Board#165: longboard for Jade

 

Jade & her Dragon in Malibu (2017)

Dimensions: 9'0 x 22 x 2 3/4

[completed in August 2017]

The story: Jade heard about me from the Wahine Kai Women's Surfclub and ordered a board for herself and her husband (board#166). She lives in Los Angeles area and the ordering process happened through emails. It is always a pleasure to shape Wahine Kai's members!

The shape: 9'0 longboard single fin with a Vee tail.

The artwork: Jade always had dragons on her boards. I was happy to perpetuate the tradition since I am a big fan of dragons myself! I spraypainted the Beast and Tiger G glassing glassed it with a beautiful polish finish.

board#161: egg for Tanya

Dimensions: 6'6 x 21 1/2 x 2 3/4
[Completed in April 2017]
Model Vader

The story: Small world. Tanya is a tandem surfer. I used to be a tandem surfer too but before many years before her. So we never overlapped in the line-up. But our path crossed through surfing anyway. Like it was meant to be. The tandem surfing community is a like a family. Even if we don't know each other we are like "cousins" as we share the same passion in our blood (once a tandem surfer, always a tandem surfer). She expressed her wish to have a board shaped by me. It was such a great pleasure to make her "solo surfing" board.

The shape: As any tandem surfer, Tanya is mainly in the water with her partner on a huge tandem board. It takes a lot of hours of practice and only little left to surf on her own (speaking by experience). Therefore she asked for board with plenty of volume to catch tons of waves when she gets the chance to go out on her own. This egg also allows her to execute cute some turns if needed.

The artwork: Tanya's favorite artist is Chloe Early. She is obsessed with her paintings and asked me to have piece that was particularly meaningful to her on her board. It was tricky for me to blend a rectangle on a surfboard without breaking the lines of the outline. I went for a modern vibe with asymmetrical diagonal painted under the painting (which was printed on rice paper by Boardlams).  By respect for the artist, I contacted her to show the board and she was stoked for Tanya. Tanya was stoked too. I was stoked for Tanya. Therefore everyone was super stoked !

board#157: egg for Carolyn

My daughter wanted to keep the polka-dot board

Dimensions: 6'9 x 21 1/2 x 3
[completed in February 2017]
Model Vader

The story: my friend Carolyn likes to surf funboard shapes (including one of mine: board #021) but needed a shorter board to fit in a small board bag to travel to Nicaragua... with us ! Indeed the Nicaraguan domestic airline Sanza we had to take to reach our destination has very limited "cargo" space and even weights passagers (with their backpacks :)). Making that board for Carolyn was preparing for adventure!

The shape: the goal was to compact the volume that Carolyn is used to surf into a smaller board, keeping all the paddling ability. The other requirement was to keep some rocker for the late drops into steep nicaraguan waves.

The artwork: Since Carolyn is professional flamenco dancer, it was easy to go for the traditional polka-dot pattern that is seen on all the beautiful flamenco dresses. The pattern was printed on rice paper by Boardlams and laid in by my glasser, Tiger Glassing who added a classy pinline.

a bit anxious before the plane ride

The polkadot board being downloaded from the Sanza plane !

Carolyn and I 

Carolyn in action 

Oceana also likes the board 

Oceana stoked on the inside

Carolyn and her family <3

board#153: shortboard for Nicole

Dimensions: 5'8 x 18 1/4 x 2 1/4
[completed in December 2016]

The story: I was lucky to have Nicole as my first girl team-rider when she was only 13 . Not only she was shredding the shortboard I made for her (board#034) but also, later on her longboard (board#098). As she was growing so fast, it was time for another shortboard !

The shape: classic performance shortboard !

The artwork: since Nicole spends a lot of time surfing in Hawaii, she asked for tropical flowers which I printed out at Boardlams. I also surprised her with a custom Mere-Made logo with the mermaid wearing a matching flower in her hair :)

The glass was done by Tiger Glassing.

board#152: funboard for Jeanne

Dimensions: 7'4 x 21 1/4 x 2 3/4
[completed in November 2016]

The story: the way I met Jeanne is very interesting: I saw her walking down the path of my favorite break with my ex... I mean my ex-board :) That Walden was very dear to me. One of my favorite board ever and I recognized it right away. Turned out that Jeanne is a local from my own break and that is how we became friends. 

The shape: Jeanne was ready to transition from her (my) Magic Walden to a shorter shape. We decided for a funboard shape that would allow her to comfortably drop in in steeper waves (a bit more rocker). The goal was also to have a board she could try some maneuvers with. I added a diamond tail and some channels to make it fast !

The artwork: Jeanne was not very decided on any artwork, except for the part of something "feminine". I had a beautiful Boardlams printed fiberglass with flowers left from a previous project (the artwork was designed for Maylane's board by her grand-father, see board #125). My glasser, Dewi at Tigerglassing did a wonderful job integrating the printer fiberglass to the purple paint job I had done in preparation.

board#151: funboard for Emma

Emma and her first board

Dimensions: 7'6 x 22 x 2 7/8
[completed in January 2017]
Model Vitamin Sea

The story: I met Laurent Chantegros at the Boardroom in 2015, 10 min before entering the glass shaping bay for the shaping demo. He took some amazing pictures of that session and he, since then, became The official Mere-Made Surfboard photographer ! Every shooting I am blown away by his creativity, always bringing something new and fresh (and making me look good at 45 year old !!!! That is magic right there !!!). This board is a gift to him and his family (his daughter Emma is picking up on surfing), for all the photos he let me use and the time he spends making sure Mere-Made Surfboards is never short in new photographic material. 

The shape: something simple, elegant but efficient at making sure that Emma enjoys her first surfing experience.

The artwork: in the same lines of simpleness, Emma asked for a polish on a white board. She picked that custom logo made by french artist Sebastien Arcouet. That board totally represents Emma who is a beautiful pure angel ! 

Fun time (and team work) putting the board on the car :)

As the shaper, I get to have a turn on the waves :)

board#150: shortboard for Lizzy

Dimensions: 6'1 x 18 3/4 x 2 1/2
[completed in December 2016]
Model Vedette

The story: if there was an award for the best story of this blog, this board would won. Board #150 was the second board for Lizzy (see Lizzy's previous board#133 here). Not any second board. The board she was planning to take for a once-in-a-life-time surf trip around the world: 6 weeks, 3 destinations: Fiji-New Zealand-Hawaii. And she did ! She sent me the pictures as proof !

The shape: since Lizzy was going to surf world class waves, known for being steep and powerful, the idea was to shape a step-up board with more rocker than her everyday board. The outline would be more performance as well as, with all shortboard classic attributes. 

The artwork: as much as I would like to own it, the brilliant idea of the artwork was from Vincent (my husband).  I just graphically translated that idea and Lizzy picked the color. As a result that board was one of the most successful in Boardporn (I even got an message from Ron, Boardpoarn owner, to congratulate me on that board !). But my ultimate reward was to see pictures of the board at all destination. Thank you Lizzy for trusting me on that one ! Best project ever. 

Glass was done by Tiger glassing.

FIJI

NEW ZEALAND

HAWAII

board#147: funboard for Martina

bride and grom-to-be

Dimensions: 7'2 x 21 x 2 3/4
[completed on November 2016]
Model Vida

The story: The science world is small.  My best friend Carine who is a scientist like me, advertised Mere-Made Surfboards in her lab at the Salk Institute. Then, a colleague of her (Robert) contacted me to make a custom board for his scientist future wife (Martina). The board is an engagement gift for her. They are both Irish and going back to Ireland for the wedding. Congrats to Martina and Robert !!!

The shape: we talked about something that would be an easy to paddle into the wave with enough rocker to drop into steeper waves if needed. 

The artwork: Martina decided on a simple yet very feminine artwork (despite the non-usage of girly colors :))

The glass was done by Tiger G glassing.

going for the maiden voyage at my own spot 

<3

board#143: funboard for Alyson

Alyson and her mermaid on her Mere-Made

Dimensions: 7'8 x 22 1/2 x 2 7/8
[completed in September 2016]
model Vida

The story: Alyson is a very dynamic make-up artist whose side job is to organize girls-only surfing trips to Nicaragua. She came from Atlanta to order her special board that will be part of her adventures in Nicaragua. She had a very special plan for the artwork...

The shape: Alyson needed something similar she was surfing on, with a bit more rocker to leave room for improvement, when time comes she would drop on stepper, more powerful, nicaraguan waves. 

The artwork: like me Alyson is obsessed with mermaids, and I think that is why she reached out to me. Because I would understand her artwork plan and fully embrace it. I totally loved the idea. She was going to get her leg tattooed with a beautiful original artwork from a tattoo artist. She simply wanted the same mermaid on her board. I got in touch with the artist and got s high definition file of his work which was printed on fiberglass by Boardlams. The mermaid was glassed in !

instagram post showing the parallel work between the tattoo artist and I