Last year the museum received this message on our Facebook page:

Jul 05, 2014 12:51pm

Pat O'Hare, Shaper of Happiness Surfboards, with the Creviston Family

Pat O’Hare, Shaper of Happiness Surfboards, with the Creviston Family

Hi guys, I wanted to send this pic to whomever may be interested….we just left Cocoa Beach this morning after a week vacation. My dad (60) bought this board there 40 years ago and brought it back down with us. My 8 yr old son surfed on it and did pretty good for his first time! (The boy in the pics is my nephew.) I thought maybe someone there would be interested in seeing these since it was made by Happiness Surfboards and I didn’t see any from that company in the museum. It was shaped by Pat O’Hare. I tried getting my dad to look up Mr. O’Hare to see if he’d sign it but he didn’t want to bother him. lol I wish he would have brought it in to show someone earlier in the week but time got away from us. We had a great week and enjoyed the museum! Thanks, Marchelle Mosley

Marchelle contacted me when her family returned to Cocoa Beach this year with her dad, Mark Creviston, and her son Colton and I got to hear the whole story. Mark had come here in 1973 from Indiana with some high school friends on a road trip to hang out at the beach and learn to surf. Mark bought the board used at a local shop- he can’t remember which one- and took it back to Indiana where it stayed until last year. His brief experience with surfing was so meaningful that he wanted to share it with his grandson. Colton on his first wave:

Their odyssey continued when Pat O’Hare’s son Sean arranged for them to meet Pat at his home in Cocoa Beach. Pat shaped the board under the label Happiness Surfboards, one of the first local labels to emerge from the Shortboard Revolution, which included many historically important individuals.

Happiness Surfboards CA. early 70s L-R Claude Codgen, Sam Gornto, Mike Shea , Pat OHare, Bill Eberwein, Jim Hanley

Pat was excited to see one of his early shapes appear after so many years and he enjoyed hearing the story behind it. For Mark it was the chance to revive a memory that had meant so much to him and pass it down to  his grandson Colton. Hopefully the Creviston Family will continue to visit us, and Cocoa Beach  will see the next generation of Crevistons share their family tradition through the joy of surfing.