Big Wave – Devonport

The honest position is that Tasmania's north coast faces Bass Strait rather than open ocean, so the surf here is nothing like the west or east coasts of the island. What the north coast has instead is an enormous amount of flat water – the Mersey, the Tamar, the sheltered bays – which is why the business is a canoe shop as well as a surf shop, and probably more of one.

A wave is nonetheless the right sign. It reads instantly as water sports of any kind, it has a shape that works at scale, and nobody has ever built a compelling giant kayak.

Waves are also unusually hard to render convincingly. The form is defined entirely by motion – a wave that is not moving is just a curved surface – so a static sculpture has to capture the instant of breaking, with the lip thrown forward, or it fails to read at all.

Devonport is the Spirit of Tasmania port, so essentially everyone who brings a car to the island passes through, which makes William Street a well-judged place for a large object.

No answer exists for the maker's name, its proportions and a date.