"The inception of the design is pure Billy Hamilton, a Surfboards
Hawaii Stylist I, the original surfer that Skip Fry wanted to be. I’ve
had this concept in mind for a long time, but had never brought it to
fruition.
A 9’9" US Blanks foam core was my starting place. When I received
notice that I was being considered for the Billabong event, the idea
came to the surface once again - I sketched it out roughly and then
started seriously plotting it out.
The decision to actually put saw to foam was the first obstacle, but as
my Dearly departed father said to me many times, "The devil hates a
coward.” The first few cuts were easy, but as I started to go “around
the corner” this was where difficulty started to step into the picture.
There was no easy way to use clamps on this layout. I have 6,8 and 10
foot pipe clamps and by butting them against the tips of the already
glued sticks, I could get a bite on the nearly straight outline.
When all 17 stringers were in place, I next needed to install the “sun”
which needed to be mechanically accurate so free handing it was out of
the question. I have several professional big routers so I made a
template to route the curve accurately into the blank. The replacement
piece of foam needed to be a true arc, but 3/32 nds smaller in diameter
to accommodate the redwood stick that would separate it, kind of like
an annulus, from the rest of the design. This was accomplished but
taking a piece of old Walker Foam and shaping it to the same curve and
gluing it, along with the wood into the blank.
It was now time to lay the Stylist I template on the blank and put saw
to foam and cutout the plan shape. With pencil on foam the circular saw
was put into play and the planshape came to life. With the outline cut
I would normally clean the outline with the planer, but wood grain 90
degrees to the planer was a guaranteed blow out of the stringer ends.
Fortunately I have a carbide grit planer and used this to keep the
outline clean and free of splintering.
Once it was time to get to work with the planer, the very nature of the
design had its own problems; the stringer layout made the blank very
flexy in the center and the amount of stringers as well as the varied
angles was another concern for the blades. The blank had to be
balanced over my shaping stands in a particular way to help control the
flex. To control the stringer blow outs or splintering I used the
regular planer with newly sharpened blades to rough out the board and
then I pulled out the carbide grit planer again to do all the finish
work.
After all the planer work was done, the block sanding went fairly fast
for what it was - I had prepped it well and knew what was in store for
myself heading into the final stretch.
The fin followed the same design as the blank which I laid up with
volan cloth, the same as the boards glassing, redwood, foam and
pigment. It was completed in 2 days…just in time.
This is not the Michael Angelo’s Sistine Chapel, but nevertheless, a masterpiece by anyone’s expectations."
Concept. Glue up. Shape. Red Gloss Color. Fin. By Jim Phillips
Foam 9’9” by US Blanks.
Airbrush sun color on foam by Sam Cody.
Fin lamination and gloss by Keith Swanson.
Volan lamination by Alex Villalobos
Gloss by Brian Johnson
Polished by Tracy Evans.
The wood is old growth redwood salvaged from a 20’ tall wine cask that
used to be in Napa. The wood was so soaked with red wine from over the
years that milling the wood gave off a strong red wine aroma. This
board would go great with a 2 lbs Kobe rib eye and head high waves.
All photos by Jim Phillips
Come on down to ASR this weekend at the San Diego Convention Center to see her up close…