First surfboard shop plaque proposed for downtown MB
by Kevin Cody In 1950, the State of California created a new sales tax category, for surfboard sales. The first retail shop to be issued a sales tax license under the new category was Surfboards by Velzy. Dale Velzy had been shaping balsa boards under the Manhattan Beach pier until the city ordered him off the beach. “The shavings blew into town and street sweepers used to say ‘Where did this stuff come from?’” Velzy recalled during his 2003 induction into the Hermosa Beach Surfer Walk of Fame. Velzy moved his surfboard business a block up from the pier, to a former shoe repair shop at 117 Manhattan Beach Blvd. The location is now the Strand House restaurant. Last month, the Manhattan Beach Cultural Arts Commission reviewed a proposal to install a bronze plaque commemorating the world’s first surfboard shop on the sidewalk where the store had been located. The proposal was submitted by Velzy’s son Matt; Bing Copeland, a contemporary surfboard shaper of Velzy’s; and Manhattan Beach resident Jaquelyne May. The proposal was accompanied by a petition of support signed by over 700 people. “The shop itself was tiny, and dark, and it didn’t look like much. But it represents a huge…
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