Tom Blake’s legacy is much more than records, inventions, better boards and photos. His greatest contribution was the life. Our Life. Unlike the muscled beach boys and the happy Hawaiians he learned from, Tom Blake didn’t just surf, but made a life of surfing. And while the great Duke nobly represented a spiritual link to his ancient Hawaiian heritage sport, it was Tom Blake who provided the modern surf lifestyle for all who came after.
And now here we are at the end of the century - a century of surfing. And it is Tom who has shaped us more than anyone - we still look like him, we still dress like him and we still surf like him. ~ Sam George.

With this book we will concentrate on the images. The prints to be exact, the ground breaking photographs that have been passed down to us and allow us to venture back to the beginnings, to the roots of the modern surf lifestyle.

Tom Blake’s genius was to think of the future. If something was needed to make the future better in his eyes, he set out to produce that very thing. Blake did it time and time again with his various inventions through the years. And what he did best along this journey, was to document his surroundings and achievements with the highest quality tools available to him at the time.

What Tom has left behind can be compared to the Civil War photos of Matthew Brady. Tom let nothing stand in his way. He was out there shooting photos at a time when it was very difficult to even make a photograph. Tom was to take this even farther, he took the common 4 x 5 Speed Graphic press camera of the era and made a water housing to keep it safe and water tight . He did this to get closer to the action, in order to document the sport of surfing, the surfers style, their personalities, the places and surf breaks that the sport revolved around.

Our goal with this project is to offer these images in their best possible representation. These are reproductions for sure, but the best possible reprodu