Photo of Kurt Nelson in “Waterworld - A Live Sea Spectacular”. (Above)
So I became a big fan of the Universal Studios " Waterworld - A Live Sea Spectacular" Stunt Show. Even so, I learnt most of the entrances, pyro cues and even the pattern for the Jet Ski "battles. I fell in love with it and became obsessed. After seeing it in all the Parks, everywhere in the world (except California), I decided to make my own inspired version of one of the "Smokers" Vests (Picture Left).... I know.
This is how I made it
It all started with a modified, full zip neoprene rash vest where I had to chop the bottom off and re add the zipper.
All the rubber pieces are a combination of rubber bath mats, drawer protective matting and car mats.
I'll be honest. I would like to say it was completely planned out before hand, with all the templates pre made etc....It was not. I sketched out a design using pictures from the show as reference. Then cut them to the shape and size of the neoprene vest so it would fit. I then just mirrored the template to carry on with the other side and went from there.
Most of the patterns/templates were completely freehand.
I then proceeded to add the eyelets which was probably the most time consuming as each hole had to be individually cut out and then each eyelet had to be hand set. This took hours. I love how it looks, but again, I'm glad it's done.
I felt like making the back more interesting, so I cut out and had re sewn in a different colour. This took forever, I'm happy I did this though. It gives it more of a rushed, thrown together, handmade feel in my opinion.
The next stage, once all the eyelets are hammered in, is to sew all the rubber pieces onto the under vest.
Now for the fun part. I wanted to add hardware, ropes and patches to this as if to make it have a more personal feel, like if someone has worn this everyday in the ocean, and also, to make it look like it has a "history".
(Unfortunately I don't have pictures of the vest with the patches added during the process.)
And the last part. Paint
I wanted to give it an aged, mouldy and dirty look, so I mainly used browns, greens, blues and reds. I finally had an excuse to use my new airbrush as well.
