Greetings, Shredderz! One of the recent bright spots from the surf industry (whatever that even refers to these days) is Vissla’s Add Color contest. Add Color is a surfboard art contest where people submit their creations via the #VisslaAddColor hashtag on Instagram. Vissla has lined up all star cast of judges, headlined by Thomas Campbell and Alex “Superwolf” Villalobos, and if you look up the aforementioned hashtag, you can see they’ve received a ton of killer entries. I don’t have anything to do with the contest myself, and no one asked me, but here are my favorite Add Color submissions.

In my humble opinion, Rockaway Beach, New York-based Paul Surf has been the revelation of the contest. Paul Surf has not only built some unique, beautiful boards; he also had to create innovative lamination techniques as part of the process. You must watch the video below for a full breakdown of how Paul created these shapes and the signature gradient effect. It’s a complex, painstaking and insanely time-consuming process. I am equally impressed by the end product and everything that went into realizing this vision.

No coverage of the Add Color contest would be complete without acknowledging some of the long time craftsmen who have thrown their hats into the ring. Peter St Pierre, who founded legendary San Diego factory Moonlight Glassing, and longtime T&C airbrusher Mark Townsend both have standout entries.

St Pierre AKA @tapedoff does it all; I love the ultra detailed pinlines on the first board (original post here, and you should also check out this behind the scenes post) and then the killer airbrush on a Todd McFarland 2+1 that was shared by St Pierre’s son, JP St Pierre, perhaps better known as the “CEO / Janitor of Surfy Surfy.”

Make sure you watch the time lapse videos for Mark Townsend’s airbrush, as pictured above. The board looks phenomenal but your appreciation for Townsend’s art will only grow once you realize everything that goes into executing these creations.

Perhaps my favorite aspect of this contest is that it put me on to some folks whose work I was previously unfamiliar with. Stone Surfboards, who glasses for Thomas Surfboards in Australia, combines airbrushing with some crisp resin pinlines to beautiful results, as seen in the above trio. My personal favorite is that two tone number on the left. Original post here.

I love the details on this Tamara Workshop 6’4″ fish (originally posted here). The pressed flowers look fantastic and I straight up lost my mind when I saw one embedded into the leash loop. This board is clean and simple with just the right amount of flair.

Finally, here is a twin fin from Sirakaba Surfboards (not 100% sure I have the name right, apologies if I butchered this) with some gorgeous artwork. There’s a very cool airbrush on the deck, which I have featured in the above photos, but the board has many more delightful details, including glass on fins with a fabric inlay and a very subtle abstract resin swirl on the bottom.

Shout out to Vissla for the great concept, and of course, all the board builders who submitted their work.