I just picked up what to me looks like an early 80’s Wavecraft Surfboard. The problem is it has no markings whatsoever on the stringer etc.
I did a serach on surfcrazy.com and the decal comes up (somewhat different), which leeds me to think it might be an American brand (I bought it in Sydney Australia).
Can anyone shed some light on this board. It is a twin fin, double flyer with a fin box stabiliser.
Any info would be muchly apreciated.
Wavecraft were made in Cornwall, Wadebridge if I remember correctly. They used to do a lot of epoxy boards back then. However as you bought it in Sydney there is every possibility that someone in OZ made boards with that name. A friend of mine had a similar board to the one you describe in epoxy with a Fungus the Bogey man spray on it, went really well as I recall. If you post a pic of the decal I could probably remember if it was from the Cornish company.
hi, wavecraft boards were made in newquay,cornwall in the eighties/early ninties by nigel woodcock, i think he was european champ at one time, they allways seemed to go pretty good as well, you sometimes still see them around in the water,i found one in the local dump last year, a real early one badly shaped and with multi fin boxes but with a deep single to double concave in the bottom ,pete
I think the boards that were shaped by Nigel Woodcock were WaveKraft not Wavecraft. The name Mitch Ceptchic has been thrown out there. Does anyone know of his boards?
Here are some pictures of the board in question.
Whilst cleaning it up last night I discoverd a scratching in the fin of 5644CT.
Might be the number of boards shaped and the shapers initials, however I’ve never seen this done before.
Your right, it’s not made by the cornish company.
This is a board that I shaped In 1984 or 85 shortly after I moved to Oxnard CA. I shaped it for a guy that was allways taking surf trips around the globe and leaving his boards behind. He would usually give them to a local kid who couldn’t afford one or had no access to one. This boards logo was designed by a friend and was only used a couple of times. Lams were made but I didn’t like the diesign so I chose not to use many of them. The logo’s on your board were more than likely sprayed on with a paint stencil. The fins don’t look origanal to the board, looks like they’ve been replaced. It was also a unrecorded board. I didn’t start numbering boards in till 1987 it was painted and glassed in a garage at Silver Strand Beach. The boards that i’m shaping now are alot better, take a look. Well Now you know.
Mitch Chechik (Wavecraft Surfboards)
P.S. If you want a new board call 1-818-633-WAVE
It’s not Mitch Ceptchic – It’s Mitch Chechik – Shaper out of Oxnard CA.USA Now resides in West Hills CA. USA
I first used the name Wavecraft in 1969 as a name for my accessory sales company. We used that and the companion name Wavewear on a variety of products. That was my corporate name until the late eighties.
Other than a few kneeboards in the late sixties and a couple of personal surfboards every now and then I didn’t use the name for surfboards.
The logo I used was distinctive with a graphic line drawing of a wave. We ran several ads in the two magazines in the late sixties early seventies.
The name for surfboards, by the way, is probably not registerable as a trademark since it is descriptive.
That’s interesting to know. There are a couple of others out their that use different variations like Pacific Wavecraft. I started shaping 1975 I saw a pop up camping trailer with the name Starcraft on it and thought hay I can call my surfboards Wavecraft. I copyrighted it in 1983 but officially registered the name Wavecraft in 2008.
Registered trade mark
Should have said not defendable as a registered mark. If you added something else and a mark it would help.The way an attorney described it to me, names that are simply descriptive are not defendable. Example: Light Beer.(More than one company has used the name or variation of it).
You could not register and defend the name Surfboard for example. Or Boardshort. Or Surfboard Wax. Automobile. Car. Truck.
When I used the name for twenty years (1969-1989) it was not for surfboards but as a generic term covering all of our surf related products. Larry Gordon came up with the name. He was my business partner in the beginning. At the time there were companies such as World Surfing Products, California Surfing Products, etc. and we wanted a name for our surfing accessories sales company that was distinctive.
I drew the logo in college art class.
Maybe later I’ll upload a copy of the mark we used. It was quite distinctive. The font we used, Lautrec Italic, is not even available anymore from searches I’ve done.
This issue came up in the Plastic Fantastic thread with some interesting comments.
Ya that sounds about write to me. When I applied to register Wavecraft I had to send the logo art work in an attachment along with the application. It was all done through the USPTO web sight. I did it so someone couldn’t tell me that I couldn’t use the name. Personally I really don’t care if someone else uses the name Wavecraft as long as they don’t try to tell me I can’t. I had to pay $900.00 to an attorney to research the name to see if anybody else had it in use and registered but there were only a couple that had different variations like Pacific Wavecraft or Wave Craft but not Wavecraft all one word. the attorney told me that the specific logo art is protected and I have the right to use the name after I receive the certificate.
Mitch:
I would like to communicate with you regarding Wavecraft surfboards.
Andy Anderson, Editor 'Stoked-n-Board' project of the Surfing Heritage Foundation.
I can be reached at: andersonsocal@cox.net or 619-246-5484
