Shape it Yourself

There's something to be said for just doing it yourself, getting your hands dirty and diving right into a project.  You can have complete control over the final product instead of relying on another's interpretation.  You can make it just the way you want.

Recently, Lyle decided to do just that, to do it himself and shape his own surfboard.  The project involves one shortboard for himself and an 8'10" board for me :)  He gets the experience and joy of shaping, I get to photograph the project, and in the end we will both have a little of Lyle's handiwork to ride, our very own hand-shaped boards made with love.

Lyle's just about done shaping his shortboard, which he worked on first to work out some kinks and experiment with a few different techniques.  But I was there when he started cutting into the longboard blank, a long slab of recycled and reshaped Millennium Foam.  Since we had the choice, my board's going to be rather eco-friendly, incorporating the recycled foam and bamboo based non-toxic resin.

Here are some of the shots from the shaping day.  From a photography standpoint we had a beautiful fully lit window providing gorgeous backlight on a bright and sunny day.  I was immediately captivated by the bits of foam flying through the air and catching the light.  The surroundings were otherwise cluttered and between the bright board and it's shape, the flecks of foam, and the strong lighting I knew this was going to be best portrayed in black and white.  Color would be too distracting, dragging your eye to the bit of yellow and orange in the shadowy corner.  I wanted all attention to be drawn to and kept on that white foam in direct sunlight.

I can't wait to shoot some more as Lyle continues to work and gets into the glassing stages.  It'll be a very merry belated christmas gift for the both of us! More to come