Good and evil custom surfboard

Gentle readers, I would like to present to you my newest surfboard commission: ‘Baik Dan Jahat’, Indonesian for ‘good and evil’.

This was the first completely surfable custom board commission I’ve done, and I’m so stoked with the result that I’m going to discuss the process a bit more in depth below. If you can’t be arsed reading it all, feel free to skip down for the pretty pictures… I won’t mind.

This was a commission for a nice bloke named J. who wanted to have a custom surfboard made for his dad’s 50th birthday. His dad loves Bali, so we decided on a Balinese theme featuring two traditional gods, Barong and Rangda, who represent good and evil.

Normally I paint on completed boards which are more suited to hanging on a wall than surfing, so for this project I recommended that we use a graphic inlay (printed polymer/silk mesh) in a custom made board for a completely permanent solution. The inlays are awesome because they strengthen the board and if you destroy it or it gets stolen you can always have another one made with the same artwork.

Once we worked out a concept for the board, I painted the artwork smaller than life sized and had it professionally photographed. The resulting digital artwork was printed onto the graphic inlay material by an Australian company called Inlayz.

Chris McKenzie from Oceanline surfboards shaped the 7″8 mini-mal and I dropped by the factory and gave the blank deck a retro palm spray pattern before it was glassed to make it super über custom.

The graphic inlay was fiberglassed into the bottom of the board making in a permanent part of the surfboard. A glossy coating finishes the board and makes the colours pop… and she’s ready to ride!

The icing on the cake was a custom frame for the original artwork, which got sent off along with the board for the birthday surprise. 

The next day I got an email from Barry which totally made my day:
Just a quick note to thank you for the awesome artwork you have done on the board that J. and my lovely wife S. gave me for my 50th birthday yesterday, it will take pride of place in my board rack, (inside). Regrettably it wont hit the waves till December, but will be ridden with pride and awe. Once again thank you for an awesome piece of art.

A big thank you to the Grosses for giving me such an awesome project, and also to all the other lovely people who have commissioned me to paint various artworks during the year,  your support has been invaluable and makes it possible for me to make a living doing what I love.