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Music: All I’ve Found By Band of Frequencies

Despite the fact that he hasn’t stood on a surfboard since 1961, George Greenough may be one of the most influential visionaries in modern surfing. Consider these examples: he is considered the inspiration for no less than the modern shortboard revolution, in-the-tube water photography and cinematography, and the modern high-aspect (wide base, narrow tip, deep rake) surfboard fin. Born (1941) in Santa Barbara, his father was heir to a railroad fortune and he was a descendent of noted American sculptor Horatio Greenough. Raised in an eclectic Montecito mansion (his infamous disdain for wearing shoes may have been nurtured during this time), open heart surgery as a pre-teen may have contributed to his position as an outsider among his peer group and turned his attention elsewhere mainly the ocean.

During the 1950s he cut his teeth surfing Santa Barbara’s pristine pointbreaks, including Hollister Ranch (the Hollister’s were family friends). But by the mid 1960s Greenough had spurned traditional surfboard designs, preferring inflatable mat-riding and home-made kneeboard spoons, specifically a revolutionary board he called Velo. Greenough took Velo and his tuna tail fin-inspired fin to Australia in 1965 and blew minds with his radical direction changes and gouging cutbacks.

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