Known as "The Hawk", Dale is a surfer, a celebrity, a hell raising rebel, a revolutionary retailer, hall of fame surfer, a surf film financier, a lifegaurd, and most of all, a shaper. Dale opened Velzy Surfboards (the world's first surf shop) in Manhattan Beach in 1949, and within years had shops all along Southern California's coast, and in Hawaii. In his 50 plus years of building boards, Dale designed dozens of sticks, each revolutionizing surfing in its own way.