The Club

Santa Cruz Woodies is a chapter of the National Woodie Club and is, without a doubt, one of the most fun and active organizations to which you can belong. It’s all about having fun California Style. The club is open to anyone who has a love and appreciation of the wooden car. You do not need to own a woodie to join!

The idea for a woodie club, rooted in the surfing culture of Santa Cruz, was the brainchild of Don Iglesias. He contacted a few folks to kick the idea around about forming a woodie club. Upon hearing their willingness to help get something like this off the ground, he set about forming the club. Word got out to all known woodie owners in Santa Cruz about a meeting Don was having at his house. To the best of our knowledge, there were 13 people at the first meeting; Rowland and Dorma Baker, Bob and Robbie Barbour, Pat and Howard Benefield, Barbra and Steve Giosso, Don and Cathy Iglesias, Jim and Patty Lucas, and Michael Riley.

There was quite a bit of discussion at the first few meetings about how organized we wanted this to become. We thought, as long as we could have cool t-shirts and jackets, what else did we really need? Don had done his homework and spoke up to the group about some of the benefits of being an official chapter of the National Woodie Club. After contacting them it was decided that we should apply to become an official chapter. We drew up some by-laws, and in October of 1993, we became an official chapter of the National Woodie Club.

The purpose of the club was clear in everyone’s mind from the start:

To encourage and promote interest in wooden cars. We will gather as a group to cruise to shows, events, celebrations, touring, etc. The historical significance of woodies in the sport of surfing is an area of focus for this chapter.