Single fin nation, whaaaat. I picked up this bad boy from Kekoa Uemura a little more than few weeks ago (I know that's so specific, right -_^), I actually have no idea how long it took to shape either. Usually, when I order boards they take 3-6 months (or longer) to be made so I order, then forget about it but this board took maybe about 6 weeks - 2 months which is speedy in my books. Thanks Kekoa! Check out his website here- Uemura Surfboards
Specs: It says 9'0" on the board but I think it's probably like 9'2" cuz there's no way it fits in my board bag, which is all good with me because by Joel Tudor's Duct-tape Invitational rules the board has to be 9'2" haha the best classic longboarders surf in his contest but hey a girl can dream, can't she.
Ok, ok back to specs-
- 9'0" x 2 3/4 x 23
- 60/40 rails- not classic but good for responsive turning
- Choke nose and tail rocker- very not classic but I love rocker so I'm stoked about it!
- Fat square tail
- Crazy concave under the tail, still working on where the fin works the best & also going to try a bunch of different fins I've got a standard 9" dolphin fin on there now, gonna get a little fatter 9.5" fin sometime and look into some other shapes & sized fins.
- Double glass on the bottom I think double 6oz, next cruiser board I get will have double 6oz bottom double 4oz on top, the weight feels good man.
- No leash plug...oh yeah.
I sent Koa this pic on the left for color referencing but I told him, "like this but BRIGHT! less pastel-y" the airbrushing came out PERFECT! Scottie says it reminds him of a Push Pop (or something that sounded like push pop to me). I love it.
Of course the first thing I did after picking up the board was go straight to Ben Franklin to get letter stickers, this seemingly small task ended up taking way too long (BECAUSE! the 3"/4"BLACK letter stickers were not with the rest of the stickers and glittery or polka-dotted 3" letter stickers, which I still don't even understand.) Misty & I ended up spending about 30 minutes in the paint aisle as I settled on stenciling and painting "SURFSHINE" on my board as an alternative to the stickers (after a 15 minute tour of the store seeking out the stencils.) We spent the majority of those 30 minutes Google-ing "how to paint a surfboard" & I am unable to spray paint in my apartment so that was out of the question, and after many unsuccessful Google attempts as Ben Franklin does not sell POSCA pens which seems to be the 2nd most popular option to paint a surfboard I finally realized I should have Google'd "how to paint fiberglass" duh Kim anyway when I finally grabbed my acrylic paint and a clear coat to boot we were on to brushes when I passed this stand alone rack with what-do-you-know 3" and 4" black letters, no shit. Misty immediately instructed me to drop the paint crap I grabbed and pick-up some 4" sticker letters- I figured go big or go home, right?
I ended-up with awesome sticker letters and happened to see a cute stencil that I thought would look dope on my board and figured I would just Sharpie it, Misty kept insisting that I needed a fine-point Sharpie which I was adamantly arguing against because to me I thought the fine-point with less surface area and would take a lot longer to do, so stubborn me, I did not purchase a fine-point for this endeavor. Once I started Sharpie-ing the stencil I realized that Sharpies freaking bleed, I was getting black ink everywhere but in the stencil only area, disaster. Misty had fallen asleep at this time after she helped me put the letters on my board (sorry I didn't take a picture of the top of my board to show you guys but I'm sure you'll see it eventually) and I was royally f*cking up my board with this stencil idea, Misty also had a fine-point Sharpie of her own that I ended up borrowing to do most of the stenciling because as it turns out the fine-point bled the least.
I show you this picture below and you're thinking so where are all the f*cked up parts, well originally I was going to get sand paper and gently sand the mistakes away but before I started unnecessarily sanding the double 6oz fiberglass I had just paid for I Google'd "how to remove Sharpie from a surfboard" and apparently non-acetone nail polish remover is magic, supposed "permanent" Sharpie on a surfboard is like a dry erase board, buggah comes right off. Non-acetone is important as it shouldn't damage/wear the fiberglass as the regular acetone nail polish will weaken the glass.
I could probably write another 2 pages on how it rides but I'll spare you (for now) the pic below is from my second sesh on my new log, airing out my toes, he's a real cruiser. The only other sticker I have on my board is for Mitcho Kai (rest in paradise, brother), like the placement on my Green Tatsuno, when I'm on the board it's on my left-side close to my heart, right where he'll be for always.
Didn't have any extra GoPro mounts when I got this board but I got one from Greg so I should be running a front camera soon.
xoxo & always Weirdly yours,
-K
Uemura Surfboards - Kekoa's Website (I also have a shortboard that I love from Kekoa, check out his shit!)
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