Tony, what a difference a year makes. I started surfing in 64, and I don’t remember seeing much if any Yater ads. I do remember seeing a couple of ads for the removable fin system he used, but I don’t remember if they were Yater ads or the fin makers. I lived in WLA/Santa Monica, and I was the only guy I knew with a Yater. My point was that Da Cats surfed pretty good for the time, coming from someone who owned both boards. My other point was that Yater (and I might be on shaky ground here) was never in the same league as far as board numbers as the the bigs in the industry, ie, Hobie, G&S, Webber, Bing, and Greg Noll.
Like I said, Yater had an ad in nearly every issue of Surfer Mag, for the first four years.
If you read the mag back then, you probably saw the ads. Maybe not.
He certainly wasn’t producing the kind of numbers that Hobie, Weber, etc did, at that time. So, while he did not have a big “profile” within the nascent surfboard industry, his boards were known and ridden even on the East Coast. His W Coast presence was limited to the SB and La Jolla areas, early on.
You might also know that Dora got the idea for the “Cat” from Yater. Renny originally approached Dora, with the idea of Miki endorsing the Spoon for the Yater label. There are conflicting, vague stories about why the deal did not happen. However, Dora took the basic idea to Noll, and they did the Cat as their own interpretation of Yater’s concept.
Renny’s notion was to reduce the ‘swing weight’ of a board. Rather than go the way of a ‘pig’ outline, with the wide point back, and thus moving the balance point back, his solution was to reduce the thickness in the front third. Thus, the outline could be varied, yet still shift the center of weight back.
Maybe you’ve heard a story I read about that said Steve Bigler brought a Yater Surfboard to Rich Harbour and they created a board known as the Cheater?
Yes, that story by Fragale was in Longboard mag, back in '01.
He quotes Rich Harbour as saying that Bigler tried a Spoon up at Rincon, back in '66.
When he got back to Seal Beach, Bigler, Mike Marshall, John Graye, Dean Elliot, and Harbour put their heads together and developed their own version. He didn’t actually bring a board back with him, but his enthusiasm for the concept convinced the others to give it a go.
Back to Da Cat: I found dimensions, and more info on early and later models.
Hi edhead, Ive got one,but one of the new ones, I got it from Bruce Raymond, the Quiksilver guy, about 10 years ago, as well as a Dick Brewer 9’ balsa. The cat has all the usual signed decals etc… If you still want real dims and pics of it , I will do them here, just say so.
Regards,Surffoils.
Quote:
Greetings,
I have been searching the net looking at Greg Noll’s site and Bing’s Restoration site. I was wondering if anyone here has attempted to copy a “Da Cat” model with step deck and channels? I have seen prices as high as $4000 for a “Da Cat” model. If anyone has done it or has specs so I could to attempt to make one it would be appreciated.
Hi TonyM - I’m sure you must correct on your facts, but the story I heard was that Dora wanted to do business and Yater declined. Dora then took the Yater to Noll and the rest is history.I’m sure Yater had two other shapers shaping boards in the late sixties, as well as the late John Bradbury as glasser. It would be interesting to get Dick Perry to post again here. He’s registered as Viejo.
You need to keep up your history, Yater practically unheard of ? Hobie’s early glasser, developer of California’s big wave designs and on top of it all, never went out of the surfboard building business from the day he hung out the shingle.
As for the Nu’uhiwa pintail light weight, it rode amazingly superb for its vintage, I know, I rode one in a vintage board event at St, Augutsine, Fla. I surfed against Tory Strange and George Taylor, both East Coast Champions at longboarding and a good 20 years younger than me, I beat the living shit out of the both of them !
Jim Phillips-3 time East Coast and 3 time United States Champion-46 year shaping-1998 hall of fame inductee
You need to keep up your history, Yater practically unheard of ? Hobie’s early glasser, developer of California’s big wave designs and on top of it all, never went out of the surfboard building business from the day he hung out the shingle.
Yes. In an interview with Alter, he says that of the first 1580 balsa boards produced under the Hobie label in Dana Point, he shaped all but 2 of the them. The other two were done by Phil Edwards, and Yater. The very first attempt at doing foam boards at Hobie’s was with styrofoam. Hobie did one, Yater did the other. Hobie says they both sucked, but Yater’s was better than his own. Also, if Yater was such an unknown in the mid Sixties, how was he able to have two locations in 1962, in SB and La Jolla? Seems to me business must have been good enough, to warrant the La Jolla operation?
Specs for an early 9’8" Cat (spring of '66 to Summer '67) are as follows:
Nose: 17
Width: 22.5
Tail: 16 (square tails, only)
Thickness: 3.5, just back of “center”
Fin: 11.5" base, 10" deep. Glass-on, only.
The ‘lam’ will be near the tail
The later Cats, produced from the Fall of '67 to February of '68,
measure up thusly.
again, a 9’8":
Nose :17
Width: 21"
Tail: 15"
Fin: Glass on or removable, 10.5" base, 10" deep
Pintail Cats were only produced in the later runs. The laminate was up near the nose, and many had a channel bottom in the tail.
Also, if anyone ever offers you a Cat with the serial number written in pencil, it’s a fake.
All Greg Noll boards produced in California used a stamper for the serial numbers. This is how a counterfeiter was caught, a few years ago. He used a pencil.
I knew some other people would eventually find some history on this board and what it was really like to ride one. I had one at my disposal for about a week that a shop owner let me borrow for a classic longboard contest.
