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Where the Duck Went
13 Jun 2026 2 min read
We set out to build a surfboard. That’s the honest version.
The duck, the logo, the stickers, the small club, the first heat: all of that came later. None of it was on the plan. Each part happened because the previous part made the next one feel obvious to Noah and the other kids, and because I kept saying yes often enough for the thing to get slightly out of hand.
This is the index.
- The board: the three-month build at Santosha, from blank foam to finished 5’6” shortboard.
- The duck: how Noah’s pencil sketch became artwork for the board through versions, votes, and arguments about what looked right.
- The stickers and shirts: what happened when the drawing left the board and started showing up on other kids.
- The club: a few children at Tamarin with the same sticker and no adult structure around it.
- The first heat: the board’s first real test in the water.
How it grew
The order matters because it makes the project less embarrassing.
If we’d started by saying we were launching a small surf brand for a group of kids, I hope someone would have stopped us. But that’s not what happened. We started with a board. The board needed artwork. The artwork went through the kids. The artwork made good stickers. The stickers went onto other boards. The other boards made the kids look like a crew. The crew needed a day in the water.
At each step, the next thing was only a little ridiculous. That’s how most projects get away from you.