Surf Ski... Tattoos
[Editor: And now for something completely
different... Surf Ski represents different
things to different people: some guys get passionate about going out through
surf 
; some just love the ocean and paddling; some - as you'll read here -
also love their skis. Kelvin Ho just
spent some time customizing his ski and wrote to tell us about it. (And don't you just love our new image gallery component?)]
Aloha Alain and Rob
Greetings from Kaua'i! I am a recent and enthusiastic convert to surfski after paddling OC-1 for years and have been enjoying and learning a lot from your great website. Through your articles, I see globally how many passionately embrace this sport, developing and cultivating a relationship with the ocean, wind and waves. Here in Polynesia everything is believed to possess "mana" (a spiritual presence or soul), especially one's cherished tools or vehicles. In the past one would carve, stamp or paint designs to reflect or bring out and express this essence.
My friends are graphic artists who focus mostly on sign making and offered me the birthday gift of customizing my ski. Thought I would share the process as an easy and relatively inexpensive way to create designs that can be anything you imagine.
I began by using a roll of newsprint, cut and taped to areas on the ski to draw out the designs I envisioned. My friends, the Cooks at Gizmo Grafix (Anita is originally from Cape Town) then digitally photographed the designs and transferred it into Adobe Illustrator and fine-tuned the lines and curves.
You could also have any design drawn in Illustrator or any similar vector based drawing program and used the same way. The equipment that makes this whole process possible is a vinyl plotter, widely used by sign makers. The vinyl comes in a wide array of colors, is extremely durable in weather, and thinner than decals or stickers.
The rolls are up to 60 centimeters wide so your finished designs could be double that width if you do mirrored halves and up to any length. The plotter is like a printer but uses a blade to cut the material and is capable of extremely fine detail. He actually switched a pencil for the blade the first run and printed it on paper to do a test lay-up on the ski before committing to the cut. Once satisfied he cut the vinyl and we then cleaned the surface well. They then applied the vinyl, misting the surface with water first to allow for some adjustments in placement. I am enclosing some images of the process to give you a better visual sense. I am extremely pleased with the results and feel this is an easily accessible way for many to customize and give soul to our vessels. Virtually anything you can imagine and have drawn up can be applied in a way that adds almost no weight and is very durable to the elements. Shared designs by groups or clubs are as easily reproduced as printing from the same file.
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Once again, just want to commend you on your site and its inspiring influence in the sharing of news, skills, knowledge and tips. All of which allows so many of us across the planet to feel a little closer and more connected.
Please feel free to share this info with any of your readers in whatever way fits best for you. Now and always wishing you both the very best and wildest conditions at your backs and bright and open horizons ahead.
Mahalo nui,
Kelvin Ho