Jack O’Neill, who popularized the neoprene wetsuits that defied the cold, the calendar and the continents to create an endless summer for surfers around the world, died on Friday at his home in Santa Cruz, Calif. He was 94.
His death was announced by his company, O’Neill Inc., which he started in 1952 in a converted garage in that city. He coined and trademarked the name Surf Shop and transformed it into the most successful maker of surfing wetsuits. It still sells them through an O’Neill Surf Shop in Santa Cruz and globally under the O’Neill name.
Image: Jack O’Neill before windsurfing off Santa Cruz, Calif., in 1982. He revolutionized the surfing industry through the sale of wetsuits. Credit Dan Coyro/The Santa Cruz Sentinel, via Associated Press
