Willow is taking shape

"Willow the Whale Shark" is starting to take shape so I thought I would share a little of the background behind the board Willow is being painted on.

Willow is being painted on a 5'2" Firewire Sweet Potato surfboard that was kindly donated to me - I will circle back to that in a minute. The Sweet Potato is a short, wide surfboard that is designed to allow surfers to ride a shortboard and have fun in tiny waves where usually only a longboard will be surfable. This particular board was ridden hard in marginal conditions, often over shallow reef, and had a few war wounds to show for it. Unfortunately these were not fixed immediately, the board aged quickly and was consigned to the "shed" - the palliative care home for surfboards! Luckily for me, the owner's girlfriend decided that a shed cleanup was in order and messaged me to ask if I would like a few boards to use for painting.