San Francisco Facts - A Brief History of O'Neill Wetsuits
The pioneering spirit in the wetsuit industry O'Neill in San Francisco, California is the first to have commercialized and come up with a viable option for surfers. It also is a classic garage story where Jack O'Neill started off his first operations in his own surf shop. While currently it is one of the largest wetsuit manufacturers in the world their product line also consists of a lot of other things essential for surf boarding. Some of their popular line ups apart from wet suits are boardbags, clothing, shoes, and surfboards.
Starting off as early as 1952 this company was responsible for popularizing the sport of surfing a great deal. Apart from selling surf boards Jack slowing started adding his early designed wetsuits to the range. While not very effective at the onset these suits slowly became popular with the surfing community. These wet suits were very effective for wearing and surfing for extended periods since before the advent of the wetsuit surfing in cold ocean waters was a constant challenge.
Some of the famous designs from the O'Neill stable are Long John, Beaver Tail Jacket, Short John and the ubiquitous Leash used by almost every surfer. As years rolled by the design improvements were significant and O'Neill went on to become a very famous and established name in the Surf business. O'Neill is attributed to making Northern California the Mecca of surfing. Currently wetsuits are used for a lot of different purposes apart from just surfing. They are used while diving, water skiing and windsurfing.
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