Another beauty from Jason's collection, an original early/mid 70s twin keeler made by Pete Mitchell for Wavecraft. You see so many modern remakes of this type of shape, its great to see an original one. Wavecraft as a maker is a bit of a mystery to me, I've seen quite a few in the south west now so they must have been produced down here, Jason thinks Truro and someone else said Wadebridge. There was a Wavecraft in the US too but apparently they didn't make many boards. If the bird is British that would clinch it, but I'm not a very adept twitcher so can't tell.
Jason took a while to get this board, but he triumphed in the end ,a board to be proud of-
' I stalked this board for a coupe of years with out success only to get a phone call out of the blue asking if i was still interested in buying it, after screaming and jumping up and down for a couple of seconds I calmly said yes!
I believe Hawiian Jimmy Blears who was world champ in 1972 (the one where someone stole and then nailed David Nuuhiwa fish to the pier) shaped at Wavecraft for a while in the early 70's and I presume his influence had something to do with the template on this board as it is miles off any other fish i have seen from around this era.'
Hi, this is one of my father's boards from the 70's. His workshop was in Cornwall and he was a one-man operation. Sadly, my father died on October 1st but I am so happy that his work is still appreciated. Emma
ReplyDeletehi Emma, sorry about your dad.
ReplyDeleteI take it he was Pete Mitchell.He made some nice boards and will be well remembered by us. Al
Yes, to clarify, there is a surfboard shaper in the US named Mitchell Chechik who still shapes custom surfboards under the name Wavecraft Surfboards. He has been shaping since the late 70's though, so if the date on your board is correct, this is not a board from the US. Here is Mr. Chechik's facebook company page for more detailed info (i.e. my dad lol): https://www.facebook.com/WavecraftDesigns
ReplyDelete