Lost his battle at 2:30 AM last night. Great guy who I had the good fortune to surf and work with for much of the last 40 years .... RIP Davo
Always thought the carpet was the coolest thing. You remember the step van that he Hawaiinized? He used to take Rose to school in it and she’d make him drop her off a couple blocks away … too embarrassed to be seen in such a vehicle.
An email from Mike "Nemo" Nemnich ... Our resident artist at Fox, Natural Art, Ocean Ave, MTB, etc.
Mr. Happy Feet has moved on, David “Davo” Dedrick. Anyone that had the pleasure to work with or be around this wonderful person was lucky indeed. He would always make you smile with his humor and practical jokes. You never knew what to expect when you came into the surfboard factory. It could be a board you were working on transformed into a whimsical statue of tape and assorted items from your work area, or could be Davo would roll a paint roller without the roller down the other side of the door while you were in there and whatever you do check your rear of your car for centerfolds or funny messages on tape before you leave to go home.
Davo loved to dance, but most all Davo was a good father and loved his children very much
I will miss you Davo………….
Another Icon in the business leaves us way to early. RIP Davo.
I'm at a loss for words... I spent the last hour trying to think of something to say here.
I will miss Davo a lot. He was a one-of-a kind guy. An incredible craftsman and just plain hilarious to be around. I think he'd want us to laugh as we remembered him, but I'm having a hard time doing that right now.
Gentlemen,
I’m sincerely sorry for the loss of your friend. Mike
Very sad. He was such a good and generous guy. He let me do my first resin swirl in his shop on a 11-6 combo paddle/surf board that he shaped for me. I won my division and a couple above me on it for the Watermans Challenge short distance paddle event. A great board. He was really pleased when I told him.
I will find some pictures tonight of him and me during the glassing and post. I showed up in flip flops to glass and he was graciously hovered over me to ensure I didn't screw it up.
GL, could you comment on some of the giant boards he built for display in the Cocoa area?
One of my last things on my bucket list before leaving Fla. was to take all my chemicals and cloth to Davo, along with the last shaped blanks which he glassed and then delivered on one of his trips up the coast.
Never saw him as a drinker, such a good guy, see you in the next life, man what a factory that must be in heaven, bunch of amazing craftspersons there
My thoughts exactly. I didn’t know him, but it is always tragic to lose one of our own. Especially one that was such an influence and so well loved.
Davo will be missed. RIP
Here are a few pictures of Dave in his factory. The board is 11-6. Stringerless. He sort of specialized in really big boards. Notice the little fish in the corner. He built a million of those and sent them all over the east coast. It was sort of his signature board. His glassing shop was tops.
Yeah Greg, Dave made a few of those giants … like building a boat those. I think he did those at the Pineda factory. Used to go have lunch with he and Binky at the Pineda Inn right there on the river. Dave was one of a handful of guys I’ve worked with for over 40 years. Surfed on the Hobie team with him in the early 70’s … toured the coast with GP. Went to Hatteras for the championships in 71 with Dave, GP, Mark Crowl and LP. Always that great sense of humor … real craftsman … one of the very best.
Davo once had a factory in the next building over from our t-shirt factory. He had an old Chevy truck, '49-'52. He come to me one day and said, “The landlord says I gotta get rid of the truck or he’s gonna tow it. It doesn’t run. The motor’s froze up. Needs brakes, You wanna buy it?”.
I really didn’t need to buy anything much less an old truck but I went out to look at it. “What do you want for it?”
“A hundred bucks”.
I was walking around the truck and had my secret hundred out of my wallet before I got to the tailgate and before he changed his mind.
“Oh, and I don’t have the title”, he said.
Being an old hot rodder I said, “No problem. I’ll just get an ‘Alabama’ title”.
We put a '79 Camaro subframe with a 350 small block and the Camaro rear. Titled it as a '79 Chevrolet 2 door and drove that thing 'til it rusted away. A cop in one little beach town that will remain nameless didn’t like the way I had it titled and was always threatening to confiscate it. “Go ahead”, I’d say but they always let me off with a warning.
Gonna miss Davo.
I’m looking at that shaping room. That’s the one he built after he moved from the one in Indian Harbour at the mini storage. He came by one day and said, “Hey. I’m moving over to Melbourne … do you want my shaping room?” It was super nice and I said without hesitation, “Yea.” So a couple years later I was moving to AZ and I went over to Mike Daniels and said, “You want my shaping room.” Without hesitation he said, “Yea.” MD is still in that room 7-8 years later.
I was in that room last night as you were writing. I was looking at the tropical flower pattern carpet that Davo (as the story goes) pulled out of some hotel. The template rack that he made that's still on the wall. I'm hoping his spirit will come and visit soon. Knowing Davo, it'll probably come in the form of a practical joke. He'll reverse the polarity on my vac system or something like that.....
From what has been written here I have gotten some idea of who Dave was. The show that he is missed and that speaks a lot for the man. my condolences to those the loved him. Aloha
He tagged the rear of my truck more times than I could count. After the first few, you learned to check. But then he'd leave you alone for a while. He always timed it out about right, so that when you got tired of checking he'd get you.
Sorry to hear about the loss of your friend guys. I didn't know him, but he sounded like a great guy.
I thought that shaping bay looked familiar.
To rooster, ozzy, artz, and foamball: Thanks for understanding.
Davo was the kind of guy any swaylocker would love. He was an early adapter of RR epoxy, had thousands of sides under his belt before 1990. He built everything from carbon fiber/d-cell fins (in the 80s, no less) to beautiful sailboats to race powercats, and of course had a hand in many, many thousands of surfboards. If you had a Rainbow back in the day, Davo glassed it.
Or Natural Art before that.