Surfing’s Maverick

Let’s get one thing straight: Despite what Jack O’Neill often claimed, he did not invent the wetsuit. Credit for the wetsuit goes to Hugh Bradner, a Berkeley physicist who was advising the Navy after World War II. To protect the Navy’s Underwater Demolition Teams from cold water and underwater explosions, Bradner came up with the wetsuit, using flexible neoprene as an insulator and shock absorber. Not