A History of Titanium Beach

The company was started by me, Stuart Benjamin Morgan, and am a system software developer by original trade. I've been in the computer business since 1981 when I was 20 years old. In 1995, of all things, I discovered figure skating and NFL football. My first skating coach was Kyla Vawter who taught me how to fall (she saved me from certain death I'm sure), quickly followed by Barbara Roles Williams two weeks later. Barbara coached me for about a year or so, during which time Lorin O'Neal also coached me. Lorin is the source of all technical knowledge and history of figure skating; if you want to know the "why's", he's your man. If anyone wants to put the blame on my wild high speed skating - it has to fall squarely on Barbara's shoulders (she always told me to skate as fast as I can - if you aren't scared, you aren't pushing yourself). Barbara is the ultimate motivator and confidence builder - when you did exactly what she would tell you, it would always work; I surely miss that big grin of hers. When Barbara could no longer make that long drive from Las Vegas to L.A. to coach during the week, I got pawned off on Charlene Wong Williams who has been my primary coach ever since - you wouldn't know it by her demeanor, but they don't come any tougher than her mentally; Charlene is the zenmaster of figure skating. She was a four time Canadian Nationals silver medalist and has been to the big dance representing Canada by the way. Thank goodness she married Scott Williams from the USA, otherwise she might still be in Canada! During this time Derek James was my primary coach for jumps until our schedules no longer worked out - will never forget his attitude; "if you can do 5 loop jumps in a row, I'll expect 6, if you can do 7, then I'll expect 10". Derek IS the jumpmeister. We had great fun being REAL loud at times on the ice. He also had some great sayings, "if you do the jump well, it's because of me. if you do the jump poorly, it's because of you". Irina Yelchin also coached me for about a year in there when I moved to L.A. for awhile - I really miss her passion and intensity. I have been extremely fortunate to have had such great coaches. Anyway, after skating for about a year or so and finding that the quality of skate blades was not as good as I expected, I decided to find out if it was feasible to build high quality blades here in the United States. After some discussions with Mike Connery - my then roommate who happened to be a Master Tool and Die Maker - I determined that it would be commercially feasible.

In 1997 Newport Beach Titanium was formed with the sole purpose of building the highest quality figure skate blades commercially available. Much time was spent researching the best material for use as a figure skate blade. After considering stainless steel alloys, chrome-moly, and even aluminum alloys, titanium was found to be the best material for the job. In particular, Ti6Al4V was the alloy found to have the best properties as a blade material with the weldability characteristics needed in its manufacture.

Somewhere towards the end of 1997, skating coach and choreographer Tina Palica (I really think she is one of the best skating choreographers around) and I were talking about skate blades and boots. If it weren't for her enthusiasm at that point in time, the prototype would never have been made.

The first prototype titanium alloy figure skate blades were made in February of 1998 and touched the ice at The Skating Edge ice rink in Harbor City, California on March 12, 1998 (After Rhonda at the Skate Stop spent a few days doing the initial sharpening of the blades. Fortune would have it that Rhonda had experience working with titanium at an aerospace company before.). The titanium blades turned out to be much better than I could have hoped for. What was most notable was how quiet they were on the ice.

In the summer of 1998, the company name was changed to Titanium Beach upon the suggestion of my teenage son Benjamin.

After the proof of concept phase, much time and research was done to find a qualified engineer that had the know-how and passion for quality that I needed. In the summer of 1999 I found the perfect engineer to work with me in designing the production version of the blades. It was purely by accident that I met him. Ken Santiago (he and I have signed a non-disclosure and no-competition agreement, so it isn't worth anyone's time to try and steal his knowledge and talent) is the son of "Sal" Santiago who I worked with when I was contracting to Sempra Energy in San Diego. It was during one night on the late shift in their operations Command Center that Sal just happened to be talking about how his son was an engineer . . . and the rest is . . . well . . . history. Sempra really has one of the best datacenter operations staff I've seen. Great folks.

The company logo was developed during the summer of 1999 which included the Japanese Kanji for the word hamabe which means sandy beach. The reason for incorporating Japanese Kanji as part of Titanium Beach's logo is several-fold. First of all, I'm half Japanese. Secondly, there are two historical pieces of Japanese culture which are part of the soul of Titanium Beach; Zen and the Japanese swordmakers. I have had the distinct privilege to hold in my hands a Samurai sword from the 16th Century several years ago. Nothing can compare with the feeling you get holding something which appears on the surface to be so simple yet by its pure elegance and aura you know how special it is. I hope that owners of Pegasus will have a similar feeling - albeit not on the same level as a 16th Century Samurai sword - when they hold their new blades in their hands for the first time.

During the fall of 1999 additional consulting with experts in skate blade design was done to get information as to additional design details that needed to be in the production version of our skate blades. Much thanks goes to Mike Cunningham of Skater's Paradise who happens to know a thing or two about skate blades.

During December of 1999 some additional bio-mechanical principals were added to the blade design.

In December of 1999 we began offering our Pegasus blades for sale. During the first three months of production we will only accept ten customers per month as we scale up our production capabilities. This will enable us to maintain excellent quality standards and ensure the lucky owners timely delivery of their finished blades.

On December 7, 1999 at the Irvine Ice Arena, California, in a meeting with a prospective owner the first Pegasus blades were sold in a handshake deal.

Thanks to someone special, at the end of February of this year an Olympic qualifying skater was found that would test Pegasus out. I hope to have that individual's blades to them by the first part of April.

I am still working towards certification of our Pegasus blades by the USFSA and ISU. Hopefully, this will be accomplished within the next month. In the meantime I have found out that the blades are OK to use in CFSA sanctioned events according to Laura Ladouceur of the CFSA, because there are no certification requirements for blades by the CFSA.