At some point in time, we've all heard - or rather, ignored -- a version of the "When I was a kid" lecture from our elders, squirming through some rambling nonsense about walking to school without shoes or life without video games. Well, if you were an child of Jack O'Neill, founder of O'Neill Inc, famous for its Oneill Boardshorts. and surf suit pioneer, you might very well listen as he told ice-cold horror stories that drove him to develop the O'Neill wetsuit trusty neoprene armor. Hell, you may end up helping with a few inventions of your own.

In the 1950's, O'Neill opened their first surf shop in a garage across the Great Highway in San Francisco, a sand dune away from the favorite bodysurfing break of O'Neill. There, the ONeill boardshorts, Oneill shorts, Oneill wetsuit sold as the first product, along with a few vests ONeill made from gluing together pieces of closed cell foam. From that very garage ONeill expanded the average surfer's playground from Steamer Lane to J-Bay, and from Antarctica to those fun reef breaks off the coast of Iceland. Thanks to ONeill, "It's always summer on the inside."

"Surfing in the 50s was great," says ONeill. "You knew everybody and often took turns on the waves." But surfing in the 1950s also meant short sessions due to the cold water temperatures. Only the crazy surfers stayed in boardshorts. Surfers tried anything to stay warm. This notion inspired ONeill to embarked on a mission to create a surf suit.

ONeill soon became a regular at the Army and Navy surplus stores (there were many after the war) collecting old WWII frogmen suits. "These suits consisted of a thin sheet of rubber, worn over something like long underwear," says ONeill. "The air trapped in the underwear gave the insulation; but in the rough surf the suit would come apart at the waist entry, water would get in, displacing the air and making it hazardous."

Working with different types of flexible foam, the first ONeill success was with a unicellular plastic which may have been PVC. While it had good insulating properties, it did not have much tensile strength for a proper ONeill Wetsuit, so ONeill put it under a bun-hugger-type bathing suit. This was somewhat effective. The bun-hugger-type bathing suit was the style in those days, obviously the ONeill boardshorts seemed like a far away dream. Most surfers in San Francisco wore a suit like this, secured from Sutro Bath's for a $.25 deposit. Sometime later ONeill glued a thin sheet of plastic to the plastic foam and made his first vest. Yet, while PVC served its purpose, it was hard to work with and ONeill went back to the drawing board.

ONeill soon came across neoprene and found it to be a good insulator, buoyant and it had more tensile strength. With the material problem much improved ONeill quickly developed designs for the short john, long john, spring suits, long-sleeved-beaver-tailed jacket and full suit wetsuits. "I got a lot of laughs," remembers ONeill. "Surfers would come up from down south and I remember one of them saying, 'Maybe you clowns up here need a suit but never us.' I was just trying to do more surfing, have some surfing friends and get a little income."

Despite all the naysayers, the ONeill wetsuits started to fly off the hangers and O'Neill was in business.

Since then, ONeill has made countless improvements to the design and quality of the ONeill wetsuit. From the introduction of the zigzag stitch to the names ONeill originated which became generic, (i.e. spring suit, long john, short john, etc.). But accomplishments are nothing new to the ONeill family. Jack was always a man of firsts, responsible for creating the modern-day surf shop. While guys like Dale Velzy and Hobie Alter had shops down south, they only sold boards. ONeill expanded and began to produce everything surfing related from ONeill rash guards to ONeill boardshorts.

"Since I was making wetsuits and balsa wood surfboards, I decided to call my place Surf Shop. And, I was able to get a federal trademark registration on the name 'Surf Shop' too," says ONeill. He also pioneered the surfboard travel bag and was one of the first to start blowing foam blanks.

The inventor's gene seems to run in the family. Pat, the son of Jack O'Neill, was a pioneer in developing the leash, affectionately known as the "kook cord" back then. Using materials such as nylon lines, suction cups and surgical tubing, Pat found ways to prevent his board from crashing into the cliffs and breaking in half.

By 1980, the O'Neill surf shop had morphed into a thriving international company, dominating the world's wetsuit market and one of the leaders in beach lifestyle sportswear in the U.S., Japan, and Europe. Though they specialized in ONeill wetsuits, they are also credited with making solid designed ONeill boardshorts. Offered for both men and women, ONeill boardshorts provided extra protection and coverage while surfing. The functionality of ONeill boardshorts derived from their construction. Mens ONeill boardshorts are made from tough materials like dryflex, ultrasuede, techstretch and speed dry nylon, while women's ONeill boardshorts are made with dynasuede. Giving the consumer the toughest material, without slacking on style and fit, ONeill continues to develop their product line.

In 1985, having run Team O'Neill for years and effectively coordinated the company's operations in Europe and Japan, Pat assumed the CEO position, freeing Jack O'Neill to surf, sail, and work at a variety of environmental projects that he loved. Besides a strong interest in saving the great white shark from extinction, Jack O'Neill has also developed the O'Neill Sea Odyssey program-a free, educational cruise aboard the Team O'Neill catamaran that acquaints kids with the microbiology of the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary, which begins at the doorstep of Jack O'Neill.