This Fin Has Come a Long Way

I found this fin a couple years ago while I was camping at Trails in San-O State Park. It was shoved between a few rocks that had washed up on shore and covered with tar. I took it home, rubbed it down with some baby oil, sanded it a bit, and here it is today.

The stand is a scrap piece of curly redwood from the dumpster of a local surf shop and the dried seaweed that is glued into the redwood is also from Trails at San-O.

4"x9", acrylic on fiberglass

Off To Mexico

Board #8 is now in the books.

Its been a long time coming but I finally finished up this 5'9'' Single Fin. So now its off to Mainland Mex with my friend to be put to the test. A week in Mexico with nothing but empty left hand point breaks gives me hope that the board will do just fine. I can't wait for my friend to get back to here some feedback on the board. Its funny you can try to design the board by concept and think it will work well but, at least for me, I never really know til I put it in the water. As long as it makes it the whole trip without any structural malfunctions I will be satisfied.

The final dimensions were, H5'9'' x N14 3/4" x W19 7/8" x T15 1/2" x 2 1/2"

- Bottom Close Up (Acrylic paint under the gloss coat)

- Bottom
- Deck

The Final Touches

Just finishing up the 5'9" Single Fin.

Here's one picture from the sanding coat. This was my first time using UV catalyzing resin and it works great. It allows for plenty of time during lamination which is great because i need as much time as i can get for wrapping the rails. I got all my materials from the guys at FOAM-EZ in westminister. Brad and the guys are super helpful and got plenty of tips for people new to glassing like me.



Here's another picture of the gloss coat. I am pretty please with how the board is turning out. Of course there is plenty of room for improvements but hey at least it will float.

As requested by Mckinney I painted a giant squid eating a ship on the bottom. Stay tuned for pictures of that soon.

Surfboard Art

This is what first got me interested in the idea of functional art. All of my boards looked the same, white foam with a sand finish. I wanted to personalized my surfboards so they did not look just like everyone else's, so I decided to paint them. Surfboards are a great canvas and this was a fun and easy way to incorporate art into my daily life. I realized art does not have to be a delicate oil painting stuck on a wall, it can be tangible and common without depreciating the value and beauty of the work. I believe art should be interacted with and a surfboard is a great example of just that. So I will stop myself there from going on a huge tangent. But, here are some of the surfboards i have painted over the past couple of years. Three of the boards are mine and the sword fish and crane bird are my friends' boards. Last I heard the sword fish board was snapped in half and left in Tahiti somewhere. Not a bad place be.

Enjoy.