I feel the need to say “long time listener first time caller”. In other words i have been floating about swaylocks for a long time, and now its my turn to get involved. I just finished up my second board. The first one i did came out horrible! Mainly cause i didnt have a clue. after i was finished with it i found swaylocks, and was able to identify my major problems, and fix them in board number 2. So thanks to everyone for that.
I live in Calgary Alberta Canada. Pretty bloody land locked. Prior to living here i was born and raised in london, and lived for 8 years in san diego. When i ended up in calgary my need to get in the water drove me to jump in glacier fed rivers to surf crappy standing waves. Originally i was using a 4’11’’ fish, and a 6’2’’ al merrick. But, im a longboarder at heart, so i wanted a more longboard feel. So, i shaped both my boards in a longboard design, cut down to 6’6’'.
I used EPS pink insulation foam. There are two sheets of it, one is 1.5’’ thick and the other is 1’'. i glued them together with Wood glue and bent the rocker into them. I left them to set for 5 days. I like wood glue, cause it techniclly drys to be as hard and as wood.
Then i got shaping. I dont use power tools, just a saw, surform, and alot of sand paper. The glass is one layer of 5.3oz on the bottom, 2 layers of 5.3oz on the top. The fins are my own design idea. Because the river waves force you to ride forward there isnt a need for deep running fins. So, i went with sort of keels, they run 2’’ deep, and are 7’’ long. They will hopefully give me enough control, but still be loose to throw the board about a bit. I didnt have enough time to lay up a fibreglass sheet for them so i took a quicker route. two pieces of plexi glass that sandwich a layer of 5.3oz cloth is what they are made of. In the pictures they still arent attached totally, or sanded.
The block, bent and cut out.
done shaping i wanted to experiment with some things, so i cut a crap chennel in the bottom.
done shaping
Deck channel on the tail…dont know if this is going to do anything at all… but i thought i would try.
Painting the foam. Used normal house paints. The crappy pin lining was done with one of those white out tape dispensers.
the fins
Profile. yep, she is a banana… im concerned about that, way too much rocker, but who knows…maybe it will work anyway. This is only board number two, so its ok to me if there is too much rocker, cause the only way im going to learn anything is through trial and error.
Tail looking forward. I was hoping this would show the deck and bottom channels…
me. happy at the end of glassing.
And, just to compare how far i have come since the first attempt… here are pictures of board number one. Im so happy with the huge improvemnet in my skills between these two boards!
My first board…“The Pride of London”
And yes, even though its a POS, the glass is horrible, and the shape is AWFUL…she both floats, and rides.
Cheers,
Paul
<a href="http://www.riversurfing.ca">www.riversurfing.ca</a>
