The bronze statue looming over Jeff Alter had a serious, focused look on its face while navigating a small sailboat — not on the water, but on land.
If Hobie Alter were around to see the massive monument, the inventor would be more worried about the design of the boat than how closely the statue made in his honor resembled him, Alter joked.
Stories of Hobie Alter’s creativity, his desire to make toys for the masses, and his influences on surfing and sailing history filled the air in Dana Point, where dozens of people gathered for a ribbon cutting for the unveiling of the first installment for Watermen’s Plaza, an area near Doheny State Beach that will pay tribute to local surf icons.
“Our whole family, we had the luxury of growing up with all of these toys that he built. We all raced Hobie Cats, surfed and all that kind of stuff. We were lucky enough to have a great toy maker as a father,” Alter said as he looked up at the statue of his father near the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Dana Point Harbor Drive.
“It looks like he’s still here.”
Watermen’s Plaza
Hobie Alter died in 2014 at age 80.
The monument is part of a 4-year-long collaboration by South Cove developer Zephyr, the city of Dana Point, the Hobie Memorial Foundation, and the Hobie Cat company to bring the inventor’s legacy to life.
The bronze statue, named “Hobie Riding the Wave of Success,” is just the latest tribute to the surfboard and sailboat maker. A few weeks ago, a regatta was held at nearby Doheny State Beach to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the boat’s creation, and John Wayne Airport recently launched an extensive exhibit dedicated to the inventor.
Monuments to come will pay tribute to a handful of other surfing influences, like Dale Velzy, surf pioneer Phil Edwards, surfboard maker, Bruce Brown, creator of “Endless Summer” and John Severson, the late founder of Surfer magazine.
“I think they’re recognizing not only my father, but a lot of the other guys,” Jeff Alter said. “It’s a core group of people who were here building the surf industry as we know it, sailing and the action sports industry. These people created a business and brought it to the average person.”
Peter “PT” Townend, surfing’s first world champion, joked that “we wouldn’t have all ended up having jobs, if it wasn’t for people like Hobie.”
Alter started shaping surfboards in his parents’ Laguna Beach summer home in the early ’50s using heavy balsa wood, until he teamed with Gordon “Grubby” Clark to develop polyurethane foam as a more lightweight, affordable substitute.
He also developed the affordable “Hobie Cat” catamaran in the ’60s, a small boat easily transported and launched that allowed the masses access to sailing.
He used the same lightweight material that revolutionized surfing – polyurethane foam — to make two hulls, which attached to a platform and sail.
Ron Sizemore, the 1961 West Coast Surfing Champion, brought his red Hobie team rider jacket. He was in his late teens when he rode for the Hobie label.
“He created a lifestyle,” said Sizemore, now 74.
He remembered when the first shop opened in the early ’50s, “all the surfboard makers would get off of work, they’d all be out here surfing.”
Fun in the sun
Dick Metz, the businessman behind the Hobie label and creator of the Hobie Surf Shop retail chains in the ’50s, remembers his friend as a “creative and inventive” mind.
Beyond the fiberglass surfboards and small catamarans, Metz also noted the inventions like polarized glasses and the Hobie glider that set a speed record.
“He was a Thomas Edison, he invented stuff all the time,” Metz said. “So many things the public isn’t aware of.”
One thing Hobie Alter never worried about were the profit or loss statements or checkbooks — and in his pursuit of fun, he helped shape a water-loving culture.
“Dana Point has more surf history than any other place on the coast,” he said. “I wish I was still enjoying those days. We had so much fun…money wasn’t the success, it was the fun of it.”
Hobie Alter “created a family,” said Wayne Schafer, who helped Hobie Alter test the Hobie Cat 14 in front of his Capo Beach home in 1968.
With oversize scissors, Schafer did the official ribbon cutting.
“When he created (the catamaran), we had no idea how big it was going to go,” he said. “We were just thinking about ourselves. We had a boat we could play with.
“It took off – we were just running to keep up with it.”
