Im on spring break from college right now and after a year of lurking on swaylocks I got the guts to build my first board. I shaped the board two days ago, and then yesterday bagged bamboo veneer onto the bottom. Today I applied the bamboo to the deck and the board is currently sitting in the vac bag. Here are some picks of the board:
Thanks in advance to everyone on swaylocks, Dave Johnson and especially Allan Gibbons.
The goal dimensions are 5’8" x 20" x 2 3/8" I think the actual shape is shorter though, havent measured it yet.
The finished shape before I started the prep for vac bagging.
My vacuum bagging skills need help… it turned out better than I thought it would though.
After some rough sanding to prepare for bagging on the deck I am confident the board is going to turn out allright, although I think it is going to be a little heavy due to my not so good vacuum bag. At least I now know fifteen ways NOT to do it next time.
I used a stringered blank because I was advised by several people not to try to shape a stringerless blank if I have no experience shaping. Im not too worried about the flex of the board, at 5’8" it prob wasnt going to flex much anyway. Since this is my first shape I dont think that it is the flex that will hurt the boards performance, I think it will be the shape itself, so I figured that going with a stringer would be smarter in this case.
All sanded and ready to glass the rails (which is currently halfway done). Its not the prettiest of boards, but it is my first effort at any of this, so as long as it is somewhat functional, I am going to be extremely pleased.
Unfortunately, I was unable to finish this project on my spring break, and have nowhere to work on it at school in LA. Hopefully I can finish it in one or two more weekends at home, otherwise it might have to wait until summer. I’ll keep the updates coming as the project progresses.
I wondering if there is anyone in the West LA area who has a little extra garage space I might be able to use for a few days. I am working on finishing my first board (as you can see in the rest of this post). All have left to do is my final epoxy coat on the top and bottom, and then installing the fin boxes. Right now I am working on the board at my parents house in Goleta, but tomorrow I am back to LA for school, and my apt has no room to do this stuff.
Afoaf, are you still game? Check your PM. I might just go ahead and by a respirator so Id be down to assist on that SUP.
I like that shape a lot. Looks like it would be fun. Are you going to leave the rails just foam? How thick is the bamboo ? Would you mind sharing your source for the bamboo veneer?
Also, if you and AFOAF don’t mind, if you decide to glass at AFOAF’s in Hermosa I’m right nearby and I’d like to see the board.
By the way AFOAF I got my fins from Griffin. I’ll be starting up in a few weeks.
the stuff is supposedly .025" thick, there are two layers on the bottom three on the deck… Id like to find a place where I could order the veneer wide enough to avoid have to overlap down the middle of the deck and bottom (required an immense amount of sanding). It looks like Greg Tate’s source of certainlywood.com might have it wide enough, not sure though.
I just left the rails foam, glassed with 3 layers of 4oz glass. I originally was trying to get the project done in a week, so i didnt want to deal with doing balsa rails or some other technique. Also, my original inspiration for this was Gary Young, another reason for foam rails.
Glassing the rails in my parents garage. 3 x 4oz strips.
Size comparison pic, before finish coats. Does the board make me look big, or do I make it look small? Photography courtesy of Afoaf.
Does this look like a target to you? I had several suicidal bugs attempt to sabotage my finish coats.
lillibell,
If you still want to check out the board we can work something out. I still have a bunch of stuff over at Afoaf’s place, and will be around helping him out with stuff occasionally. I’ll let you know next time im in the area and maybe we can work something out.
The board is finished and ready for its first wax job and session. Im planning on taking it out tuesday morning, looks like there should be some fun swell. Hopefully I can get some pics of its first time out in the water. Either way there will at least be some sort of ride report.
The board is not the prettiest thing, but I am EXTREMELY happy with the results as this is my first effort at any of this. The board turned out pretty darn close to symmetric and should be a pretty durable board.
Thanks to all of the people who helped me out along the way, and everyone on swaylocks.
Special thanks to afoaf for the workspace (and materials).
thats the plan for #2… I stopped at WetSand in ventura while travelling this weekend to check out two of his boards that they have there, now I have something to aspire too. I just need to figure out where to get the TRUE rotary veneer like he uses, not the stuff that is shaved off of a glued together block like i used here.
