dimensions: 8'2 x 22 1/2 x 3 1/8
[completed in September 2012]
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| new owner Sia with board#014 |
By far, this is the board which took me the longest time to finish. Not because of the shaping. That part went really smoothly and fast as I was doing this funboard template for the second time (see
board #004). Siavash, new owner of board #014, gave me a lot a freedom on the shape. He wanted a "guest board" for all his German-UFC-fighters-friends who come to visit him in San Diego. So basically, he needed a board which could handle 250 pounds of pure muscles. Long, wide and thick! This board is very permissive with a nice rocker but the thruster fin setting makes it manoeuvrable. Also it is surprisingly light for its dimension.
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| Jamaican vibe for the "Steel Pulse board" |
The design was also very straight forwards. Siavash had only one requirement: he wanted the Steel Pulse logo displayed somewhere on the board. A rastafari style was then inevitable. I can't put a reggae band logo on a light blue or a teal!!! I HAD to go with the primary green, yellow and red which sounded like a lot of fun... until I decided to use Montana water-based cans to spay the board. I used those in the past and they worked very well for a limited surface area. Covering a whole board was different story. Very quickly I realized that the pressure was not regular and so the colors were unevenly spread. I had to spray a lot of paint to make the colors more homogeneous. Too much layers and no wait in between ended up catastrophic! The top layer "reacted" and made a dust-like layer which was too unstable for glassing. I thought the board was lost. I was very depressed but I was not ready to give up. I visited my glasser (Johnny at Global Glassing) and asked him what could we do to save it. He was really helpful and he worked hard to limit as much as possible the spreading of the paint during the glassing. But it inevitably happened a bit so I took the board back home before the hot coat and I painted some parts in black for the final rescue. Back to the glass shop, Johnny did a great job putting the final hot coat and a very classy polish finish. Ta-Da!
Board #014 was definitely a lot of work for every one (me, Global Glassing and my husband who had to cope with my swinging mood) but at the end I was stoke about the result and the smile on Siavash's face when he saw it for the first time was all very worth it.
[selected by Boardporn]
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| Lion of Judah on the bottom |
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Mere-Made Surfboards logo got scared of the Lion
and is hiding behind the central fin |
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| Shaping for friends feels good |
The design was also very straight forwards. Siavash had only one requirement: he wanted the Steel Pulse logo displayed somewhere on the board. A rastafari style was then inevitable. I can't put a reggae band logo on a light blue or a teal!!! I HAD to go with the primary green, yellow and red which sounded like a lot of fun... until I decided to use Montana water-based cans to spay the board. I used those in the past and they worked very well for a limited surface area. Covering a whole board was different story. Very quickly I realized that the pressure was not regular and so the colors were unevenly spread. I had to spray a lot of paint to make the colors more homogeneous. Too much layers and no wait in between ended up catastrophic! The top layer "reacted" and made a dust-like layer which was too unstable for glassing. I thought the board was lost. I was very depressed but I was not ready to give up. I visited my glasser (Johnny at Global Glassing) and asked him what could we do to save it. He was really helpful and he worked hard to limit as much as possible the spreading of the paint during the glassing. But it inevitably happened a bit so I took the board back home before the hot coat and I painted some parts in black for the final rescue. Back to the glass shop, Johnny did a great job putting the final hot coat and a very classy polish finish. Ta-Da!
Congratulations on a beautiful new board! Amazing talent and the hard work paid off! True beauty is never an easy task and the lessons you learned from making this board are probably irreplaceable. I can just imagine others asking him where did he get that board while out in the line up- Mere Made Surfboards of course!
ReplyDeletewhen the mood is down I think about all my friends and their support. I instantly feel better and re-energized. You are part of why I persevere. Thanks Mikala.
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