Balsa boards

Im looking into making a balsa fish or so, so my question is “How do they ride?” ive never ridden one but the look great and my talents lean more toward wood than foam so please tell me if its a good idea or not

Balsa is alot of money.

Reading some of your other posts you just bought your first foam blank yesterday from Mitchs for your first board attempt.

You’ve got alot to learn.

Balsa: Fuhget about it!

The archives: start diggin.

Solid balsa or chambered balsa will be heavier than a normal board made of foam. It will absorb bumps and chatter better than a foam and, due to the weight, has more momentum once they’re up and going. That is why they are good for guns or cruisy longboards. Not so sure that is what you want in a fish though. But…to each their own.

If you like the balsa look but want light…compsand baby! Or maybe a framed wood board.

Having some good basic board making skills will make any of these options look and ride better. And as Mr. Otis suggests, it’s an expensive way to learn from trial and error.

Groan…

I just finished writing a long response to you, hit Post, and got an error message that said “You are not allowed to post comments.” This isn’t the first time I have seen that message. Has this happened to anyone else?

Anyhow, to make a long story short…

I say you should go for it. It will cost you about $600 to $700 for the wood, but your board will probably last the rest of your life. Design the board on the computer, and print out your templates full-size on bond paper at Kinko’s. Use these templates to cut your rocker onto each board. Tack the boards together with small dabs of wood glue. Trace the profile template on your glued blank, cut a little outside the lines, and then use a planer to bring it back in to those lines exactly. Make sure that your rails are dead verticle. The rest of the hand shaping will go much easier if you do a good job cutting out the rocker and profile curves. After you finish shaping, take a piece of scrap balsa and place it on top of one of your glue spots. Hold the board with one hand, and give it a good whack with a rubber mallot using the other hand. It should fall apart easily. If not then you used too much glue and you need to go to plan b. Chamber all the boards with either a drill press or a router. Glue everything back togther, do some final sanding, and then finish it. Most people use fiber glass and either PU or Epoxy resin. I used a few coats of marine spar varish, which turned out nice IMO.

I have been shaping for a couple of years and just now am making wooden boards. whats the point of making one that has a shitty shape. you will be out 700 buck and have a board for the rest of your life that you could of shaped better. I say after 10 you start to understand alot more.

Noobshaper,

The first board I ever shaped was a chambered balsa fish. Actually, the only board I have shaped so far, so take what I say with a big grain of salt. Wood is slower, this can be good for a new shaper because you can take your time and remove material slowly. For all intents and purposes, no power tools were used in the shaping of my fish, only in the blank construction. The question about cost of balsa vs. quality of end product is up to you. Sure, I see some mistakes in my fish, but riding a board that I shaped makes up for it. As for the ride, I have never surfed a foam fish, so I can’t help you with a comparison, but I like the ride of mine. Without bragging, I think my post about chambered balsa boards is instructive, and I would also check out Swied’s. Both are start to finish with plenty of photos. Good luck.

http://www2.swaylocks.com/node/1022056 Balsa Fish Project (Swied)

http://www2.swaylocks.com/node/1023972 Second Balsa Baord (Mine)

-cmg

Hey thanks a lot for all of your input. See I’m a little strapped for cash now but I might go for it. My trade is hardwood floors and i spend my days making this stuff beautiful. Also i just like the look of balsa i mean isn’t that stuff just beautiful.

Wow that my kind sir is a work of art

If you want a wood board, and don’t have a lot of cash, then you might want to try a hollow construction method. Check out Paul Jensen’s website (hollowsurfboards.com), and read some of the posts on treetosea.org.