http://www.latimes.com/...
A self-taught design innovator and entrepreneur, Alter was a reluctant businessman who wore cutoffs instead of suits and was guided by his imagination above all else.
"I'm making money producing things that give me pleasure, doing exactly what I want to do," Alter told a reporter in 1977. "I guess I'm really lucky that way."
He was a big deal to me , I rode his boards , I went to school with his son , I hung around his glassing shop , I applied to work at the Hobie Cat factory .