Sophia Tiar’e Bartlow, 1990-2017
Sophia’s untimely passing has been a shock to all of us in the surfing community that knew and loved her infectious smile and wonderful enthusiasm for life.
Sophia Tiaré Bartlow, daughter of World Champion Jericho Poppler and a gifted ocean athlete in her own right, passed away in a car accident on Oahu’s North Shore. Sophia, like her mother, was a competitive longboarder, but she also competed on the Stand Up World Tour and won the U.S. SUP Tour national title in 2014. Poppler, who raised her daughter in Long Beach, founded the International Professional Surfers’ (IPS) female surfing tour in 1976, in which she was the inaugural year’s World Champion.
Sophia graduated from the University of Hawaii in 2013, won countless longboard contests and was a colorful personality, in and out of the water. She often expressed gratitude in media interviews during her career, obviously proud of who she was and her roots, describing herself as a “third-generation water woman.”
Source Credit: The Inertia
Sophia’s parents have asked that in lieu of flowers that you give to The Sport of Kings Foundation.
Photo: Seasistersophia.com
“Life is a gift,” she said in a 2015 interview. “We are immensely blessed to be surfers.”
He was given the nickname “The Machine.” Over a span of six decades, he created around 80,000 surfboards. He created signature boards for Gary Propper, Corky Carroll, Gerry Lopez, Wayne “Rabbit” Bartholomew and Joyce Hoffman. The last board he made was a 10-foot (3.0 m) balsa and redwood Hot Curl. This was a replica of the board he had made when younger. Martin died of melanoma on May 12, 2012.
Credit Source: Wikipedia
Terry Martin, 1937 –2012
Terry Martin was a California surfer and surfboard shaper who worked for Hobie Surfboards, shaping more than 80,000 surfboards, including boards for surf legends such as Corky Carroll and Phil Edwards. Terry grew up inland and was not exposed to surfing until later into his life. At the age of 14, his family moved to Point Loma. His first board was 13 feet (4.0 m) long and weighed 85 pounds (39 kg). Terry graduated from Point Loma high school. He served in the Air Force Reserves, and worked in construction, in shipbuilding, and as a door to door salesman.
In 1963, he joined Hobie Alter in his Hobie Surf Shop. The first board Terry created was a 10-foot (3.0 m) board made out of lighter balsa wood and redwood that he had salvaged from a lumber yard. This board weighed only 20 pounds (9.1 kg). It also had no fin, which allowed Martin to do tricks and moves that other surfers weren’t able to do. Martin shaped an average of 10 boards a day.