Tom Morey

Tom Morey (born Detroit, Michigan, August 15, 1935), also known by the moniker "Y", is a musician, engineer, shaper, and surfer responsible for several technological innovations that have heavily influenced modern developments in surfing equipment design.

Morey was living in Laguna Beach, California, by 1944 and was avidly developing his talent for drumming in his youth and became a professional musician in the 1950s. While surfing as a hobby he attended the University of Southern California and graduated with a B.A. in mathematics in 1957. He married Jolly Givens in 1957 and worked for Douglas Aircraft, as a process engineer in composites. After Douglas, he worked a series of jobs involving composite materials and processes, which he applied to his surf-related inventions. He left the corporate world for good in 1964, moved to Ventura and started a series of companies that served the surfing market, currently TomMorey.com and sponsored surfing competitions such as The Tom Morey Invitational. Tom and Jolly's marriage produced two daughters, Michelle (deceased) and Melinda (artist and surfer). They divorced in the late 1960s. Morey has been an adherent of the Bahá'í Faith since 1970 after he came across a 'unity feast' at a Kauai beach, where "whites, blacks and Hawaiians, mixed cordially" "After a couple of months of attending informal meetings on Bahá'í teachings - I realized this was very something important not to toy with; rather to become immersed in." "I withdrew immediately from alcohol, drugs and sexual promiscuity". Morey attributes inspiration for invention of the Boogie board (July 7, 1971) to a particular Baha'i prayer he kept coming across which included the passage "convey upon me, oh, my God, a thought which will turn this planet into a rose garden.'" He married Marchia Nichols, now Marchia Morey, "mother of bodyboarding", who bore them four sons: Sol, Moon, Sky and Matteson.

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