WATER SKI DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT - WMU Frostic School Of Art Enrichment Grant Passion Project
Nature of the Project:
This project is a custom designed and built water ski. It focuses on details of product design and construction. This would be comprised of a foam core with layers of epoxy resin and carbon fiber for strength in construction. This project will relate to my future career as a designer, as I plan to work towards a career in designing water skis, boats, and outdoor equipment.
Background:
Growing up, I was constantly on the water skiing and wake boarding with my family. As I grew up, this became a huge part of my life, and I hope to be able to continue with this passion and bring it into my design work. Going into the product design field, my ultimate goal is to design water skis, boats, and much more that belongs on the water. As a member of the WMU Water Ski and Wake Board club in a leadership role, I believe it is important to have a symbol of growth and development such as this ski, to act as motivation to help individuals find their passions, on and off the water, for generations.
Below shows the intended graphics that will shown on the top of the ski. To the right is the current logo for our team in which I designed as our Social Media and Recruitment director. Both designs were developed in Adobe Illustrator, along with many others related to items such as swimsuits and flags to represent the team.
HO Water Sports Reference & Research:
Radar Lyric Reference & Research
The Radar Lyric is the current ski in which I use as a collegiate slalom skier. This ski, along with many others- including a previous HO ski, helped me learn about the way in which the formation of the ski alters the ultimate performance and comfort when riding. Performance is important in collegiate skiing as we move through a course, and I wanted to develop a ski that not only performed, but represented my team as a whole.
Current ski:
With this ski, I will be taking points of research from multiple ski company's and their designs in order to develop and design my own ski, representative of the WMU Water Ski & Wake Board Club, in which I am currently a member of. I will be making modifications to the above ski and adding my own graphics to the top, through processes that include molding and resin infusion.
Next Steps:
Additional prototyping and development
Mold Making
Foam Expansion
Resin Infusion
