Quote:
Originally Posted by edgeprod
Wow, that's really an incredible story! It sucks to be ripped off by better-funded companies, etc, but that's the reality of not protecting your ideas, unfortunately. Everyone will exploit whatever they can to make a buck.
We're all Liquid Force now, but back in the day we rode O'Brien, Hyperlite, and others.
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He had actually applied for a patent but the others got around it by making slight alterations to his design. His biggest mistake was going to the magazine before he had a big enough head start. The magazine wouldn't do an editorial article on him unless he purchased advertising in the magazine which he eventually did.
He walked in and told the magazine what he was up to and then they told everyone else and the race was on. He had no business experience and was in his early twenties so he was way out of his element. He really needed a good business partner and he should've been the front man / team rider.
They just had some big wakeboard event here in Orlando last weekend. Maybe even the world championships but I'm not sure. I have pictures and video of my friend from that time and I've always thought about going to that wakeboard event and tell the TV producers the story about how wakeboarding came to be and be able to back it up with all my documentation.
Most people think it started with the " Skurfer " but it was really my friend and us out on his ski natique two years earlier trying to keep him from breaking our surfboards
