We just finished a Resto-Mod on a DaCat a friend found under a house in Norfolk. He picked it up for a cool $75. Since he already had two, one being mint original condition, Austin talked him out of this one. We justed finished doing a Resto-Mod on it. Not quite original but its the design that Austin wanted plus its a personal board so who cares right? We also have an originial fin that will finish her off. We had to repair some dings to the nose and flattened out some depressions out but she was good enough to not wrap her an extra layer of cloth. We then sanded the crap out of it to bring it all to weave then layed down the black pigment, next white paw prints, and finally resand, gloss, and polish. About 20 hours of work.
I once had the use of a similar board for a summer, similar except I don’t recall any cat tracks on it, and the ‘noseriding channels’ back in the tail were red.
And on a hot day at the beach, you could just sit there and watch the wax melt and the delams spread. Kinda like the movie Alien. Spooky, it was. Gotta love black cats, and there’s a reason there’s not many still around.
In any event - this is a board that might really use a light colored or reflective board bag to very good advantage.
Howzit T, A friend of mine used to glass the black ones for Greg and he told me the channels were done with a beer can with the top cut off, ingenuity at it’s best. Aloha,Kokua
Hey Doc your are right they never did have large paw prints like that. Austin wanted his DaCat to be a little different and since it wasn’t going to be the original pigment anyway he took the liberties.
Hey Mike good to hear from you. Still working construction? How is the economy on the island? Yep necessity is the mother of invention especially when you talk about the surfboard industry!
isn’t black the very hardest to polish and buff out ? i remember danny heritage here in nj just going nuts because he had a custon order for a black stick–it came out great ! anyway, i thinkyou should send photosof that thing to gregnoll, he would love your take on the original
Polishing is pretty easy if you just take your time and watch the burn throughs. The problem is keeping it without scratches. After you polish it you have to be real careful because the gloss is still fresh and scratches easy as crap. The longer it sits up the harder the finish becomes. They all are like that but you really notice with black boards.
Howzit T, Yep still doing the construction thing but mostly doing exotic woods and maintenence and repairs for a guy who lives just down the street form my old house, the one you came to. He has 3 houses on the beach and the up keep never ends. We were doing lots of big projects for him but since the vacation rentals are way down we are cuttng back on those and I had to lay off the rest of the crew. Things are slow here just like the rest of the world but the owner has told me I don’t need to worry about my job. Plus I’m the only one who knows how to fix his CNC wood carving machine. Lots of guys are out of work and 6 months ago there would be 3 or 4 columns in the help wanted section, now there’s 3 or 4 jobs. Last week 300 people applied for 1 job at a pizza place and businesses are dying like crazy. Some people say they are going back to the mainland but it’s no better there. Have been doing some board work for Richard Gomez since I’m missing doing boards now, but the money is so nice from the construction. Keep up the good work you and Austen are awesome.Aloha,Kokua
