9’9" longboard gun, strip planked with high density (300 kg/m3) balsa.
Rails are pinched 50/50 becoming down rails towards the tail
dome deck, belly.
The plywood structure :
No power tools used, only handtools :
Gluing the strips :
The finished board :
Wow that looks really cool!,Im going to have to try that soon. Did you need to put in a hole/plug for pressure buildup?
I used a brass vent that is used in france in home radiators (the ones with hot water inside). It’s water and pressure tight, costs less than 1 dollar, is available anywhere (at least over here in France) . To release the pressure, you just unscrew the vent a few turns, and the air goes through the small side hole.
By the way the board weights 12.5 kg (27 lbs). I could have made it lighter but it was meant to be heavy. It’s glassed with 2 layers of 6oz on top and 2 layers of 6oz on bottom.
Board was built for Parlementia/Guethary, one of France’s big wave spot (often refered to as the French Sunset).
By the way : many thanks to Paul Jensen and his precious advices throughout swaylocks and his own website, and without whom I wouldn’t have even tought about building a hollow wooden board.
NICE work, Pierre! Looks like a very good shape for anything with ‘Sunset’ in the name. 
How about a close up of the nose & tail block work? Looks like you put some killer details in there…
I don’t have a numeric camera, so I only have a few pics :
It might no show on the pictures but I made several mistakes among which :
uv lam was done at nearly freezing air temp and I have several tiny bubbles …
fin is thick and fully foiled but the foil ended up asymetrical … However it didn’t seem to affect the way the board behaves and I’m do not perform the switch foot stance well enough to test if the board behaves symetrically !!!
Pierre, not only is that a fine looking hollow wood board but you built it using non-electric tools too. Wow! thanks for sharing,
Beautiful board Pierre.Hand made craftsmanship.Let us know how it rides.
YEAH!! Pierre that came out really nice , great job, nice template.
Hey Pierre,
This is fine piece of workmanship. I have no doubt the board will ride beautifully.
How about a shot of the rocker mate? Oh – how much does it weigh? I concure with Kirk, the outline is grand. You have a real treasure there. You’ll have to be super careful with the poly lamination. Stay after those cracks when you get them. You want to keep that precious balsa wood dry. I’m really impressed and give you the highest marks possible and extra, extra, extra credit for doing the whole project by hand. It a beautifully functional work of art.
Bonnes Vagues, Rich
Brilliant! Pierre.
There’s a revolution taking place.
I was thinking in building a hollow just the way you made yours. That way you minimize the waste from building the rails. Do you have more pics of the rail area while building? maybe when you attached the first strips of balsa. Jack
Hey Pierre
I’m very impressed. you should be proud of your work and with only hand tools (I even checked out the piccies to look for power cords). Just need to see some piccies of it in the water.
Don’t forget to tighten your vent plug before you get into the water, I hate to see a grown man cry.
Owoooooooo!!!
Hey Pierre
I’m very impressed. you should be proud of your work and with only hand tools (I even checked out the piccies to look for power cords). Just need to see some piccies of it in the water.
Well, I didn’t use any power tools because I don’t have any and because the building process was for me a way to relax and take a break from my web design activity. Therefore, several times a day, I enjoyed taking 10 minutes break and go handplane some wood. If I had used some power tools, I doubt it would have been as pleasant and relaxing (machine noise, breathing dust …).
I did use one power tool (a drill) in order to foil the fin and sand the hotcoat, and that’s definitely the part of the building process I hated the most. Working with a (sharp) handplane is so pleasant : non noise, no need to wear a mask and you really can feel the wood …
Hey Pierre,
This is fine piece of workmanship. I have no doubt the board will ride beautifully.
How about a shot of the rocker mate? Oh – how much does it weigh? I concure with Kirk, the outline is grand. You have a real treasure there. You’ll have to be super careful with the poly lamination. Stay after those cracks when you get them. You want to keep that precious balsa wood dry. I’m really impressed and give you the highest marks possible and extra, extra, extra credit for doing the whole project by hand. It a beautifully functional work of art.
Bonnes Vagues, Rich
Thanks to all of you for all the kind words.
I don’t have any pics of the rocker (as a matter of fact, the friend who came and took the pictures for me is not a surfer and did not have the eye required to take the right pictures …)
However, here is the drawing I first made and used as a template :
Nose rocker is 5.5", tail rocker is 3.1"
Max width is 22.4"
Nose 15.3"
Tail 11.8"
Weight is 12.5 kg (27 pounds)
I haven’t tried the board yet in the waves it’s intented but I tried it in smaller (5-6 foot) hollow waves and I’m stoke !!!
Because of its weight (and lower volume than my everyday longboard), the board is a bit harder to paddle, but it’s still fine.
With my other longboard (which has little nose rocker and a wide tail) on hollow waves I turn from top in order to avoid pearling. I can do this because when I catch the wave the board starts slowly to gain speed and leaves me time to turn from top.
With the longboard gun, after two strokes the board quickly ran down the face (now I felt the weight difference). I though I was going to pearl, but with the extra nose rocker and the lower tail volume it went perfectly well. Bottom turn was super fast, easy and smooth and the rest of the wave was like a dream.
I had never surfed a pintail before, but whoaa !!!
It’s amazing how the weight and the belly bottom made the ride feel like I was riding some perfect glassy wave (while was not the case). My other longboard was a Cadillac, this one is a fast speed train. It travel fasts but in full confidence, you can feel the board will behave nicely in bigger waves. I’ve tried some new boards where I needed a bit of time to feel the board and understand how it worked. With this one, it felt fine right away…
I was thinking in building a hollow just the way you made yours. That way you minimize the waste from building the rails. Do you have more pics of the rail area while building? maybe when you attached the first strips of balsa. Jack
The first strips of balsa are full length. Because my balsa was only 4’ long, I did some scarfed joints. The first strips are narrow (about 1 cm, 0.4"). I’ve tried différent methods to hold them in place while the glue sets and the best one was to use stapples. You can still see these stapples in this picture :
The first strip is also hard to bend. I used a regular steam iron (the one you use to iron your cloth) to help the wood bend.
Hey Pierre
I’m very impressed. you should be proud of your work and with only hand tools (I even checked out the piccies to look for power cords). Just need to see some piccies of it in the water.
Don’t forget to tighten your vent plug before you get into the water, I hate to see a grown man cry.
Thanks Hicksy, your boards look great too. Reading that long thread you had about hollow wooden boards was among the factors that made me want to try building one myself.
Following someone’s advice (was it Bert ?), I positionned the vent so that it’s right in front of me when I paddle in order not to forget to tighten it. It amazing how air pressure builds up … You open the vent and you can hear the air whisling out for several seconds.