Beautiful RARE Surfboard Maker Stock Certificate from W.A.V.E. - Water Apparatus & Vehicular Engineering, Inc. issued in 1974. This historic document has an ornate border around it with a vignette of the Company's name. This item has the printed signatures of the Company's President, Karl Pope and Secretary, and is over 41 years old.
Certificate In 1970, Karl Pope (formerly of Morey-Pope Surfboards) partnered with Bob Johnson (now the owner of Island Packet Yachts in Florida) to develop the first lightweight, water proof, hi-performance, hollow surfboard ever made called the Hollow W.A.V.E.. Surfboard designers like Dick Brewer, Tom Morey, & Larry Gordon provided the original patterns from which the molds were made. Each Hollow W.A.V.E. was fabricated using epoxy pre-empregnated fiberglass in a 1/4" sandwich with aluminium honeycomb as the core of the 1/4" thick shell. The top and bottom of each board were molded separately and then glued together. The resulting rail seam was glassed over by hand and the board was painted. From 1971 to 1974 over 10,000 Hollow W.A.V.E. surfboards were made and sold world wide. Many are still in the water today. Mike Purpus was the W.A.V.E competition surfer and won several pro contests on his 6'10 Brewer Hollow. At the peak of production, W.A.V.E. was molding over 400 boards a week with 60 employees in Saticoy, California. In 1973, the gas shortage hit and long lines at the gas station were common. In addition, sources for epoxy and epoxy pre-pregs dried up. With no materials available, W.A.V.E was forced to shut down in early 1974 and was sold in June of that year to a investor group of non surfers. It went out of business permantly in 1975. History from Wikipedia, Encyberpedia and OldCompany.com (old stock certificate research service)