Stand Up Paddle Surfing Paddles, Boards and Accessories

This is a short narrative of a custom project that came from the imagination of Robert Martini. Robert is a Florida lifeguard, and had told his grandmother that he had wanted a tattoo of an octopus on his arm… His grandmother talked him out of the tattoo, or to at least wait...

This order from Robert for a Semi-custom polyester 10’ BK Pro Stand Up Paddleboard,( a Dave Parmenter/ Brian Keaulana design) that had an unusual request: “…is there any way that an Octopus could be on the bottom of the board with it’s tentacles wrapping around to the deck of this board?” The first thing that I thought of was the illustrated monsters that Melville would have used in some of his 19th Century sea tales. I commenced looking for a suitable kraken that had a fearsome enough demeanor that would have had Captain Nemo shaking in his jack boots. As Dr Evil implied that it should at least be “…ill tempered”.

Little did I know that this board would be the source of many sleepless nights. As our usual blank supplier at the time took a bit of a hiatus from production in order to reorganize; we were at a loss to find a suitable core for this board.  Robert Martini illustrated that he truly had the patience of Job as he waited over four months for his board to be completed…

Ned McMahon and Craig Hollingsworth form Homeblown Blanks stepped up and solved my dilemma, and started manufacturing blanks that fit our needs here at the C4 Semi-custom works. Ned and Craig are masters in the art of shaping surf craft, and are “sage-like” gentleman who are trying to make a difference in our industry, by producing quality US made blanks that “Pursue Environmentally Responsible Alternatives in Surfboard Construction” Homeblown is the producer of Biofoam, a non-petroleum based surf blank. See www.homeblownus.com for more info. Biofoam utilizes soybean oil as its medium. 

Below Shaper, Micheal Andrews applies the finishing touches to the Octopus blank:

The next step was to find an example of the octopus and the artist that could translate and capture the image to foam; Steve Ford, surfboard shaper and owner of Ford Surfboards volunteered for the challenge and offered some suggestions on how to improve the finished BK Pro. By layering the artwork it adding depth to the image, by airbrushing the blank to appear that it was underwater, the results were stunning; below is Micheal Andrews with the air brushed poly blank:

The crew of professionals at Global Glassing, led by Jeff “Ernie” Morgan and Joshua, take over the construction BK Pro. The first step in glassing the Octopus board, known as laminating, is to roll the fiberglass cloth over the blank, and cut it to size, so that the “lap” or wrap of the cloth around the rail of the board is uniform. Next the rice paper logos are placed on the blank under the fiberglass cloth, followed by applying the laminating resin with a squeegee in order to saturate the fiberglass cloth ensuring a solid bond between the blank core and fiberglass “skin”.

The laminating coat maintains its “tackiness” so it is rarely sanded. Next the hot coat is applied, filling in the void in the weave of the cloth which seals the fiberglass precluding a “wicking” action of sea water to the blank. The hot coat is not usually “hot”, except when the glasser adds extra catalyst to the mix in order to make the resin “go off” quicker resulting in a more rapid chemical reaction which makes the container holding the batch of resin to actually heat up significantly. Making the batch “hotter” or drying quicker is sometimes used to reduce the time it takes to complete this complex process. This step is sometimes called the “sanding coat” as much of the sanding takes place after this 2nd coat and before the final application of Resin.  Once the hot coat was sanded, artist Steve Ford  commenced painting the octopus.

With the Octopus painted on an elevated layer of glass above the airbrushed background lends depth, and gives the illusion of the kraken floating, suspended in the sea. When Steve completed the Kraken, the board was given it final coat of gloss resin, and then sanded and polished. Below Joshua completes the fine polishing:

The polishing compound is removed with a “tack-cloth” from the polished board. Next the protective tape is cut off the fin boxes, and the fin set screws are installed in each of the Futures fin boxs: 

Here shaper Micheal Andrews checking out Robert’s finished board:

Robert Martini had come out to California with his brother Erik to do the Catalina Classic Paddleboard race. The day after the crossing Robert and Erik met Jeff Warner (owner of Legends’ Surfshop and C4 Ambassador), and I up at the Dog Patch area of San Onofre in order to present him with his new SUP.  Robert appeared no worse for wear after crossing the Catalina Channel the day before; the only battle damage being some missing skin on the tops of his feet…

After a gestation period of over 4 months I was really looking forward to Robert seeing his “baby” for the first time:

 Above Left, Robert and Erik Martini; above right Robert configures the BK Pro in the quad fin arrangement. I inquired about the choice of an octopus gracing his BK Pro. Robert had stated that he had never liked eating seafood; when he was living in Hawaii, his then girlfriend introduced him to the delicacy of Tako, otherwise known in the Latin world as Pulpo, or in English: Octopus. This was the first “fruit of the sea” that Robert enjoyed; and to this day he associates the kraken with fondness and good memories of his time living in Hawaii…  Mr Martini’s grandmother was pleased that instead of his corpus, the new board received the octopus tattoo. 

Unfortunately the surf was very small at the Dog Patch, but at least it was fairly glassy! Below Robert paddles the BK Pro out in the tiny surf of San Onofre for the first time:

Since Robert Martini has returned to the west coast of Florida, he has had the opportunity to enjoy two hurricane generated swells breaking ¼ mile out past Siesta Key. Upon seeing Robert’s new SUP, John Hughes of the East Coast Surfing Hall of fame in Cocoa Beach, Florida stated that it was “…one of the most beautiful surfboards that he had seen”

Mahalos to all of the folks that helped make this board: Dave Parmenter and Brian Keaulana of C4 Waterman; Ned McMahon and Craig Hollingsworth of Homeblown Foam; Rudy and Brando at Roughhouse; Micheal Andrews of Andrews Shapes; Steve Ford of Ford Surfboards; Joshua Reining, Jeff  “Ernie” Morgan, Johnny Randelas, and all the gentleman of Global Glassing.

If anyone fancies a “one-of-a-kind” C4 Waterman semi-custom SUP, they are available at store.c4waterman.com  

Very Respectfully,
Ted Rutherford Jr