Hobie Alter

The ocean is unpredictable. One day its waves are inviting and exhilarating in equal measure. The next, they are punishing and unforgiving. No matter the conditions, surfers and sailors answer to that water with the tools at their disposal. Perhaps no one perfected more of those tools over the past half-century than Hobie Alter, who died on March 29 at 80.

Alter’s best-known invention was designed for days when rough wind and seas made surfers wish for some other way to ride the water. The Hobie Cat–of which there have been a dozen variations since he created it in 1968–is a compact, double-hulled catamaran designed to skim the surface of the water rather than cut through it. It was originally made from polyurethane foam; Alter had been the first to use the material for mass-producing surfboards in the early 1960s. (That’s Alter pictured riding one below.) The Hobie Cat may have been created as an alternative for surfers on days too gusty for riding the coil, but it has since become a recreational standard-bearer for water-sport enthusiasts of all kinds.

–ERIC DODDS