Hobie Alter dies at 80, shaped Southern California surf culture

My mom and her brothers used to run around with him every summer in Laguna / Dana Point where my great aunt and uncle lived. Seems like he was a really neat guy... sad that it sounds like he suffered the last five years. I had not known he was sick.

http://www.coastlinepilot.com/news/tn-cpt-me-0404-hobie-obit-20140404,0,1611838.story

I remember his boards... and his catamarans and monohulls. He had a great life, it seems.

The catamarans were prone to pitch-polling, which means if you sail it hard and ram the bows into a wave, the boat would dig the bows in and pitch forward and flip with the mast pointing straight down.

When that happens, you are basically screwed.

I had a Boston Whaler Supercat that wouldn't pitch pole, no matter how hard you pushed it. Man, I loved that boat. I have a 5.2 meter Boston Whaler Harpoon monohull (just got it) and it is very nice to sail, but it isn't balls-to-the-wall that the Supercat was.

Yeah, it seems like he lived his life exactly how he wanted to. You just can't beat that.