My name is Chris Garrett, I’m a professional surfboard manufacturer, have been shaping surfboards since 1979 and been in the same factory in Burleigh Heads since 1985. During this time I’ve managed to shape for both tour professionals and recreational surfers alike. I surf nearly every day, I’m 5’10” tall, weigh 135lbs (60kg) and currently ride a 5’9”twinfin. You would not believe the amount, or variety, of boards in my quiver!! I ride all sorts of stuff and consequently tend to shape everything. In the last few years the super bank at Snapper /Rainbow /Greenmount has been the testing ground. This ridiculously long right-hander has been the perfect spot to hone ideas and push the boundaries. It has been a dream of mine and I’m sure yours as well, for a long time to surf something a little more environmentally friendly, perhaps a little more alternative, durable and desirable than what is currently available in the market today, so with a like minded good mate of mine… David Franks…. we created the veneer boards. Well actually Dave is the brains behind veneering processing. All credit goes to him for the insight, skill and craftsmanship that’s involved in making them but according to him…’It’s all been done before…’…. A bit like the thruster really…Simon wasn’t the first to put 3 fins on a board….he just made them work!! The concept is pretty simple really…shape a board, clad it in timber and finish it so it’s water tight….and as complex as that!! The boards are a polystyrene shaped blank that are then veneered all over, rails included, with a 2mm timber veneer. This is simply glued down using a water catalyzed glue, sanded and then finished off using outdoor furniture lacquer. They contain NO fiberglass!! … We are currently testing out polyurethanes but have in the past tried out oils, estapols, lacquers, stains, shellac, waxes, and a heap of other stuff from hardware/boat shops. Due to the construction method we are using a fin system. We have tried timber fins but feel that some compromise has to be made in order to have a functional product. Of course if the timber fins were the go, we would have used them!!. We use FCS. And consequently the only resin that is used in the boards is that which is used to set the fcs plugs. We also use fin boxes for singles. You can however use fiberglass fins to get maximum performance out of your board …this is what I use….and as you’ve guessed we’re not toooo anal about the environmental issues but you have to be a bit fairdinkum about it…. after all we’re still killing trees for the timber!! The timber that we use is predominately cedar with feature timbers of teak and obeichi. Due to the random nature of the timber we cannot guarantee the appearance of the board however every board has it’s own character and uniqueness. As you can appreciate, this is what makes them desirable. The boards are quite strong (we haven’t broken one yet) but you must remember that they are Timber and not made out of plastic! Consequently they have different characteristics and your whole approach to them is different. They are a living thing and should be given the respect that you give to living things. Direct sun and to be more exact, heat is the killer. It’s OK surf in the sun but not to lie in the sun. The same goes for the boards. Surf them to death if you want…but when you’re finished surfing …keep them out of the sun. The same goes for the car…DO NOT leave them in your oven….sorry, car. You wouldn’t leave your dog or child in your car with the windows wound up for a long time. You got to be careful with board bags too because if left too long in the sun in a board bag they can be like mini ovens as well and it’s probably no coincidence that pizza delivery bags look like little board bags either!!. I’m sure you agree that if you use a bit of common sense then durability shouldn’t be a problem. Fixing dings isn’t a problem either. If it’s a ding in the deck or bottom, firstly cut a piece of laminate the size of the ding…make it a nice shape ….use it as a template to trace around the ding and then cut out the ding with a Stanley knife… then simply glue down the template with a bit of epoxy… sand off the excess and then finish with a furniture stain/oil/estapol etc. If it’s in the rail/ nose or tail cut out the ding…epoxy in a piece of timber ….sand and finish. The board will look like it’s been patched but if it’s done with a bit of foresight can look quite good. We will provide you with a few laminate patches with your board. The really good thing about the timber boards is the way that they surf. They are usually lighter than conventional boards and you know what that means!.. easier to surf and throw around, much better acceleration and because they float differently, have a ‘corky’ feel to them. When you first get on them they feel kind of weird. They are quite stiff and because they are less mass than your conventional board, you have this ‘no real sensation of acceleration and going fast thing’ going on, but you make all the sections easily!!! They are very stable on the white-water and accelerate off the foam really well. Then to top it off, they are really maneuverable as well!!. It’s no wonder Rasta doesn’t want to ride anything else. Both David (Franks) and I are really committed to our craft. We believe that there is a nicer alternative to the current surfboard that is on offer. We are passionate about surfing and are extremely happy with the boards’ performance, durability and appearance, and I’m sure that once you guys get your hands on one of them …… so will you!!! They’re the kind of things that you would want to leave to your kids!!!. Aloha and happy surfing Chris Garrett 
sounds great, and its always good to see something new i suppose. how much will they run and can i find one for new somewhere on the East Coast of the USA? and to get this right… you shape the board like normal, then glue wood to it? i’d really like to see/ feel one in person…
Thanks for the fast post. They run at $990 Au dollars and freight, that makes them a little dear, but you must see the quality of the finish. In most cases getting a second board may still cost the same freight, as the boxes used to ship the boards are large enough to carry 2 boards with FCS As for a shop on the East Coast of the USA not yet but we hope to make contact with any that might be interested… And they are hand shaped then finished in the timer 
Is any kind of vaccum-bagging involved? Are they similar to those aussie made bamboo covered veneer boards I’ve seen at surf expo? I’d like to check one out and ride it.
very interesting… they look quite attractive, but i’ve very rarely been on any type of wooden board, so i’d like to see one in person. Please post if you find any contacts on the east coast! (or maybe i can talk a friend into going in on a two board deal and splitting shipping.) thanks again for the info.
Exactly what I was thinking… www.bamboosurfboards.com I was at ASR a few years ago and those guys were there. At first I thought, how cool…as they looked cool. And they gave me this speach about how good the performance was and all that. So, I started asking questions and inquiring more… The more I asked, the more I realized these guys had no clue about surfing at all. It was all a marketing hype they were hoping would catch on. “We use no fiberglass” and all that. “It’s stronger”… I guess they put epoxy resin over the bamboo or something??? Anyway, then I started asking about their bamboo skateboards which are also “the strongest and lightest in the industry”…and they have a better feel than normal skateboards…uh, yeah right. Turns out that they only put a veneer over a normal skateboard deck. I asked why they didn’t make the whole board out of bamboo since it’s so strong… Well, they started with that because they thought that would be the best, but it turns out they all broke in half during the R&D test phase. So, how again is the bamboo providing strength? I’m all for changes in the norm and improving technology, but hype just doesn’t make a good product.
Thanks for stopping by here Maka. Many of us saw your boards in TSJ when they ran the article on Dave R. and it sounds like a great thing that Dave raves about your boards too. Since this is a design forum and most of us here build our own… we want the full lowdown on how it’s done - if you feel comfortable giving it out. Hell, I’m already figuring out how I can get my mits on enough veneer to make one. My mix would be - insulation foam, veneer and epoxy to glue and seal it together. I’ll need a more flexible epoxy I think. Are there drawbacks to epoxy that you’ve found? What glue are you using? It sounds like 4mm of veneer is giving quite a lot of strength. How would you compare it to a regular glass job? Best, Eric J
how the heck are you bending 2mm of veener arould the rails?. where does the top veneer meet the bottom veneer?..
Hey is that dude pulling a splinter out of his heal? board looks nice.
It seems to me that the original post is a sales tool for the boards… I think that a lot of us here on the design forum would be very interested in the “How To” aspect of the boards… I hope that there’s not an attitude of “Proprietary Design” that accompanies these boards… So, how do yo make 'em…??.. http://www.hollowsurfboards.com
I’d love to see a side view of one of these things. all the top or bottom views leave out the challenging part of the mix. i’ve built a few veneer over styro boards before, but was always challenged by two problems. one is wrapping the rails without vacuum bagging, and the other is getting decent results with more complex (read: multiple concave, less than full rail-to-rail concave, or panel vee) bottoms. i found good results with simple door-skin veneers glued to the deck for improved compression strength, but keeping foam bottom and rails for ease of developing the finer contours. i used epoxy to bond the veneer, but the gorilla glue sounds like a nice option-- much easier and lighter. of course, my boards were glassed, not varnished, but it still seems like gorilla would be a winning idea. the rails are almost inconceivable as veneer wrapped, although i suppose you could do the multiple cork/veneer “edge banding” method then shape down, but that costs a lot of work and weight. i found a opaque color bottom and rails with the veneer deck to be near ideal, and it provides real durability benefits without major sacrifices in weight and bottom/rail refinements. plus, it looks all woody with only the deck showing anyway. i would love to see some details on how the process moves along. i still can’t for the life of me see the rail wrap working even if done with boiled veneers right onto the gorilla-glue primed rail. talk about high stress–OOPS! it makes me think about strip planking the rails and sticking with a solid veneer panel on top, but i still don’t know about the bottom without using relief-cuts in the veneer panels at the very least. maybe you just stick to simple bottoms and it’s just fine. do share some information, if you please. shaka, -cbg (already thinking about a nice book-matched, two panel veneer deck for my next try. mmmmm, form and function! )
Your boards remind of the bamboo boards - but prettier. I bought a bamboo board about a year ago interested in the claim that they were “lighter and stronger”. I ordered it an inch shorter, 1/4 inch narrower and 1/8 inch thinner (guess i thought these dimensions would reduce the corkiness of a more buoyant product) . When i received the board it weighed 2lbs more than my regular board, despite being smaller all round. Very unimpressed by bamboo (so it seems was Garcia - never surfing one in a contest), what are you comparing the weight of your board with - 8 oz glass, 6 oz, or 4 oz? Sorry to be sceptical but feel ive been lied to by bamboo surfboards and your product seems a v similar kinda thing.
Hmm… Chris’s post is a good presentation of what he’s doing. I find nothing objectionable about a forthright presentation of something a little out of the ordinary. Call it a sales pitch if you like but it is informative and thought provoking. His reasoning and motovation seem sound and the product appealing. It’s clearly more than just a curiousity. It seems to me a thin epoxy lamination would really make a durable product though not quite as earthy as the present finishing methods. There was a bamboo board here at one of the Shops in Santa Cruz a few months back and compared to a standard board of the same volume I would estimate that it was around 10 to 15% heavier. It could be that these veneer boards are lighter than the bamboo because bamboo is pretty dense material. If the wood they use to veneer is fairly light the skin could be very close in weight to a standard glass job, but until one makes an in hand comparison it’s are all conjecture. I’m with you Paul. It would be very interesting to know what the construction schedule is. We all could probably learn a few things from it and certainly a little less polution can’t be a bad idea. Mahalo,Rich
What possible reason is there for Mr. Garrett to publically display his proprietary materials and techniques? Aside from accomodating his many would-be copyists in this petty little forum! Whatever happened to discovering such things for yourselves? The vultures of Swaylocks should be posting their unimaginative tripe in “See and Spell 101”! Remember what happened to Paul Gross!!!
“What possible reason is there for Mr. Garrett to publically display his proprietary materials and techniques?” …Is it proprietary…???..Do you know…???..I just expressed a hope that Mr. Garrett, would be as open as he feels comfortable with, in discussing his explorations of design and construction… “Aside from accomodating his many would-be copyists in this petty little forum! Whatever happened to discovering such things for yourselves?” …Sometimes being open, can plant seeds that inspire some of us…Not many of us here see surfboards as dollar signs, but as creative outlets that lead us and others to creative fulfillment… …I built a hollow wood board a couple years ago, that led me to build others…With what I learned, I created a web-site that fully has the “How To” on hollow boards, as I build them…Learn and share…That’s how I see it… “The vultures of Swaylocks should be posting their unimaginative tripe in “See and Spell 101”!” …Huh…???.. "Remember what happened to Paul Gross!!! " …Yeah…Bait and hook…Some might be proud, others see shame… PaulJensen (My real name) http://www.hollowsurfboards.com
Hey C&C, You must be one of the real heavy’s in the surf world. Frankly I’m just a lightweight. I good to have this weight situtation sorted out so quickly – next time I’m in Hollywood I’ll be sure and look you up. I’m sure you have many more tremendous insights into progressive surfboard construction. For now I’ll just muddle along is my own small world of hard knocks. It’s hell struggling along here without the guidance of such great minds as yours who continue to guard the vast knowledge you obviously have. Gone Surfin’, Rich P.S. One reveals what he doesn’t know by what he says.
I know who he is and you would be shocked out of your flippers if you knew…Ignore him and maybe he’ll stop…
Why post on a forum geared toward building/designing boards if you are not willing to talk about the designing and building of the board? If you want to sell something post it under classifieds. If you want to whip it out and tease people become a stripper. D & P in Baltimore