Second surfboard made, hollow wooden performance mid
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Hello. Some of you might have seen my attempt at a hollow aluminium board. I turned out a bit heavy, and I attempted to make it lighter with cutouts in the alloy deck with Paulownia inserts. To cut a long story short it was not great and better as art. So I used up the 150 by 50 planks of paulownia I got and made a performance hollow wood surfboard. I attempted to make it similar to a board I like the 7/0 Skindog Ova. I just used a free cad model and adjusted it by scale in Solidworks and used the output for the interlocking ribs. I machined them myself on my little Boxford cnc, Then made a think 4mm thick laminated top and bottom, a rocker deck and started gluing. Im surfing it now and its amazing, great glide. It weighs 5.0kg it runs all 5 fin modern fcs 2 boxes. It took so many hours over the last few months that I wouldn’t like to count. I am just learning really, but its very nice and im very happy with it as a surfboard alrounder.
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Great job! It’s a shame the Aluminum board didn’t pan out. This is a work of art!!!
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awesome job! the board looks really nice! glad to hear it surfs well, too! Have fun with it!
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Thanks so much. There is something I could try to rescue the aluminium boards suitability. Now it is structural. I could go in underneath neatly cut out the bottom. Take out at least 50 percent of the core structure holding it together since the other side will be holding it all down as I work. Then re apply a new bottom deck over the lightened insides. I’m thinking about it. ?? Could be a cool board to try and surf. It’s 9.5 kg which is a little bit to heavy for its size. I need a photo of both boards side by side.
Ok so I finally got around to working on the hollow wood fish I designed a while ago. Its ended up around 22.5 by 6.1 by 2 7/8 probably about 45 litres. Getting close just needs glassing. Buuut. Im thinking of pulling out the centre fcs2 box and putting a singlefin box in it. The reason. Ive been enjoying the flow of singlefin on my other 7/0 mid HWS above. And Im thinking why not put one in this, then I could choose twins or singlefin. Dont really know how well a single goes in a fish but perhaps a 6.5 performance on its own could be cool. Its now or never before I glass it. Here is some photos and video of the board
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Another work of art! Nice work, looks like you book matched the top nicely too. I’ve done a bit of research on retro fish fin set ups lately and read a few threads on here where people had tried single fins and liked them. I always thought a box for a single and boxes for twin fins would be awesome?
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Looks great. You could just add some interior support like foam or balsa then if you decided to add a single fin box later it would be easy peazy.
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Thanks so much for this insite. I have been researching and watching videos of the older school fish design with a single fin. I agree. I like the way they surf. Im going to pull out the single centre fin box and put a long board box in. A shame but its not glassed yet to easy peasy as mentioned to slip some paulownia blocks in under the router groove and re route the box and glue it into solid wood. The wood is super light so wont add to much weight. Also with twins it really would be a quick change for a different feeling board. Worth the effort I think. I will post some more photos when I get to it. ordered the box today hoping in the water for xmas holidays!!. This is how I originally designed the board on acushaper for the ribs and spine and volume and rocker. It sort of always comes out surprisingly almost the same. obviously after that everything else is just hand done but is good to start with a good known design. I do like the process. I wonder how it will surf at 22.5 wide. Some things I wonder after, but I have pinched the rail right down so it can be buried due to this width, it will be interesting to see if it turns well or not and what goes best. Single or twins. I also want to share a good twin fin design ive been making in alloy of all things. but i made some in black acetal which are a bit softer. NVS are very helpful and interested. next year might be able to get some made in fibreglass. I have knocked them out in a HAAS machine centre in alloy for now and they work very well like that. a bit wierd I know but why not??
Your Twin Fin design sounds interesting!
I was interested in your comment above re the design of your boards. You design in Acushaper then the rest is done by hand. I’m assuming the ribs etc are CNC cut though?
I hope you make your Christmas deadline …when I was a tradie I HATED the Christmas deadline …different when it’s self imposed!!!
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Hi. Yes I get the info off acushaper. And cnc the ribs and spine. I use some very convaluted technique off scalling each part off a standard one with fusion360. It works. Then the rest is pretty much time and hand work. I am putting in the longboard box. So it will have twins. And singlefin. But it could be used with the sidebites in the twin position which im interested to try.
So its done. Ended up getting my son to design an artwork before we clear coated. And dialed in a 2 plus one setup with small sidebites in the twin fin position as Jim Banks talks about. And a 6 inch performance single fin. The board surfed amazing. Jim is right. Smooth and reactive. But this is first impressions. Need more surfs. I love the board
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That looks amazing, good to hear that you’re enjoying that set up. It makes a lot of sense and should make for a really versatile board!