Much Ado About Stickers With Noa Deane and Chippa Wilson

Interviews by Morgan Williamson 

Stickers, labels, decals. Not as in NASCAR, more subtle, casual sponsorship representation. Proper sticker placement is important. Where stickers sit on the deck, give different illusions to the board. There’s a rhyme and reason to where they live. For all whose boards have never worn stickers, like a badge of ‘I get shit for free’ honor, we offer a chance to live vicariously. Or hate smugly. Out of jealously, or just the fact that you’re a real core dude.

Chippa flares in the shadows of Cabarita. Photo: Matt O’Brien

How’s the game work?

“It’s like if you’re driving a car and you had stickers on your front wind-screen and you put them in shit spots, you’d be bummed. You’d be looking at them all day like ‘what the fucks that?” Noa Deane tells Stab. “I was tripping out when Julian did that board test. They were all stickered differently, I was like ’oh no, they’re all gonna go different.”

“There’s an art to it I guess” says Chippa Wilson. “You could just slap them on all willy nilly. But if you do it starts to look like a billboard”

How’s the board feel with stickers on the nose?

“Smaller boards, if you don’t put the sticker right on the nose, like if you put them where your front foot is they feel shorter, like a fish” says Noa. “They just want to go frontside. As soon as you have the sticker on the nose, even if the board’s a little shorter, it makes it feel like it wants to go left and just do backhand snaps. It’s weird.”

“I trip out if I put a sticker on the nose. It makes the board feel like a gun” says Chippa. “I try to cram groups of them. I like a group mid board. A few down by the pad and few 3/4’s up. That keeps it nice and clean for me. If I put one up on the nose, then had like 7 or 8 going down the rail, it would freak me out.”

Do you sticker different boards differently?

“Gun’s have to be stickered on the tippy toes of the nose or else they aren’t gonna work” Noa tells us. “It’s a full mind fuck.”

“On a bigger board I might put one on the nose but, I’m talking like an 8 footer or something” Chippa says. “Ive been using front deck pads recently, so i’ve had to restructure how I usually do it.”

Does shape matter?

“My Rusty sticker, the dot needs to be closer to nose” says Noa. “If it’s turned around, I can’t ride it. The board doesn’t work. I wig out on it. I think it depends on the sticker. Like when I see a Hurley one, I don’t know how I’d put it if I rode for them. It doesn’t make sense to me, like how it would go. I think it’s the symmetry. Like with Rusty and Quick you can just put them straight on the nose. It sits nicer. It depends what way you put them too. I do better airs when I put my globe sticker upside down, so when I do an air it goes the right way.”

Decal on the nose, lengthens the fish. Photo: Shane Fletcher

So, what’s a badly plastered board look like?

“It’s like if your chick got a fucked tattoo, like in an awkward spot” Noa tells us. “Or if you got one, and it just sucked.”

Here’s the deal, sticker placement’s a bit mundane. Most reading this probs have never considered what kind of optical illusion, different sticker placement on a surfboard would create. Your board’s, a board. You stick a tail pad on it, a leash string, or don’t and get that puppy in the water. But next time your looking to get some fresh foam under your feet, you may want to consider where your shaper’s logo sits. If you want that new sled to jam turns and feel a longer, get that logo on the nose. If you want to grovel and pop, somewhere 3/4’s up the board is going to do the trick.

Whites lines cut through different shades of blue. Photo: RIley Blakeway