About Kracka

Wayne started shaping surfboards when he was 16 years old (around 1984) from his Mum & Dads home in Redhead. He sold boards to friends and locals from Redhead and then by chance, he was asked to shape a Nipper Board for a member of Swansea Belmont SLSC. He enjoyed the challenge of shaping this type of board and although initially, it was hard to convince anyone to purchase a board shaped by a 16-year-old kid, by the age of 19 he had enough work to leave his employment as a carpenter with his parent’s business. He decided to set up his own business and came up with the catchy name of “Kracka” and he was on his way.

Still working from home, the orders started to increase and pretty soon the backyard shed was not able to hold his business. His parents owned and rented a house at Broadmeadow that had a business out the back and he convinced them to rent the business premises out to him.

He continued to work alone for many years working 7 days a week until several years down the track when Kracka was an established name on the market, and it was clear that this too would not cater for his growing number of orders. Still having no receptionist to answer calls, or any other staff, Wayne moved to his purpose-built factory at Redhead where he started to see that staff may be needed to help fill the orders.
Kracka has continued from strength to strength from there to establish itself as Australia’s leading Surfcraft Manufacturer.

Demand for Wayne’s Kracka boards is increasing all the time and now goes throughout the world which is a huge achievement. Kracka’s success lies solely with Wayne and his relentless pursuit of the best board shapes, the best materials available and his willingness to listen and work with the competitors that ride the boards.

Wayne’s wife Nicole eventually left her employment and came to set up a manageable office structure and run that side of things to ensure we not only made great boards but have the best customer service as well, and they have worked together at the Redhead premises in this “Mum and Dad” family business since around 2002 together.  Wayne in the factory and Nicole in the office together with different staff employed over the years.

Wayne has an established reputation for keeping ahead of the market in design and technology and was the first Surfcraft manufacturer to see that a C & C machine would cut down on his shaping time and keep his design shapes on computer file that could be replicated each time with high precision. So around 15 Years ago, he actually built this machine himself from the ground up spending endless hours changing and modifying the machine to adapt to what he needed. Other manufacturers caught up only within the last 5 or 6 years, taking up this technology which Kracka found way before the rest.

Back in 2012, still keeping ahead of the market in design and technology Wayne developed and moved ahead with our Foam Sandwich board construction, which again lead the market in performance, strength and design. This manufacturing process took our boards to another level in strength and durability and to date in 2021, we remain one of the only board manufacturers that have developed this superior way of making our boards.

Waynes core love is shaping boards and with a small part of the board making ( the foam sandwich lamination  process) taken out of his hands, this allowed him a little more time to develop his board designs, and our board shapes have proven to be the absolute fastest on the market time and time again over the years.

In 2021, Wayne the person that owns and started Kracka Racing Surfcraft, some 37 years ago,  is still the person that is here working on your board shapes and working on your boards, and the many processes from after the foam sandwich construction, now done elsewhere, are still all performed by Wayne and our small factory staff here in Redhead with every board still going through Waynes hands for quality control. In 2021 Nicole, co -owner, is still here Managing the office, and doing all our own marketing and social media.

The people that own the business and care about your business are the people you still deal with.

Kracka’s support of Surf Lifesaving as a sport over the years has been amazing.  We have literally hundreds of kids sponsored over the years, Numerous carnivals sponsored and boards donated to help worthy causes.  We are so proud to boast THE BEST team of athletes we could ever hope to have that choose to ride our boards because they want the best equipment to help them achieve their goals.

Our 100% Australian owned very small family business has built a very big reputation for making the best boards on the market. We all work very hard to ensure that this reputation is going to extend into the years to come.

At Kracka, we are not resting on our reputation, we are continually developing and streamlining our equipment with our goal being the same as our customer’s goals…….to win races…… and provide the best quality boards we can.

To do this, sometimes you will have to wait longer than with other manufacturers to receive one of our boards, we believe, as do many of our customers that the wait is definitely worth it.

Quality not quantity is our mission.

Lifeguard/Rescue Boards

Not only are our Racing Boards in high demand but Wayne has worked closely over the years with Professional Lifeguards to develop and improve the quality of the Rescue and Lifeguard boards offered to these people that work tirelessly to keep us safe on our beaches. APOLA recognizes Kracka as their preferred supplier of Lifeguard boards.

Kracka Lifeguard and Rescue Boards can be seen on beaches throughout Australia and some of our largest Councils and Surf Clubs choose our boards such as Gold Coast, Waringah, Waverley, Sutherland & Gosford Councils.

In 2009, SLSA approved our SR2 Rescue Board that Wayne developed specifically for the APOLA Lifeguards for use on our beaches throughout Australia. This board has been the result again, of Wayne’s willingness to listen, work and change our boards to what our customers want. The lifeguards told him they wanted a lighter, faster and easier to handle board than the heavy boards they had used and this is what Wayne then set out to develop. He designed each model, shaped each board, and trialled each board personally with the Lifeguards for several years before he got it just right. In additions to this, in 2013, SLSA have now approved our new model SR3 Surf Rescue board. This is the board Wayne developed in consultation with the Lifeguards at Waverly Council’s Bondi Beach. This is a wider, more stable board designed for mass rescue of more than one person at any time. This board also features in the hit TV show “Bondi Rescue”. This board is now available to SLS clubs Australia wide as a Surf Rescue Board.

We welcome you to try a Kracka board for yourself and see the difference that an ever-growing team of supporters say:

“Once you have ridden a Kracka, you won’t ride anything else”

We look forward to assisting you.