom Warnke were at the vanguard of this thrilling new sport and remained steadfast in their passion for keeping South Florida’s surfing history and culture alive. ![]()
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