8: MAGIC TIME
O’Brien was another company that went after Hydroslide’s huge market share., leading the way with their foam-filled board called the Bullfrog. But the lackluster design was antiquated, and the graphics were something a kid might go for: an all green board with a giant bullfrog sitting on the nose.
O’Brien’s Entry into the Kneeboarding […]
5: KNEED FOR SPEED
In 1978, at the Endo’s International Speed Skiing Championships, I witnessed kneeboarding insanity.
The site was the Long Beach Marine Stadium. I only remember the kneeboarder by his nickname, Dumbdee. He was a Long Beach local who talked the promoters into letting him have a speed run on his Tunnel Board. Just to […]
4: TUNNEL BOARD
I made my first video appearance at 10 years old on another one of the early kneeboards. Tunnel Board was founded by my uncle Mike and Andy Remy. The gas crunch was over, and with that Mike and Andy opened two businesses at the same time in 1976. The first was Murphy’s Water […]
3: GLIDE SLIDE
In the early days of Knee Ski, Hulst asked Murphy to find another water skier to help with promotions. Murphy chose fellow skier John Taylor who was ready to go to work right away.6 But bringing John on board was jumping the gun. Murphy was still at work shaping the original test boards […]
A TURNING POINT – THE JOKER’S WILD
The UPS truck pulls to my house with a special delivery from HO Sports. I have been waiting for months, and I tear into the large box with great anticipation. A swash of primary colors covered in plastic emerges from the cardboard cradle. I’m ecstatic to see my new […]
Table of Contents, Preface, Acknowledgements & Photographers
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A TURNING POINT – THE JOKER’S WILD – A vision quest with Herb O’Brien.
1: THE HISTORY OF THE KNEEBOARD – Waves, discs, and dreams.
2: KNEE SKI – The first production kneeboard by Mike Murphy and Bud Hulst.
3: GLIDE SLIDE – John Taylor creates the modern day plastic and foam filled board.
4: […]
Recently retired watersports “superdealer” Tommy Phillips has been given a higher calling to create the Wakeboarding Hall of Fame (WHOF). People everywhere are sharing photos and stories from the early days. Along the way Tommy has contacted many key people around the world to help him turn his vision into a reality.
The Wakeboarding Hall of […]
Jump! Let your feet fly back in an act of faith. Tug on the handle to ride it out. It’s commonly known as an Air Raley, but the generic term for this gravity-defying trick is the Layout. Versions of it have been performed for decades on just about everything. Here’s an inside look at the […]
Like any good story, book, or movie, your run on the water can have an entertaining start, middle, and end. My years as a show skier and long-time exhibitionist have taught me to squeeze every moment out of each run.
Today’s tip is how to bring some attention to your last splash. Most riders end their […]
It all started with my uncle, Mike Murphy. He played Aqua the clown for the Tommy Bartlett Ski, Sky, and Stage Show in the late 1960s. One of Mike’s photos was used as a postcard, and as a cover photo for the yearly program. A framed 8×10 even hung in the Water Ski Hall of […]
