The surfing community is paying tribute to the Quiksilver founder Alan “Greeny” Green, who died from cancer on Tuesday at his home in Torquay, Victoria aged 77.
Considered a pioneer of surfwear, Green started making wetsuits in 1969 along with friends and Rip Curl co-founders Brian Singer and Doug “Claw” Warbrick.
Green went on to found Quiksilver with his friend John Law in Torquay, focusing on a transformative boardshorts design with Velcro fly, metal press studs and a “yoke waist” (sitting high at the back and lower at the front).
“They hugged your back and still hung low on your hips,” Green said in the book The Mountain and the Wave: The Quiksilver Story. “They were distinctive, functional, comfortable boardshorts, and two-toned yokes made them different from the rest. Surfers seemed to like them.”
Green’s wife, Barbara, chose the company name Quiksilver after seeing it in a novel. The word is said to evoke a sense of fluidity, elusiveness and change which summarised the brand’s ethos.
Green grew up in Pascoe Vale, Melbourne, and would travel 90 minutes away to go surfing in Torquay.
The surfer Kelly Slater, who had a 23-year partnership with Quiksilver before his departure from the sponsor last year, paid tribute to Green on Instagram, writing: “Love you, Greeny. You were one of a kind and a great friend and mentor for so many. I’ll miss you forever.”
The Surfworld Gold Coast chair and Surfing Hall of Fame inductee Rod Brooks wrote: “The word ‘legend’ gets thrown around a lot in the surfing scene, but yesterday … a true legend … passed away.”
Green is survived by his wife and three children, including daughter Roxy, whose name inspired Quiksilver’s sister brand for women.
