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The History

Back in the day, bodysurfing was the only game in town – in America, at least. It was massive. There were huge competitions with thousands of spectators. Then the Hawaiians gave us the incredible revolution of board surfing. People loved surfing and it quickly took off, but if you didn’t have – or couldn’t afford – a surfboard, bodysurfing was still your main option.

Then the boogie-board came along and it completely killed bodysurfing as a sport. It really killed it. People must have seen it as the logical progression from bodysurfing and just moved on. Nobody goes to watch bodysurfing competitions anymore. It’s become a niche sport.

This didn’t sit well with Nick Gadler, the creator of WaveWrecker. A surfer from way back, he loves all kinds of surfing – but his real passion is bodysurfing. One day, he was in the pool teaching his son to swim. He was treading water in the deep end for what felt like an age, waiting for his son to swim over. It was tiring. Then it occurred to him. He grabbed some pool noodles and propped himself up, immediately allowing him to relax and float in the water. Suddenly, he was struck by the thought, “Man, if I could be naturally buoyant like this in the ocean, imagine the waves I could catch!”

It was a thought he couldn’t shake. He took to the workshop, initially gluing cutout bits of foam mats to a wetsuit to create his first prototype. Six years and countless prototypes later, here we are. The finished WaveWrecker is a beautifully designed, highly effective wave-destroying machine, and Nick is so stoked with what he’s made that he’s ready to share it with the world. He’s got patents for his design in almost every country with a surfable coastline and he’s ready to ship your WaveWrecker gear today.