Hobart Alter
Hobart Hobie Alter was a surf and sailing entrepreneur and pioneer, creator of the Hobie Cat catamarans, and founder of the Hobie company.
Hobie was born and raised in Ontario, California, but his family had a summer house in Laguna Beach, where Alter got into the full array of ocean sports. Initiated into surfing by Walter Hoffman, he started shaping balsa boards in the early 1950s. When the familys front yard became cluttered with the remnants of surfboard production, his father moved him off the property by buying him a lot on Pacific Coast Highway in nearby Dana Point for 1,500. That was 1953. In February 1954, with the first stage of the shop completed, Hobie Surfboards opened its doors after a total investment of 12,000. People laughed at me for setting up a surf shop, Hobie remembers. They said that once Id sold a surfboard to each of the 250 surfers on the coast, Id be out of business. But the orders just kept coming.
Source: Wikipedia