Did David Nuuhiwa ever ride for Plastic Fantastic Surfboards ?
At the 1968 World Contest in Rincon, Puerto Rico, Nuuhiwa had two beautiful surfboards in a very patriotic red, white, and blue color scheme and then maybe about 15 inches from the nose a large black and white yin & yang design. I always thought that they were made by Plastic Fantastic Surfboards.
Thanks
It’s possible that the Yin-Yang detail was not a manufacturers decal, but just part of the artwork on his board (my memory of an event 50 year ain’t exactly perfect, if ya know what I mean)
T&C did not exist in 1968. Nuuhiwa may have been still riding Bing shapes at that time. Or, they could have been backyard/backdoor shapes.
I don’t know of Plastic Fantastic ever using a yin/yang symbol.
Pdugan-- Your post makes sense in that he may have picked up a “something for nothing” in Florida or Puerto while he was down there. Not uncommon for a local shaper to offer a free board to a Pro Surfer for the publicity it might bring the shaper/builder. Lowel
Around '78, I ordered a board from Shagg’s Surf Shop, which was Dick Catri’s shop in Indialantic, FL. Catri was making boards locally under his name by this time. It was a 7’6" Nuuhiwa model single fin noserider with narrow hips. It was my only board for about a decade, until it snapped in half. I don’t think the Nuuhiwa relationship lasted very long, but that board was special in waves from two to eight feet.
If you want to talk to Catri you’ll have to go to the Solaris assisted living facility in Stuart. Florida.
Nuuhiwa did surf for Plastic for awhile. It was when Glenn Gibbons and Bob Highsmith had the brand and a retail store in Huntington Beach on the corner a block away from Jacks.
Gibbons once told me that they were paying David and that all he had to do was show up in the showroom on Saturday morning.
He said if David was talking to a kid about a board he would motion to him to touch the board. He said if David would just touch the board the kid would buy it.
Thanks for the heads up on Nuuhiwa, I was pretty sure he had surfed for Plastic Fantastic Surfboards, but I’m learning that my recollection of events 50 years ago is not very reliable.
I live just about 5 miles North of the Solaris center in Stuart. I had no idea he was in the Stuart nursing home.
Small world we live in.
I saw Catri (I didn’t talk to him) at the Surf Expo in 2012 in Orlando and he gave a very humorous speech (maybe on behalf of his ex-wife Shagg) and he seemed to be in good shape.
I think his ex wife Shagg, (who he was still on good terms with) was inducted into the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame, and maybe Catri gave the acceptance speech on behalf of Shagg.
Catri, the Godfather of East Coast surfing and a great guy.
I had a small surfboard manufacturing business in West Ocean City, Maryland in the late 60’s and Catri would stop and visit once a summer.
I still remember we all went out for dinner and drinks in a ramshackle bar, called the Fisherman’s Inn (I think). It was a rough and tumble joint commercial fisherman/clammer bar.
We were a pretty motley crew of long hairs and misfits.
A few minutes after we sat down some of the bar locals decided they wanted to throw us out.
Catri was a pretty solid guy back then and I think they weren’t too sure about taking Catri on. As things turned out Catri went over to them and calmed things down, next thing we know we are all having drinks together, one big happy family.
And then Catri turned us on to Flaming Arrows, that drink you light on fire in a shot glass and have to drink the whole shot while it’s on fire, if you take it away from your lips it runs down the front of your shirt on fire.
I just assumed Catri would be here at the:
Boards & Waves Expo lll
June 3 & 4, 2017
a special event honoring
Pete Dooley from Natural Art Surfboards
&
Dick Catri from Catri Surfboards
Nice recollections mobs. I had heard a few stories and knew of him thru a couple of buddies from FLA who transplanted out to Calif. I really enjoy the old stories and recollections no matter what Coast. Balsa Bill and Jim are a wealth of knowledge and I realy get a kick out of stories about the various characters on the EC. Lowel
Surfing has always had more than it’s share of personalities and characters.
Catri always had some of the best surf teams and they would tour the East Coast in the summer, as the surf in Florida is pretty much non-existent if there isn’t a hurricane. The North East actually gets better surf during the summer, due to Northeasters.
A lot of young surfers (old now) probably owe their success to Catri, and he was probably a father figure to many of them.
For each character on the West Coast there’s probably a variation of the same character on the EC.
A lot of the history of surf culture has been disclosed and documented on Swaylock’s.
If you crossed paths with someone in the surfing culture in your youth and wonder whatever became of them just float their name on Swaylock’s and someone will probably know where there are or what happened to them.
Catri was smart enough to get in on surfing at the right time and treat it like a business. His first team was Surfboards Hawaii and he had a wide array of talent ranging from Tabeling to Propper, to Sam Gornto, and more. After the Hawaii thing didn’t work out he got on board with Hobie and brought Propper along, as well as Mimi Munroe, Greg Loehr, and a few others. That team pretty much dominated the EC up til the transition era.
One correction, though. The Northeast doesn’t get Northeasters in the Summer. Those occur mostly in the Fall, and the Spring to a lesser extent. Southern New England is a bit more consistent than other parts during Summer due to the SW windswell from the persistent Bermuda high.
How about we settle on an occasional, milder version in the summer of the more traditional Northeaster that predominately takes place in the winter. (LOL) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nor'easter