Month: January 2019

The History of Screen Printing and the Method to Our Madness

In the early 2000’s, Chris Sciarra came on board at Kona Surf Company to rebrand the company. Six years ago, Chris and his father Mike began creating their own brand of surfing inspired products. Chris spearheaded the creation of the Kona apparel line. We often say we design these shirts in house, we create these shirts in house, we print these shirts in house, but what does that mean? We think the process is a unique labor of love, so we thought it would be interesting to take a moment and break it down for you.

The 1960’s is when the term screen printing was popularized by pop artists like Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg but the art of screen printing is a whole lot older than you might think. For the first screen print we have to go back. Wwwaaayyyy baaack. Screen printing is basically pushing ink with a rubber slab through a screen with a stencil on it. The part of the screen that is not blocked out allows the design to transfer to pretty much whatever flat surface you want.

Andy Warhol screenprinting pop art at The Factory. 

Over the years, I mean, decades – I mean, centuries! The process of getting the design on the screen has been updated. Pushing ink through a mesh fabric hasn’t changed much since the Song Dynasty around 960AD in China. Screen printing was first created by stretching silk over a wooden frame. The silk is a fine mesh that will allow ink to push through. Next, an image is hand drawn. Think, a line drawing – in one color. For every printed color in screen printing, an additional screen needs to be prepared and registered for alignment. The negative image of the drawing is hand painted on the screen with a waterproof masking medium that stops the ink from transferring through the silk.

In the early 1900’s, about 1,000 years later, the first screen printing machine was patented and printers began using chemicals that were light sensitive to create printing screens. So there you have it. The screen printing machine, a photo realistic way to get your design on the screen and inks and this whole thing was a done deal over 100 years ago.

Now computers cut out a lot of time creating designs. It will take a full color image and separate the design into the four color layers easily. Cyan, Magento, Yellow and Black layers are what it takes to produce a full color image. Most modern graphics programs will create these channels with the click of a mouse.

Here at Kona Surf Company, we always use eco-friendly inks and cleaners that are needed for creating photo realistic images for our clothing.

One pass on the screen.

Kona has tried and tested many methods of printing t-shirts. At first, Chris was pressing custom decals on shirts with a heat press. The decal is cool, but they never quite live up to expectations. Decals don’t wear or wash well. Chris wanted something timeless. Kona tried a t-shirt printer also, literally, like a laser printer that would print a t-shirt. This method is popular right now with a lot of print-on-demand places that need to do quick, in-and-out prints or one-offs. Printing a t-shirt just does not have the same classic quality of a true silk screen. The quality and clarity of the real deal comes through when you take the time to do a job right using the right tools.

Four screens - one shirt

When working in our screen printing facility, we always use high quality materials. With a full 100% cotton shirt, you’re going to get nice, even colors that are going to hold fast in the shirt. For darker shirts, we add a special mixture called Discharges that bleach the shirt. Colors really pop using discharge ink on a dark shirt. There’s a method to our madness, but in the end, we love creating high quality, printed shirts for our supporters.

Finished hoodie with some essential screen printing tools.

Call us crazy! Of all the ways to deliver a design to a t-shirt, screen printing is the most time consuming thing we do here, but we love the process! The end result is a classic, high quality shirt with a crisp, colorful design we can be proud of and is going to stand up to a good amount of wash and wear.

Kona has Grown, Shrunk, and Rethunk

Kona Surf Company started 50 years ago when Mike Sciarra began shaping surfboards in his garage. As green as grass roots can get, local surfers were able to get their boards shaped by Mike through word of mouth from friends that knew somebody who knew somebody. If you could reach through time and pinch young Mike to tell him he would come full circle and still be shaping surfboards 50 years later, he’d be fricking stoked! Along the way Kona has grown, shrunk, rethunk and reorganized, but shaping surfboards has always been on Mike’s mind!

Mike Sciarra shaping surfboards in the Summer of '69.

Moving on up and out of the garage, Mike moved from a small storefront to an empty car dealership with the help of his friend Tony Chrietzberg working the front of the shop. He couldn’t keep his custom boards in stock because there was nothing like his product available and local surfers were eatin em up. Surfing, of course, is a summer sport and now Mike has a business he needs to support all year. Based on the decent response to Mike’s unique custom surfboards, Mike decides to look at what is going on locally and add trending products that would be unique to locals to keep the business open year round. Also, Mike’s longtime sweetheart, Dee comes on board to work the finances and manage the up and coming ladies sporting styles. From there, Kona becomes a hybrid, a mish-mash, a mixed bag of surfing and other sporting goods. Maybe you remember the late seventies when it seemed like everybody needed a ten-speed bicycle. Kona creates a bicycle shop and a repair shop! Remember those Nike waffle trainers? Mike brought them to Wildwood along with tennis rackets, hockey sticks, baseball bats and other products that no one carried locally.

Then comes the internet. The internet is amazing in concept. Businesses now have the ability to reach millions of people, but customer loyalty is thrown out the window. Everyone online is just looking for the best price. Being in a seaside resort town, here’s a double whammy: the cost of affordable housing goes through the roof and families begin to move off the island. This lowers a lot of the demand for the sporting goods locally which brings Kona to a challenging crossroads.

Along comes Chris Sciarra, Mike’s son, in the early 2000’s to rethink the future of Kona Surf Company. Mike and Chris put their heads together and decide to go back to the roots of Kona. Chris’ idea is to get back to what has always made the place a success; offering a unique product with a passion for surfing.

They start phasing out sporting goods. Chris picks up a heat press from a local guy and starts creating a Kona clothing line with a decal of the classic sun image. Remember, this is Wildwood, New Jersey. It gets hot here! Kona hasn’t really set up a workshop for creating merchandise yet. As Mike started by shaping boards in a garage, Chris is now operating an oversized iron in a humid back store room handling hot fabric. That was a fun summer, but it was worth it because those experiments paved the way for screen printing and embroidering custom high quality merchandise in house.

The Kona Board House today.

Now Kona has a unique brand to promote; a surfing inspired line of clothing. In case you were wondering, that was a test, but don’t worry! There won’t be one about this later! The test was to see how their unique brand sold in the store and online. The line sold great and it’s still going strong. Next up, the surfboards!


Still shaping after all these years.

At this point, let’s just say that Mike’s been shaping surfboards for about six years longer than that movie about a galaxy far, far away was released at the drive-in theater. Over the years, Mike has shaped a lot of different boards and perfected a lot of signature models. To shape a surfboard by hand takes a deceptively long time. Not to mention, the debris you’re inhaling and the toll it takes on your knuckles. It was Mike and Chris’ goal to figure out a way to make this shaping process more streamlined. After a ton of research they settled on saving up enough money to bring Miki Langenbach to Wildwood from Gold Coast, Australia and set up “The Holy Grail of Surfboard Machines”. Miki helped Mike and Chris dial in the measurements for Mike’s classic boards. Now they are cranking out their own Kona surfboards in-house as well as custom boards for local surfers. You can come in and purchase one of Mike’s classic shapes that are available as stock boards. With this new CNC machine, every measurement on a custom surfboard can be tweaked by changing a few numbers in the computer. The machine does about 90% of the work, and the rest is finished and glassed by hand. As every diehard shaper knows, a pair of hands are still vital to the finished product.


Set the controls for the heart of the surfboard.

Kona started as a grass roots surfboard shaping business and has come full circle. Kona is back to offering our original designs exclusively. I guess what we’ve learned through this process is don’t give up and stay true to yourself. So what’s in store next for Kona? Stay tuned!

Surfrider Foundation Fundraiser Party on January 26th

Kona Surf Company and Mudhen Brewing Company are partnering with the Surfrider Foundation South Jersey and throwing a party at our house! By any means necessary, get to Mudhen Brewing Company on January 26th for live bands, new merch, your good friends here at Kona Board House and our friends from the Surfrider Foundation South Jersey. Doors open at 5pm so call all your friends and help us make this a blowout for the ages. There’s a bunch of things we’re doing to make this an awesome event so here’s all the deets.

First, let me tell you a little bit about The South Jersey Surfrider Foundation. This organization is out there protecting our beaches and oceans in every way imaginable. On the shore and in the court rooms, they are fighting the good fight to preserve our coastlines. The Foundation has many active campaigns and programs to protect our oceans that focus on keeping plastics and pesticides out of our oceans. More information about the South Jersey Chapter of The Surfrider Foundation South Jersey can be found on their website, click here.

As you know, the ocean is the playground for the surfer. To quote straight from the Surfrider Foundation South Jersey Mission Statement, “We have an appetite for adventure and we all share a common passion – we love and appreciate our ocean, waves and beaches.” Kona Surf Company feels exactly the same way and we are stoked to celebrate this passion with a wingding of a shindig. Lucky for you, you don’t have to love our beaches and oceans as much as we do to be a member of the Surfrider Foundation. As a bonus for new members there are a few perks that we have up our sleeve for becoming a member at this event.

Kona Surf Company are currently in the process of cranking out a swanky new shirt design for the party. 50% of the proceeds from the sale of this shirt will benefit the Surfrider Foundation South Jersey because we love them. Plus, somebody told me it would be really cool if everybody at the party was wearing the same shirt so we are going to have that shirt available for pre-order. So here’s what you want to do. Preorder that shirt here. It will be available for you when you walk in the door at the Mudhen party. Once everyone has their shirts on, we’ll take a group photo.


Click here to order your Kona X Surfrider Foundation Shirt

Oh… and music. Right? What’s a party without some tunes? Crowd favorites Old Diamond Faces will be in the house to rock your faces. Old Diamond Faces are three bands (Old School, The Cape May Diamonds and Facedown) all rolled into one! They play the songs you love to sing and they will be bringing a variety of musical genres in the form of electric guitars!

Currently there is also an open call for artists. In honor of beer can appreciation day, you can enter the Mudhen Beer Can Art Contest! Win a chance to have your artwork featured on a limited edition Earth Day crowler to be released in April. The winner of the contest will be announced at this event. More information about the contest is available on the Mudhen website. Click here for the contest page.

So there you have it, folks. Good times, good friends, good tunes and good beer to strengthen our local surfing community secretly disguised as creating awareness for our local eco-system. It can’t get much better. Oh wait, did I mention there is no cover charge? Boom. It just did.

What’s The SUP?

The popularity of Stand Up Paddle boarding is constantly growing. What is Stand Up Paddle boarding? Pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Stand Up Paddle boarding or SUP is a variation of surfing where the surfer uses a paddle for momentum. The versatility and stability a paddle board offers is compelling for people who want to spend a leisurely day in the surf.

When did Stand Up Paddle Boarding start? With a quick internet search, you can find cave paintings of fisherman that appear to be stick figures standing on a rectangle holding an oar, ancient Polynesian ceremonial paddles, Egyptian pharoahs holding sticks while floating on bales of papyrus, native American Indians racing each other standing on boats, ancient Peruvians standing on bundled reeds. It seems like as soon as man saw water he was trying to find a way to get across the top of it using some form of a floating plank and a stick.

Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics boat

Big Wave Surfer and “Waterman” Laird Hamilton has championed many surfing innovations has been a massive proponent in stand up paddle boarding for many years. Some people might say in 1999, when Laird built a paddle, put an American flag on it and rowed his surfboard on 9/11 at Fort Point Malibu was the beginning of SUP as we know it today. Laird is in may ways responsible for the growing interest in the sport but did he invent it? Even though people have been doing something similar since the beginning of time, does putting two things together in an unexpected way and giving it a name suddenly make you the inventor? The mad surfing scientist? The guiding genius of cross-over board sports? I don’t know. I’m not here to judge but when one has devoted his life and used these innovations, as Laird has to inspire others to pursue a healthy lifestyle and to achieve fitness goals then I’m going to go ahead and check yes in my book.

Some surfers view Stand Up Paddle boarding as surfing’s weird younger brother but that is actually not true. Historically speaking, surfing would not exist without paddle boarding. It’s impossible to pinpoint the origin of SUP since the idea of someone propelling themselves across a body of water on a floating platform with a long stick is literally thousands of years old. SUP definitely predates traditional surfing.

For a full look into the history of paddle boarding and it’s rise in popularity, Director Mike Waltze created a fantastic documentary called That First Glide starring Laird Hamilton among other influential paddle boarders. Check out the trailer below.

 That First Glide Trailer

The beauty of a SUP is when the surfs flat, no big deal, there’s still fun to be had. The SUP has a lot more stability than a traditional surfboard. Not only can you surf but you can do a ton of other things too. An SUP is stable enough to do Yoga, go fishing or snorkeling. A SUP is a great way to stay fit so if you want to take advantage of the newest ancient sport of paddle boarding our experts at the Kona Board House can help you select the perfect package that will fit you right. Currently Kona carries two styles of our own paddle boards.

Stand Up Paddle Boards in stock at Kona Board House, Wildwood New Jersey

The All Day Stand Up Paddle Board is an all-around go to board. The sleek shape will give the rider good control in the water on a flat surface or in the surf. The Escape Stand Up Paddle Board is for maximum stability on the open water. This shape is great for an entry-level paddle board or for activities like Yoga or fishing. Make your own waves with Kona Board House’s complete line of Stand Up Paddleboards. Kona has a variety of available sizes and accessories for our two models to make your day out on the water a perfect one.  See our line of Stand Up Paddle boards here.

If you are not ready to make the leap yet. Kona also offers a rental service for SUP. Find out more information about our SUP rentals here.