New baby

This one is getting prepped for rail strips.  The board is very light and feels strong.  I'll add the last deck strip soon and clean up the tail.

It won't be done for Christmas.

Thanks Grandpa.

Today is a rainy windy crappy day here in Ormond by the Sea.  A good day to work in the shop and enjoy the process of building a board.  My grandfather was a good woodworker.  He had a small shop, a few power tools and lots of hand tools.  My favorite place was being in the shop with him.  He was very kind and patient.

Making patterns and parts.

I feel very fortunate for the time we had together.  Thanks so very much Grandpa.

Simple enough.

There is a beauty in keeping things simple.  I like to build a cradle for my frame work.  It keeps all the parts where their suppose to be and makes gluing the bottom to the frame much easier.

This board will be a 6'6" fish.  The nose and tail will be developed after the stringers are glued in.

The board will be covered in paulownia and balsa.  It should be light and strong.  Perfect for the waves here.

Surf what you build.

It's taken a while to make a board that works well here.  This balsa board is strong enough, light enough, has the right fin set-up and shape to handle our beach break.  I've taken it out the last three times I surfed and have had good sessions.  It's my all the time board now.

It's been a lot of fun building this board out and surfing it.  I love surfing my creations at my local break.  Balsa wood made it all possible.

Finished board for Dawn Patrol Surf Shop.

This has been my most interesting project to date.  It's small like the keiki board.  I had a great time with all of the design features.  The shop provided me with a board to copy.  I drew it up and made all the patterns or built it on the fly.  The bottom and deck are paulownia.  The rails are balsa.  I used polyester resin and 4 oz. S-2 glass.  This is the lightest board I've ever built and it seems pretty strong.  Big thanks to Lance and Randy for providing materials.

If you come to Ormond Beach or your local check it out at the Dawn Patrol Surf Shop on A1A.  Really nice people, lots of boards, wet suits, fins and SUP stuff.

Laminated 5'6" board

It's been a while since I've posted anything about this board.  The top and bottom are laminated.  I'll glass on the fins in the next few days.

Ready to shape.

It took a lot of time to get all the rail strips glued on.  I started shaping the rails today. It's my favorite part of building the board.

Something new.

I'm working on a new project.  It's a smaller high performance type board.  For this one I'm using paulownia for the bottom and deck.  It's easy to work.

The board is very light and strong.  Next, the balsa rail strips are applied.

Thanks to Randy Bogardus for sending me the paulownia.  He does beautiful work at Clearwood Paddleboards.

Impressive builds.

There are so  many people doing amazing things with wood surfboards.  It's easy to see that the Australians are raising the bar once again.

The annual Wooden Board Day somewhere down there is unlike anything here in the U.S.  Here is the link to this incredible event. Annual Wooden Board Day

Waiting....still waiting... We need waves.

If you want waves don't come here.  We do have small surf and it's usually good enough for some rides if you have a good spot at the right tide.  I will be starting another balsa fish soon.

Finished quad fish.

This board is complete.  All I'm waiting for now is the next decent swell.

Almost done.

The board needs a gloss coat of poly on the bottom and then some massaging.  I can't tell you how excited I am about this one.  We've been having some fun surf so I'm anxious to finish and test it.

Laminated with fins.

I've been on a roll with this board.  It's laminated and the fins are glassed on.

I'll do a little more sanding and then hot coat.  The board is very light and strong.

Something new

For a long time I've been wanting to do a mexican blanket board.  They are very unique.  I did mine with food coloring and marker pens.  The leash plug and recessed vent port have been installed.  The board is ready for glass.

Shaping up

The last couple of days I've been shaping the rails, nose and tail.  It's great working with the balsa wood.  Real easy to work and control.

The rails turned out just like I like them.  There are some little things that I have to fix on the top and bottom.  Next I'll install the vent port and leash plug.  The board feels very light.

Still Railing.

This is the second board I've done with balsa 1/4" rail strips.  It's a bit time consuming gluing them on individually.

It works out easier after the first one is on.

There will be 4 strips per side.

Balsa fish update.

This project is going along as planned.  My goal is to simplify the building process.  I'm happy with the weight and strength of the board.  I also did some research about balsa.  It's a very common plant and a viable renewable resource.

I used 5" wide shrink wrap to install the first rail strip.

It helps to spray the rail strip with some window cleaner that contains ammonia.  That makes the balsa bend a little.