Time to Boogie!

 

Fun and Friendship Riding the Waves

 

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

Fun and friendship go hand in hand. And when you add in a lifetime of riding the waves, it doesn't get any better than that. Just ask longtime friends and Boogie Board riders Marcia Jeffredo and Nancy Miller.

The two Orange County friends told SurfWriter Girl Patti Kishel they had just had a blast Boogie Boarding at Bolsa Chica State Beach, something they do a lot – and even more now that they are both retired.

 

Marcia has been riding the waves since she was twelve, using an air raft in the beginning. Nancy started even earlier when she was seven. In Nancy's case, it was inevitable that she took up the sport. "Tom Morey (inventor of the Boogie Board) lived upstairs from my parents in San Clemente," she told Patti.

“He and his wife Marchia were the nicest people,” Nancy said. “He played the ukelele and the drums. They loved to enjoy life and he was always inventing things.”

Morey, who passed away in 2021, was used to hearing people say how much fun his quirky invention had given them. Since he created it in 1971, countless ocean enthusiasts have grabbed onto one of his boards and experienced the thrill of riding a wave.

Safer and easier to use than a traditional surfboard (you ride it on your belly, rather than standing up), it got people in the water who might never have ventured in. Marcia likes riding her Boogie Board because "you're right on top of the water. I feel connected to the ocean when I'm on it." Plus, "it's easy to dive right under a wave when I need to."    

Already an experienced surfer and surfboard designer, Morey was on the beach in Hawaii one day when he was inspired to design another type of board for surfing. He ended up shaping a nine-foot piece of polyethylene packing foam into what became the first body surfing board – the Boogie Board.

Morey's most popular invention, the Boogie Board made the waves accessible to all.

 

By 1977 he was selling 80,000 boards a year for $37 each. That's when he sold his invention and trademark to Kransco, which was bought out by Mattel, and later sold to Wham-O.

 

Today some 3 million Boogie Boards are sold globally each year. Unpretentious and, most of all, fun, the Boogie Board has been bringing friends – like Marcia Jeffredo and Nancy Miller – together at the beach from the very first day. 

SurfWriter Girls

Surf’n Beach Scene Magazine

Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel hold the exclusive rights to this copyrighted material. Publications wishing to reprint it may contact them at surfwriter.girls@gmail.com Individuals and non-profit groups are welcome to post it on social media sites as long as credit is given.