Mr. Boogie Board Goes Enterprising Again

Boogie Board inventor Tom Morey is getting back into the surf business with a new company called Starwaves in Capistrano Beach.

The new enterprise will begin making surfboards this week. Contractual obligations prevent Morey from using his name to make some types of water sports equipment.

Morey will handle the design and engineering of his new “user-friendly” surfboards, which will be subcontracted out for manufacturing and sold on the Internet.

Later, Morey said he plans to also make paddleboards and bodyboards.

The Capistrano Beach resident invented the Boogie Board almost by accident in the 1970s when he was trying to make a “big-wave surfing device” but his prototype kept breaking.

In 1978, he sold limited manufacturing and sales rights for the Morey name to Kransco Inc. Since then, he has served on the boards of corporations that produce Morey brand bodyboards. San Francisco-based Wham-O Corp. owns the Morey name for its bodyboard products.

Now, the 63-year-old Morey said he decided to return to his roots.

“I want to make boards and do whatever I want to do and not check with anybody,” he said Monday. “I want to sink or swim on my own again.”

Morey also said he’s changing his name to Y, although he hasn’t done so legally yet.

“I just want to circumvent the vagueness and be there under my own name, which is Y,” Morey said.