very nice looking board, I am stoked for you. I have been using my kneeboard loads, have just got back from 2 weeks in France,loads of waves! surfing 4 hrs a day. The deck which is 3mm balsa with 2 under 4 over looks like new still, my epoxy over clark foam board, used less is covered in pressure dings. Have had a small problem though, the glass on the rails has cracked for 1ft or so in front of the side fins, thought I had dropped it or something, then noticed that it was same both sides! Now my fins are mounted in carbon boxes set in high density foam that ties the skins together, something that I now know that Bert avoids like the plague! I reckon that the boxes are limiting the flex and due to the very light glassing (2oz bottom), this has shattered the glass. I mention this because you have fixed your fin plugs to the deck also. I am about to take a router to this board and remove the boxes and foam and replace with eps. I will then glass on the side fins and put a fins unlimited box for the trailer, hoping that this will do the trick.
Try model shops, I bought my hotwire transformer from Blackburn models, they also sell balsa. By the looks of it most of these balsa skinned boards are made using 3mm x 100mm x 1000mm, the standard size from model shops, if you want planks, you may find it much harder to come by.
Hope this helps, can find a phone number if you want.
Cheers Mark, that does help, I’d assumed that much larger pieces were needed to achieve the sort of results I’ve seen on here. As I say I probably haven’t looked hard enough either. Once my latest hollow is glassed I’ll start the search.
Do you have a picture of your hot wire cutter you care to share? Could do with making one of these for future projects.
thanks mark, you did/nt miss much surf here while you have been to france and it looks like you have got back in time for a swell for the weekend,
fatbaslardass, you don/t need to buy a hot wire cutter, you can make one in 15 mins from bits of wood, a battery charger, bungee strap and a guitar string, i had all these bits laying around the house , a bit bluepeter ish but works fine but if you need to buy a guitar string get a top g,b or e these are the thinest ones,
the balsa wood is just 100mm x 900mm x 2.2mm strips, just model airplane stuff and the rail stringer the same but 5mm instead, what motorbike do you have?, pete
Nice board! I was in Tokyo for a few years and used to surf Chiba and Shonan when the Typhoons hit. I used to surf a left hand sandbar in front of the river at Enoshima when Shonan was maxing and the crowds were all at Inamuragasaki.
Be interested to hear what’s happening in Japan, like what kinds of boards are crew riding and what shapers are popular and what surfers think of epoxy sandwich boards.
I agree meecrafty lighter is much better…specially when you’re on east coast…
I think conditions are pretty much the same here in japan as in florida, just a guess tho.
But what do think about the lightness in heavier surf? I havent tried it in bigger surf yet so I dont really know. Anyone any thoughts?
jjp, about japan…most people are still on regular poopee’s,most popular is merrick,DHD,lost,webber. And surftech is catching up quickly…same names as poopee’s and just a few people have their own surfing style if know what i mean.
If someone’s heading this way let me know, It be cool to meet someone from swaylocks…
I would HIGHLY recommend using Stainless Steel wire instead of NiCr wire (or guitar strings for that matter). You can get it at a good big game fish type of store (its used to make leaders I think). Get the 0.02" diameter type. I had been using the NiCr wire and was never happy with the results. On my current board the wire broke and I got some of the stainless steel wire. I could not believe the difference it makes!