(Photo: Laurent Chantegros)
I LOVE shaping surfboards and I'm kinda obsessed with this craft. Even though I am about to shape my 243th board I'm still considering myself as a novice but I hope to become a master one day... This blog is a virtual portfolio and a diary of my journey in the shaping world. Feel free to leave comments or contact me directly at valerie@meremadesurfboards.com.

Valerie Duprat
-Shaper of Mère-Made Surfboards

Saturday, August 16, 2014

board#048, #049, #051, #52: full competition quiver for Rudy Marechal






Dimensions: confidential :)
[completed in May 2014]
Model Vedette

The story: in the last episode I was shaping some performance short boards for French pro Surfer Rudy Marechal (see previous post here). After he tried them out, he ordered a full quiver for the QS contest season in Europe. Big deal!!!! The biggest so far. 

The shapes: of course, the shapes were all derived from the model I created for him ("Vedette"). We worked a lot "on paper" to make sure I get it right with all the little differences for each of them. Of course, length was a variable. But also one had a round tail and others had subtile changes in the squash tail. All of them had the Vedette signature: some volume on the nose for front foot rider with very spread stand, deep single to deeper double concave, and the (now famous) round rails! Rudy and I decided it would make more sense to shape them in parallel, step by step, in order to stay consistent throughout the whole quiver. Basically, I would remember better what I did if I was doing the same step for all of them at once. No need to say that that was very stressful and tiring physically and mentally. I dedicated a full month to this project.

The glassing was done by Global Glassing (Oceanside). The whole team, including the big boss, Jeff, made sure the boards were perfectly glassed ultra light. They did a wonderful job in a record time. Thank you Johnny for the hard/awesome work!!

The artwork: Rudy was very specific about what he wanted. He drew sketches of the blue/black/white designs he wanted and I could not change his mind!! As usual, he was pretty damn right about the finish look of his quiver. I like the thematic with different flavors from board to board. The artwork was intentionally simple  in order to accommodate for all the sponsor stickers.

The breaking news!!!!:  Rudy was set to travel to France for his contest season last week. The day before he was supposed to leave, he was told by a US governmental agency that he could not travel outside the US for an undetermined time. To make a long story short, Rudy had to miss his flight and he is not going to participate to the European QS tour. 
As the shaper of his quiver, I am, or course, very disappointed by the news. But I am even more saddened that he can't get to see his family and friends (I know he missed them so much and Capbreton!). I wish him the best of luck in his private life as well as on the waves!



Vedette factory 

Mere-Made tails


Rudy and his Dad!


Rudy's picking up his quiver was documented by Cody
(but that is another story :)




stacked Mere-Made boards


that is a lot for one man!


behind the scenes

Ze official picture of Ze happy shaper!

Bye bye … :(

2 comments:

  1. oh quelle déception que tes planches n'aient pas pu faire le contest ! Parce que bon c'était quand même énorme de shaper des boards pour une compet' de cette taille ! Bon ben ça sera pour la prochaine :), non ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. bah oui, ch'suis vachement decue mais t'as raison, faut pas se laisser abattre y'aura d'autres occaz ;) Merci pour ton petit mot!!!

      Delete