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.