Santa Cruz is the largest city and the county seat of Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 62,956. Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz is a popular tourist destination, owing to its beaches, surf culture, and historic landmarks.
A wetsuit is a garment worn to provide thermal protection while wet. It is usually made of foamed neoprene, and is worn by surfers, divers, windsurfers, canoeists, and others engaged in water sports and other activities in or on the water. Its purpose is to provide thermal insulation and protection from abrasion, ultraviolet exposure, and stings from marine organisms. It also contributes extra buoyancy. The insulation properties of neoprene foam depend mainly on bubbles of gas enclosed within the material, which reduce its ability to conduct heat. The bubbles also give the wetsuit a low density, providing buoyancy in water.
Body Glove is an American brand of watersports apparel and accessories that was founded in 1953 by twin brothers Bill and Bob Meistrell. The brothers are often credited with inventing the first practical wetsuit in the early 1950s at the back of their Redondo Beach, California surf shop, Dive N' Surf. From those wetsuits, Body Glove branched out into other product categories. They now make wetsuits, swimsuits, clothing, shoes, life vests, sunglasses, wakeboards, paddle boards, towables, backpacks, phone cases and snorkeling equipment.
Quiksilver is an Australian brand of surf-inspired apparel and accessories that was founded in 1969 in Torquay, Victoria, but is now based in Huntington Beach, California. It is one of the world's largest brands of surfwear and boardsport-related equipment. The parent company changed its name in March 2017 from Quiksilver, Inc. to Boardriders, Inc., and is the owner of the brands Quiksilver, Roxy and DC Shoes. In 2018, Boardriders acquired Billabong International Limited, gaining the Billabong, Element, Von Zipper, RVCA and XCEL brands. Authentic Brands Group bought Boardriders and its associated brands and intellectual property in 2023.
The O'Neill dynasty is a lineage of Irish Gaelic origin.
Mambo Graphics is an Australian clothing brand specialises in swimwear, wetsuits, casual wear apparel and surfing accessories. Mambo was launched in 1984 by Australian entrepreneur and founder of Phantom Records, Dare Jennings along with his business partner, Andrew Rich. The headquarters are located in Alexandria, Sydney.
Ocean Pacific Apparel Corp. is a clothing company based in Irvine, California, United States. It produces T-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, shoes and beverage mugs.
Hurley is an American company that sells clothes and accessories marketed towards surfing and swimming. Established in 1979 as a distributor for Billabong clothing in the United States, Hurley was sold to Nike, Inc. in 2002 for an undisclosed price and then to Bluestar Alliance LLC in 2019 for an undisclosed price.
Sessions is an apparel company that designs, develops, produces and markets action-sports based products primarily in the snowsports industry as well as young men's and women's clothing. Sessions is headquartered in Santa Cruz, California, United States.
Saltrock Surfwear is a British surfwear company based in Devon. Created by brothers Ross and Angus Thomson in 1988, the idea was fostered in order to generate money to fund their passion of surfing. The brothers moved the company from Penzance, Cornwall, to Devon in 1992, after which surfer Carl Priscott joined the board.
Steamer Lane is a famous surfing location in Santa Cruz, California. It is just off a point on the side of cliffs in the West Cliff residential area near downtown Santa Cruz, providing easy access and a good vantage point for viewing. The Santa Cruz Surfing Museum is housed in a lighthouse there. "Steamer Lane" is the preferred form of the name used by the people surfing there. Steamer Lane was named by Claude Horan while he was a student at San Jose State in the late 1930s. One flat calm day he and his friend Wes Hammond thought it would be a good idea to hire steamships to cruise back and forth to generate waves for surfing. It was at Steamer Lane that the modern surfing wetsuit and the leash were mainly developed by Jack O'Neill, who had his surf shop nearby for many years.
The registration of the "Surf City USA" trademark inflamed a historical dispute between the California coastal cities of Huntington Beach and Santa Cruz. Both cities claimed the "Surf City" nickname, but after the Huntington Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau filed three trademark applications for "Surf City USA" with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2004, a new conflict erupted, a controversy Surfer dubbed "Moniker-gate." The resulting publicity generated the equivalent of several million dollars in advertising with thousands of stories and news reports broadcast across the globe. A lawsuit was eventually settled in January 2008 which validated Huntington Beach's exclusive rights to the trademark.
Jack O'Neill was an American businessman and founder of the surfwear and surfboard company O'Neill.
Piping Hot is an Australian surf and street clothing brand. It was established in 1975 by Fred Pyke and Rod Brooks in Torquay, Victoria.
Stüssy is an American privately held fashion house founded in the early 1980s by Shawn Stussy. It benefited from the surfwear trend originating in Orange County, California, but was later adopted by the skateboard and hip hop scenes.
Pleasure Point is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, California. Pleasure Point sits at an elevation of 33 feet (10 m). The 2020 United States census reported Pleasure Point's population was 5,821. Prior to the 2010 census, this CDP was called Opal Cliffs.
Maui and Sons, Inc. is an American surf and skateboard apparel company which specializes in surfwear and skater clothing products. The clothing, equipment and other products are designed for snowboarders, skateboarders and surfers.
Golden Breed is a surf lifestyle clothing brand, initially starting in California in 1969. The Male/Female logo was used by surfers, before being developed into a brand. The Textile Company Don Rancho Corporation initially launched the brand internationally, with a separate license to produce a range of items in Australia, held by John Arnold.
Old Bull Lee, a subsidiary of Mockingbird Industries Inc., is a United States-based retail and online clothing brand rooted in the culture and lifestyle of California and of the East Coast of United States. The company sells men's shorts, shirts and boardshorts of domestic and imported fabrics. As of July 2017, the company operates online and in select boutiques in North America and Asia. Old Bull Lee is headquartered in Manhattan Beach, California.
