hey guys I am starting a hybrid foam/timber alaia and was hope a few other guys out there have be making these as i am keen on see some photos and grabing some ideas. any tips on design would be great (ie rails ,rocker etc)
I will post some photos tonight of what I am up to . please post any photos if you have any
cheers antony
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hey guys I am starting a hybrid foam/timber alaia and was hope a few other guys out there have be making these as i am keen on see some photos and grabing some ideas. any tips on design would be great (ie rails ,rocker etc)
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AFAIK alaias don't have any rocker - the only rocker comes from flexing while riding.
Looking forward to your build, 'tho, your boards are always a pleasure to see.
Hi there Twistedstump,
Huck is right in that alaias don’t have a rocker as such but they do have a “spoon” or “scoop” shaped into the nose to give some entry when paddling. The rocker when riding an alaia is from the flex of the material it is made from so they are usually kept fairly thin to enable the right amount of flex.
In terms of composite alaias, there have been a few examples and the best one to have a look at as a starting point would be a seaglass project tuna designed by Tom Wegener. As you are probably aware, Tom is a master alaia shaper and has given the composite concept a go with his tuna model… I havnt ridden one yet so can’t provide much more info but I have looked over a few closely to compare differences to wooden alaias. The tuna is slightly thicker than a normal wooden alaia and if you get a chance to check one you will see how he has designed the rails and concaves in the bottom.
Tom apparently put a lot of experimentation into the tuna design so you can probably trust that he tried and refined a number of different design areas of the board before coming up with the tuna model we see on the racks.
All that said… I say go for it. Give it a crack - id love to see the end result.
wegenersfinlessfrontier.blogspot.com/search/label/bluegill
Jon Wegener is doing the BlueGill hybrid veneer stuff, pretty neat.
Les had some down at the Big Sur campout one year too.
I have been thinking about doing a 5’10" alaia outline with Boogie Board contoures— made out of XPS foam and wood rails.
Good luck.
Here is a link to a good YouTube clip where Tom gives a good overview of the tuna design
http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=AU#/watch?v=zxjeyrIUgqY
been shaping and surfing foam and glass finless and semi-finless for about 3-4 years now, doing some called “The Fish-Finger”, got pics on my site as well as some footage, its a few years old now and the boards and surfing have evolved but you get the idea of the type of surfing I am trying to do, lots of slide and glide, with different spin variations…http://www.moresurfboards.com/mainpage.html …have just recently done another one but its not glassed yet, and doing myself another one real soon…
not composite but still similar stuff, these designs are super tricky, such a different ball game to standard boards, hard to ride too but rewards are there for those who put in the time…super fun…
hey so I guess I am not really shaping a " true alaia " but here it is I am not sure if I will glass it or not as I am not really sold on the design. but so far I have had fun. here is a few pics of the rough shape and concept. It still needed alot of adjusting and blending and I will most likley make the side channel/fins a good bit smaller. any feed back is welcome as i am kind of stabing in the dark on this one
cheers antony
hey so I guess I am not really shaping a " true alaia " but here it is I am not sure if I will glass it or not as I am not really sold on the design. but so far I have had fun. here is a few pics of the rough shape and concept. It still needed alot of adjusting and blending and I will most likley make the side channel/fins a good bit smaller. any feed back is welcome as i am kind of stabing in the dark on this one
cheers antony
This works good; use hand as fin sometimes…plywood deck…epoxy…hardware store eps foam. The bottom has same shape as wood alaia but with deeper concave…nose rocker 2" h over 18" length…6 feet overall, kinda like an oversize snowboard that floats.
Like all boards, good in point breaks.
Hi Antony,
That looks very nice - I say stick with the design you have in mind… Tweak it where you feel you need to, glass it and see how it goes!
Would love to here a ride report.
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Hi Antony,
That looks very nice - I say stick with the design you have in mind... Tweak it where you feel you need to, glass it and see how it goes!
Would love to here a ride report.
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2nd that.
Beautiful board - I knew it would be!
How did you bond the wood to the foam?
looks good, interested to hear how it rides…you done and ridden anything similar already ?
