Fast glass

It's a nice sunny day here.  Perfect for glassing.  First I did the bottom.  Once it was in the sun it only took 3 minutes to set.

The laps got sanded.  I installed the vent port and leash plug. 

Then I glassed the top.

The bottom and top took about 1 hour to laminate.  That's much faster than epoxy which takes about 2 days.  Just saying.

First seal coat.

The first seal coat is on.  Solarez is easy to work with and drys fast.  This board is going to take a couple coats. 

Closed up and ready to seal.

The top is closed up. It's time to protect the balsa with a seal coat.

 
For this I'm going to use Solarez before glassing.  There are a couple reasons that I'm using polyester on this one instead of epoxy.  I like the fact that the resin hardens from UV.  That means minimal waiting for curing.  The other reason is I hope this board has a little flex.  All my epoxy boards are very stiff which is alright sometimes, but sometimes it's nice to have a little flex.  I'm using Sun Cure for the laminating resin.

Seal balsa with Solarez.

Now I just have to wait for a sunny day.

Shaping up

I have been busy with a few remodeling projects on the house, so I haven't worked on the board for awhile.  Shaping the rails is always a challenge I look forward to.  The first pass on the top is done.

It still needs a lot more work, but it's getting there.

Now the rails are shaped.

Funfish coming together.

There are a couple things I really like about balsa wood.  It's light and it's easy to work.  For a long time I was afraid to use it.  Mostly because I didn't think it was strong enough.  Now I'm feeling pretty good about it's strength.

I sanded the top and bottom panels.  It still needs rail strips and the middle needs to be closed up.

The board feels light and strong.  It's straight and it hasn't lost any rocker.

My next step is to add the balsa rail strips.  That won't add much weight.  It feels like this board will be less or about the same as the foam one.  That makes me excited.

7' Funfish comes to life.

This board is a copy of one of my favorites.  It's going to be mostly balsa with some cedar.  The idea is to keep it light.  The frame is luan and cedar.  It's great to work with balsa.  The cedar is good too.

It's over before you know it.

There is one thing that can be said about the waves here in central Florida, its over in a matter of moments most of the time.  To have any chance for a ride on these short period waves, the rider needs the right board.  When I first started surfing the Florida east coast.  I used a Ron Jon 7' funboard.  It actually worked alright, if the tide was kinda high and there wasn't much chop.  If it was low tide.  The conditions were much more challenging for that board.

Well experience has taught me a few things about finding that small window of good waves.  Because the sandbars seem to be constantly changing.  It makes the waves fairly tide sensitive.  Another words, you got to be there when there is the right amount of water and swell hitting the bar.  That means lots of surf checks and knowing the tidal conditions.  For me having a board that can handle a variety of conditions is pretty important.

The weekend crowd usually confirm my thoughts about having the right board for the local conditions.  When there's a swell on a weekend, there are usually guys in the line up with longboards.  Most of the time these guys see a set wave and start to paddle for it.  Then they realize that it's going to be a pretty steep drop and a long wall, so they back out.  I love to jump on these because I know my board is fast enough and has enough fins to handle that kind of wave.  Anyways, this why my current build is a 7' fish.  It's a copy of one of my favorite boards.  More details to follow.