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"Next time you leave the shore for some fun, look and listen for the muted voice of the atom, the wave of the good earth, and you, too, may hear the drum beat." 

- Tom Blake, June 18, 1968 (excerpt from The Surfers Journal volume 8, issue 3)   

Much has been said of Tom Blake’s accomplishments over the years. When Alex Weinstein penned his inspiring words to grace the walls of the Adler Smith Gallery for the Tom Blake + Outerknown show earlier this month, we found they deeply captured the essence of Tom’s story, and we want to share them with you. 

 We also gathered up some insane historical imagery and footage straight from the archives!

Tom Blake (born  March 8, 1902) is the most influential American surfer who has ever lived, full stop. As a lifeguard and surfer with a sharp mind for engineering and the graceful dexterity of an experienced craftsman, his contributions in both muscle and mind are enduring, numerous, and profoundly resonant today, over a century later. 

Blake reinvented surfboard construction, developing weight-relieving structure methods that render less mass and greater buoyancy to the craft, increasing its efficacy in life-saving work and broadening its appeal to a nascent surfing community. Later, he introduced the surfboard fin to the world, instantly revolutionizing wave-riding. Blake designed, built, and used the very first water camera housing, paving the way for oceanographers, scientists, and photographers of all stripes to get wet. The hardware for a surfing life and the documentation of new oceanic exploits, both scientific and sporting, get their primary tooling from Tom Blake.  

He seemed to do it all with an effortless style. Hollywood-handsome, mysterious, fiercely capable, he became the living prototype that a culture and industry-to-come would model itself after.   

Blake first began his relationship with the Pacific Ocean here, in Santa Monica, in 1921, lifeguarding and surfing the very same spots Angelenos are still dawn-patrolling today, 103 years later.  In 1924, he set out for Hawaii to learn more about the sport of surfing and its Polynesian heritage. He soon fell in with the Kahanamoku family, whose son Duke's athletic accomplishments had astonished the world as an Olympic swimmer and ambassador of Hawaiian wave riding. Blake recognized a kindred spirit in Duke and divided his time between Hawaii and California for several decades, cementing a lifelong friendship with him. These relays back and forth to the islands and adventures of self-discovery in the surf created a blueprint of surf culture that is still wholly intact today.  

Blake's personal life was nomadic and solitary, profoundly reductive, almost monkish in its focus and simplicity. He led by example, and his personal style and glaring charisma, evinced in numerous photographs, are not dissimilar from other great pop icons of American culture. Blake embodied a pioneering spirit of adventure and reverence for the natural world. His was a light touch: muscular but full of grace. In time, he would describe a life spent in the ocean in terms both philosophical and spiritual - tenants all surfers still hold dear.  

Alex Weinstein 
Los Angeles, June 2024

Outerknown exists today because of surfers like Tom Blake whose passion for the ocean continues to inspires us. Tom’s pioneering spirit from a century ago is the same spirit we channel daily at Outerknown.

We continue to share Tom’s story with a new generation of surfers and ocean enthusiasts alike through our Tom Blake + Outerknown collection of graphic tees and hats, inspired by his remarkable accomplishments and enduring impact on the sport and culture of surfing.