Let's go back to October, 2021... actually, let's not. That kinda sucked. But I'm sure that you'll all recall when I won the rarest ski possibly ever in existence... the 2021 Line Special Blend (1/20). Thanks, LINE! A couple of threads ensued, my account and public image was attacked and tarnished, and I scammed @Zurg out of the infamous BLEND re-giveaway. Idiot. Anyway, I mounted these skis up and enjoyed them for a few seasons.

Through the years, I was tired of the constant harassment of onlookers asking if I had a pair of the 1/20 Line Special Blends (EXTREMELY RARE). It was weighing heavy on my mind and I knew I needed to mask these white demons from the public eye, and what better way to do so than to create an amalgamation of years past BLENDS in a white trash extravaganza.

HERES HOW I DID IT.

Starting from the bottom, or should I say the rarest ski you'll never own. The 2021 Line Special Blend, mounted with Will Wesson's used Marker Jesters.

I removed the Jesters with a trusty screwgie.

Time to clean. Using spray Goof Off, I wiped the top sheets of any onlookers cream and haters dried tears.

All clean, lets cook.

The inspiration comes from one of my favorite graphics and pairs of skis, the 2016 Blend. I always wanted a pair of the Unknown Pleasures inspired mountain graphic 2017 Blends, but never got my grubby little mitts on them. I decided to force these graphics to make ugly love and to do it on the clean white topsheet of the 2021 Special Blends (1/20).

I began the design process by adapting Joy Divisions Unknown Pleasures album cover to fit on a 12x24" vinyl sheet to use as a stencil.

While that was cutting, I laid out some vinyl strips as blocks for the existing graphics on the skis. This is taken from the 2016 Blend topsheet.

Yes, I am white and QUITE privileged to have this vinyl cutting rig. I've bootlegged so many Jiberish and Yoke Collection stickers on this joint.

The first cut, weeded and ready to be transferred. Somehow this cut only took the machine about 15 minutes.

Applied to transfer tape and cut in half, ready to be applied to the skis.

Mocking up on the 1 of 20 EVER MADE Special Blends. This step is crucial for a sick turnout.

The stickers all laid out on the topsheet with the blocking strips underneath. TIME TO SPRAY!

I always heat up my cans in hot water before spraying. This increases the cans internal pressure and helps the components mix, which leads to a smoother spray with less spitting and sputter.

I know some of you dweebs are going to say "you should have just left it like this it was way sicker!" but honestly I don't care what you think, this is my project, dweeb. Let's paint.

First coat: a nice, light tack coat.

Second coat: I got so excited and went heavy. Typical.

Third coat: way too wet, what an idiot. What happened to nice, light coats?!

The sun was starting to set at this point and temps were dropping. Not good for wet spray paint. I pulled out my trusty hair dryer and started cooking the paint. Had to pull off some of the stencil to see if it would peel paint with it or not, we were good to go. Minus sticky wet spray paint.

With the paint still tacky, I began to peel off the stencil vinyl. Anybody else feeling a bit of a stiffy coming on?!

All the vinyl peeled off, feeling accomplished, but the jobs not done.

Tips...

and tails.

I had to treat ol' Will's bindings to a nice makeover too. A good cleaning, degreasing, and re-greasing got these Jesters looking and feeling right. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to add, Pivots suck.

After binding reassembly, wood glue in holes, and cinching some screws down, I proudly present the GrapeHunter Unknown Special Pleasures BLEND!

Anyways, that was my Sunday afternoon. I hope you guys liked this little post and hopefully we can stay civil and tolerant in the comments section as I understand that this can be a sensitive and raw subject to many NS users. I just hope that Erik Olson sees this thread and shines his ray of approval on these home crafted BLENDS. Bring back Yoke and make more Brantling pants, please.

So, are these total crap or what?!

Thanks for sticking around,

- GrapeHunter ❤️