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The History of Little Wave (Heritage Surf & Sport) |
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Read about our First Days.
Click on the small images to view larger versions
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2004-2005 (Back to top)
Margate opens a new women's section, as all of the stores cater more to the growing market
of women surfers. Randy and Kevin continue to work with the Margate Recreation Department
and Community Center, providing surf lessons for area youth. Randy and Michelle proudly
welcome the addition of thier third child, daughter Julia.
Brian and Jaime welcome their first offspring, son Brett, while Brian continues to run local
contests and expand the Heritage Pro to a three-star event, relocating to Atlantic City
with new and larger sponsors.
Barbara still advises and consults as needed, while enjoying more time for travelling. A
trip "down under" provided an opportunity to visit well-known surf beaches and surf
shops where creative designs were impressive. Everyone at Heritage looks forward to a
new computer system and to a very successful year 2005.
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2001-2003 (Back to top)
Sea Isle City expands to the second floor with the addition of a new board room. The
Heritage Pro Contest continues to grow in size and recognition. Heritage family members,
along with Randy and Michelle, join Barbara and her new husband John for a week of fun
(and surfing) in Kauai.
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1997-2000 (Back to top)
Ocean City and Margate expand to keep up with the growing surf market. Along with the
growth of all thier stores is the growth of the Heritage family management team. Tracy
and Jim in Ocean City continue thier involvement in running the Ocean City Surfing
Association in which all of thier four children participate and often bring home trophies.
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1997
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In February of 1997 Dan Heritage passed away. Today, Heritage Surf & Sport continues
to thrive on the determination and pride established by its founder.
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1996
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In February of 1996 Dan recieved a letter from the staff of Surf Expo. It was an
invitation to attend a ceremony in his honor. During the ceremony Dan was inducted
into Greg Noll's East Coast Surf Legend's Hall of Fame.
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1986-1989
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After nearly two decades of shaping surfboards and working with chemicals and resin,
Dan began to scale down the manufacturing operations. As one of the early pioneers of
surfing in the east, Dan retired in '89 due to health reasons. His son Brian, continues
to shape boards for the family stores. The shops continue to be family oriented. In
fact, Dan's wife Barbara along with Brian, Tracy and son-in-law Jim continue to carry
on the dream Dan began 34 years ago. Dan continued to check in on the family business
occasionally but preferred to spend most of his time near the ocean. In his remaining
years Dan seemed to have caught more fish than he did waves.
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1982 (Back to top)
A third location was opened in Stone Harbor. Some years later this shop was relocated
to Margate, NJ. With three locations, Heritage Surf & Sport became a source of local
pride for east coast residents.
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1978
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A second retail location was established in Ocean City, NJ. With the business growing,
everyone in the family found themselves involved. Dan taught his son Brian how to shape
while Barbara, his wife, taught daughter Tracy how to run the shop. About 500 boards a
year left the Heritage plant. Most were sold at our own store while others were wholesaled
at other locations up and down the east coast.
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1971-1977
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Dan built his main retail location in Sea Isle City, NJ. It was then that his wife and
children began getting involved with the business. Skateboards had been making a big
comeback. While Dan made wooden and fiberglass kicktail decks, the rest of the family
was assembling, packaging and shipping them to other dealers. Since Dan's Dad was an
artist and photographer in the advertising field, he lent his expertise in the promotion
of Little Wave's products. ``What better name to give your boards than your own?" he
said. Dan's dad then designed the family crest logo for the first Heritage Surfboard
decal. From there after Little Wave was known as Heritage Surf & Sport.
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1968-1971
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Dan Heritage began manufacturing boards on a full time basis. Because of limited experience
in board manufacturing on the east coast, Dan had to teach all of his employees every
aspect of the process. This included shaping, glassing, sanding, pinning and glossing.
He became known as one of the best pin men on the east coast. Everything Dan accomplished
was self-taught. He worked endless hours with a persistence and determination to be the
best he could. He was never afraid to try new ideas. When Ross Houston opened up the first
Surf Expo in Virginia Beach, Dan was among the first supporters. He was considered one of
the east coast's few avid supporters of the surf industry.
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1966-1967
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Dan worked full time as a production supervisor in a chemical laboratory to support his
wife and two children. He surfed every chance possible while not running the shop. Weekly
contests became a challenge with shop sponsored teams competing vigorously against one
another. He coordinated several competitions and never missed qualifying for the East Coast
Championship in Hatteras along with his team.
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1964
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With increasing love and enthusiasm for the sport, he opened up his first store in Sea
Isle, NJ. The store was named Little Wave Surf Shop, in jest of the small waves by which
our coast seems to be mocked. Little Wave was one of G & S' first distributors on the
east coast. Inventory at the store included lots of surfboards; from Harbor Ventura
Plastic Poparts and Tanaka.
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1963 (Back to top)
Dan opened up a rental concession in Ocean City NJ and ran a small store in his home town
of Vineland about 40 miles from the beach.
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Dan Heritage, Age 18, 1962
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Dan's interest in surfing began after reading an ad in Popular Mechanic on how to build your
own surfboard. Having spent many summer days in the Jersey surf as a kid, he had a real love
for the ocean. With a few friends, he sent away for materials and instructions. After testing
out their skills (if you could call it that) on three foam boards they proceeded to try their
hands at glassing. After the glassing of only one board they were evicted from the basement
to the garage. There they finished the others. After a few weeks of work Dan was ready to
test his work. It took only a half hour to break his board in half in the shore break.
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