board#042: shortboard for Ian

Dimensions: 6'2 x 18 3/8 x 2 3/8
[Completed in April 2014]

The story: I met Ian when I was picking up one of my boards at the Bing glass workshop. He just finished a photoshoot of the Master Matt Calvani in action.  Ian is a photographer (click here). We exchanged business card and soon, he was shooting me in action in my purple shaping room for stock photography  purposes. Later my whole family was under the spotlight as we did another photoshoot at the beach, portraying the "typical surf family"… Yeah, we are I guess a surfing family ;) Soon Ian became our friend and he now comes over for beers and for Mere-made surfboards!

The shape: Ian ordered a very specific shape he liked from a board he has… in Costa Rica. From the pictures and dimensions a friend sent him, I tried to reproduce the board without seeing it. In order to be more accurate, I brought Ian in the shaping room for the rail shaping step and he helped to finish up the fine sending. The resulting board was pretty close to its original but ended up a bit narrower which made it more a Blacks board rather than a D-Street board. Ian said it was the first iteration of many orders (:)) and he is expecting to refine the details while we go.

The artwork: because of its number (#42), Ian wanted something related to the famous comedy science fiction series: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. "42" is The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe and Everything. On that light note, I spray painted the logo for the movie and its famous phrase "Don't Panic". Easy. Thanks Ian for such a simple request ;)

The end of the story: a little more than a month after Ian got his board, it got stolen at his house along with a couple of Bing surfboards. I hope this is the first and last time I have to report that in my blog...I hate to think that the board I shaped for Ian is in other hands. When I think about it actually, it is better than if it got broken in half… At least  someone somewhere is surfing it… I am just sad for Ian… On a more positive note, he got to try it a couple of time before it disappeared and had a nice documented barrel with it :)

tailoring the tail for Ian

Work! work!

Ian mounted a GoPro on the nose...

pretty rad pics!

in it!