After attending the Taranaki Wave Classic for the fourth time in a row, this was to be my event. I walked away with the main spot prize – a new board of my choice by James Dinnis (CEO, Shaper and Designer) from Carbon Art.

This personal project began when the spot prize was being drawn. I heckled "I want it pink and 90 litres!" I don’t know why said it, but I did, and Pinky was born.

This was actually an idea I've had for a while. It came from the insight that kite surfers call windsurfers 'pole dancers' because of the masts they hang on to. The idea was to illustrate a suite of different pole dancer options for your board. Major board manufacturers could also add their brand into the designs.

Winning the board from Carbon Art made way for a prototype design. I kept the windsurfing community updated with a Facebook campaign. Led by a life-sized pink panther (also named Pinky), the campaign peaked when it was posted on World of Windsurf and received over 1000 views.

“Below is the photographic story of Pinky, a wave board from Taranaki”