User:Cuchullain/Tom Blake

Thomas Edward "Tom" Blake, Jr. (March 8, 1902 – May 5, 1992) was a pioneering American surfer, water sportsman and surfboard designer.

Early life
Blake was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1902 to Blanche Wooliver Blake and Tom Blake, Sr., a club steward who had formerly owned a bar. Blake's mother died when he was eleven months old, and his devastated father left him to be raised by relatives. Growing up in Milwaukee, he learned about Hawaiian surfing from a brief newsreel he saw as a child. He dropped out of high school and began traveling the country in 1919, at the age of 17. The next year, while living in Detroit, he met surfer and Olympic swimmer Duke Kahanamoku in a local movie theater. In 1921 he relocated to the Los Angeles area where immersed himself in the beach and water sports culture.

Blake embraced competitive swimming and soon emerged as one of the best swimmers in the United States. He won the 1922 Amateur Athletic Union ten-mile race and later outswam Kahanamoku in a 220-meter sprint. He subsequently worked as a lifeguard at the Santa Monica Swim Club.

==Itroduction to surfing. He also tried his hand at surfing in 1921 in Santa Monica. At the time, surfing was largely considered a curiosity outside of Hawaii. His first experience ended in a bad wipeout, and Blake did not return to the sport for another three years.