Holy Shit Bob,
I'd much rather listen to The Davisson Brothers and have a few beers with my sweety than defrost that igloo you call a shop.
Amen Brudda!! Laughin my ass of here!! We are due a surf session and beers next summer..
Looking forward to it Bob, we are getting 6'+ Monday if winds switch, enjoy the weekend
Guilhem, Chacal and Jeffrey -
You guys make up quite a team. That board is magnificent!!!
This is one of my all time favorite threads. To have Bing Copeland chime in with his approval is icing on the cake!
Congrats to all for a job well done.
Congratulations to the whole team, it is really a beautiful work, I don't really like the pinlines on the pictures, but I'm sure it'll look better in real.
Happy B day Mr Balsa.
Stéphane.
A 1st class demonstration of traditional surfboard building- do we get ride report ? .........some photos would be neat !
Balsa and Chacal, If you both would have been around in the late 60’s I would have hired you both in a heart beat. Very nice work for sure. Jeffrey’s a lucky guy. I know it was a lot of work on his part also. I tend to agree with others on the pinlines though. If it was up to me I would have just left it clear. But if I was to do a pinline I would have followed the cut lap as opposed to running it parallel to the stringers. Still a great looking board. Now we need photos of Jeffrey putting it to use.
Bing
“Balsa and Chacal, If you both would have been around in the late 60’s I would have hired you both in a heart beat.”
Bing, today is my birthday. I couldn’t have dreamed of a greater birthday gift. I’m sure that chacal will dig it, too. Again, many, many thanks to you.
Happy birthday Mr Balsa! This post is one of the greatest in my years watching “free shape” Internet contributions. Long live this beautiful spirit.
thanks for the support,
like i said to Jeffrey and Balsa, I really wanted to glass that board. It was my first time on Balsa’s shape and first time volan lamination. We don’t do as much of classics here. Anyway, I always want to put out the best glass possible. We are building stuff that last for ages, using super toxics chemicals, so I rather glass a board you can still surf 20 years or more after. Less quantity, better quality. Back to basics. It takes more time but I’m passionate. I got hooked to glassing at the Joe Ropers surfboard repair down in San Diego. I know we were “only” doing ding repair, but pro ding repair. Joe was cool if we’ve used the shop on spare time for our personal project. And I was under supervision of a great crew. I will never be grateful enough for that guy that litterally changed my life.
I really love what I doing and I hope I’ll do it for a long time.
Thanks to men that shape so we can mess with resin.
Regarding the pinlines, it’s all about personal taste. Here, jeffrey didn’t want to hide cutlaps. and he likes the feeling of resin pinlines. You know, that little smooth bump? I like it too! I’m happy the way it came out. it’s straight, the lines are clean and even. I would preferred red, but I guess everybody can have a different oppinion, can’t he?
I hope now the board won’t desintegrate in the next sessions, ehehe!
Happy Birthday Balsa, and many more!
It’s been a great thread to watch. What’s next? Didn’t you have a maui model in that treasure shack?
Are you reading in my mind, Dave?
It was a fun session even though the waves were far from perfect, and we both felt quite rusted in that cold water after several weeks with no surf. Jeffrey’s new board looks really beautiful and the pictures really don’t do justice to it. Very sweet outline, and the foil is really nice… When I first saw the pictures, I too didn’t like too much the pinlines. But when you see the board for real, it looks nice because they have a very elegant dark green (it looked blue on the photos) and it does not have that “cheap” aspect that posca pinlines sometimes have (these are resin pinlines).
[quote="$1"] thanks for the support, like i said to Jeffrey and Balsa, I really wanted to glass that board. It was my first time on Balsa's shape and first time volan lamination. [/quote]
So, what's the deal with Volan? Awhile back Paul Jensen wrote that "Volan is typically used where clarity is not an issue. It was used in early boards because that is what was commercialy availble, Silane finish has been developed for clear laminations, specifically for surfboards. 4oz Volan is readily available, however you would either have to buy 60" widths and split it or by a whole roll of 60" and get it split by the supplier. The finish is what allows the resin to adhere to the glass, it used to be that volan was a better finish however it is pretty much a toss up now."
But yours is a clear finish, so why the Volan-treated glass? Does the Volan give it a "retro" look? Is it significanly different that working with standard untreated cloth?
Beautiful board, btw!!
First test run this morning at Cenitz. 4 to 6 foot and a bit messy. Not the ideal conditions for this board and Jeffrey needs to get used to it but he did manage a few nice rides. Here’s a sequence:
Sorry, I only had a 200 mm lens so the action is a bit far off…
Meanwhile, PierreB was terrorizing the lineup with his 12’2" “Leviathan”, taking off on any ripple and following them almost to shore…
Balsa, thanks for the welcome (and lunch) and thanks for the great board! I definitely need a refresher on surfing a heavier, convex bottom longboard… but I’m super happy with it. I’d love to blame my surfing today on the bumpy, weird waves, but there was a lot of rider error. Especially coming off of a 7’5" lightweight eps/epoxy stinger 
Still, what was great on the few good waves that I managed to find was that really nice blend of a rolled bottom that doesn’t slow you down and a foil that allows a nice swing to the board. All the drive home I was thinking about getting it back in the water on Thursday… and next Monday… So much to relearn and experience, and that was a big part of this.
So thanks again, next time we’ll shoot in better conditions!
And yep, Pierre had those Spanish surfers shaking their heads… in awe or in disbelief I’m not sure, but that board sure seems to do good things for him!
Jeffrey, It’s nice to see you finally got the board wet. And I’m happy to see that you are also a Goofy Foot.
Bing
Job complete, and well done Gentlemen!! Enjoy'd following this to completion! HowZit Bing :-))
Peter"Pope"Kahapea
Hi Peter, Hope all is well. Where are you living these days?
Bing
Stoked for you guys, I just wish I was there yesterday !!
Stéphane