The trapping of surface water waves by a thin plate in deep water is reduced to finding non-trivial solutions of a homogeneous, hypersingular integral equation for the discontinuity in velocity potential across the plate. The integral equation is discretized using an expansion-collocation method, involving Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind. A non-trivial solution to the problem is given by the vanishing of the determinant inherent in such a method. Results are given for inclined flat plates, and for curved plates that are symmetric with respect to a line drawn vertically through their centre. Comparisons with published results for horizontal flat plates (in water of finite depth) and for circular cylinders are made.