In this 1982 file photo, Jack O’Neill suits up in the small craft harbor before windsurfing off Santa Cruz, Calif. Thousands of surfers took to the waters Sunday off California in tribute to the wetsuit pioneer who died last month at the age of 94.
In this 1982 file photo, Jack O’Neill suits up in the small craft harbor before windsurfing off Santa Cruz, Calif. Thousands of surfers took to the waters Sunday off California in tribute to the wetsuit pioneer who died last month at the age of 94.Dan Coyro/The Santa Cruz Sentinel

O’Neill died last month at the age of 94. The Santa Cruz Sentinel reports surfers gathered for a “paddle out” service near O’Neill’s cliffside Santa Cruz home. Many of them wore O’Neill wetsuits and eye patches in honor of the covering O’Neill famously donned following a surfing injury.

A paddle out is a traditional way surfers pay tribute following the death of one of their own. It consists of surfers forming a circle in the water and tossing flowers. The Sentinel reports O’Neill’s paddle out circle stretched more than a half-mile across.

O’Neill invented the first neoprene wetsuit in the 1950s, allowing surfers to stay longer in cold water.