board#088: shortboard for Chuck (The Illumina surfboard)

Obed and the gift for his boss

Dimensions: 5'7 x 18 x 2

[completed in March 2015]

model Veloce

The story: Obed works at Illumina (where my day job is). He has seen many of my creations as I have been shaping quite a few boards for my colleagues there. One day I receive an email at work from Obed which was not work-related but work-related at the same time: his boss was retiring and the whole department was going to throw a farewell party very soon. The "soon" was a concern because Obed wanted to offer his boss a surfboard as a farewell present. The timing was extremely tight and I would have said no in normal circumstances. But this board was a decoration board which will represent the company I proudly work for. Despite the very short notice, I accepted the challenge and made it happened (maybe because I am used to tight deadlines and ast-paced environment at Illumina ;))

The shape: Even though the board was not meant to be surfed, I wanted to make sure it would stand proud on the wall with a Mere-made signature shape, the Veloce model, created for speed and performance. This board was shaped with all the attributes of the model.

The artwork: I could not be happier to hear what Obed wished for this board. He sent me high quality files of some Illumina brand logo/artworks which I love. In particular, that beautiful artwork with the genetic code making a... wave!!! What more perfect for a surfboard! I played with the different files on the Boardlams website to print out the full artwork on one big piece of rice paper. 

For the glassing I used my joker card to have it glassed as fast as possible. It was done within 10 days!!! Thank you Global Glassing! The whole team help me to make this happen in time for Chuck's retirement party. However, after all that effort, Chuck had to leave the company earlier than originally planned and the board was not given away during the early retirement party  :( ... It was sent to him later to Boston where he lives now. But I heard he was in total shock when he received his Illumina custom surfboard signed by his ex-whole team...

I created the artwork on the Boardlams website

board#072: performance shortboard for Vincent

Yep, board#072 was a Christmas gift for my husband.
Boards, that is all he wants...

Dimensions: 5'8 x 18 1/4 x 2 1/8
[Completed in December 2014]
Model Veloce

The story: one more shortboard in my husband quiver! He "needed" a step-up board for 6-8 foot hollow waves. This one goes in between his everyday board and his mini-gun.

The shape: Vincent asks for that Mere-Made shape he really enjoyed (Veloce model) with slight dimension modifications to accommodate bigger surf.

The artwork: again Vincent asked for a previous artwork he really liked. I went for a silver metallic paint this time because I go by phases and I was in my silver shade phase. The metallic spray on this   stylized bird gives this board a Bilal vibe which is one of my favorite cartoonist.

PS: I only have one picture of the finished board because my husband could not wait 15 more minutes to wax it and take it for a surf.

Montana can paint

tail before glassing

board#031: shortboard for Vincent

Dimensions: 5'7 x 18 x 2 1/8
[completed in October 2013]

The story: Vincent is my husband. He competes and surfs every single day. He wants a new board every 3 months. End of the story.

The shape:  Vincent really liked his short short board I shaped him last time (see here). However, with the winter swells on the way (hopefully), he wanted a "tiny bit longer and narrower". He picked a template on this very cool website called Blending Curves which provide free downloadable templates for all kind of shapes. I shaped it under close supervision of the future rider i.e. him opening the shaping room door every 10 min for a quality check ;)

The glassing was done very very light by Global Glassing (Oceanside, CA) with S-Cloth. The board is actually incredibly light. Thank you Johnny!

The artwork: I take full responsibility for that piece. The good thing about shaping for my husband is not the shaping part (see the shaping section above): it is that I have freedom of expression when it comes to the artwork. As you may have noticed from my previous boards I love contrasts and silhouettes. I also like to have the board be part of the artwork: in this case I used the stringer as the pole for the dancer. Also I wanted something quick and easy as Vincent wanted his new board as soon as possible (of course!). Don't ask me why a pole dancer, it is a bit embarrassing to tell ;))