After visiting Paddle Surf Hawaii over the holidays I was inspired to build updated SUPs. CarveNalu (Blane) simply builds the best high performance SUPs and his boards are all over the place. Carve you inspire me.
I wanted to work with coloring epoxy. The first board is an 11’ x 29” x 4 ¾”, red bottom and rails with a clear deck. The other board is 10’6” x 29” x 4.5”, Mexican blanket bottom / rails (orange, black, red, yellow, white). My wife helped with me with the string color technique.
I had to find the time to make these boards in the spring between work, coaching water polo and surfing. I even made a bunch of new paddles to go with the boards. Mahalo Carve for the t-shirts, the inspiration and the passion! Also thanks to Manoa for the great 10’8” EPS blank.
This is how we did the Mexican Blanket, I needed a partner and my buddy Lorenzo could not make it. After watching Austin’s video on Mexican Blankets I decided to give it a try. I cut the cloth and placed it on the board. I next mixed the color (pigments) in cups with the epoxy (no hardener added yet). Starting with black, I added the hardener, soaked a piece of string in the blacked, with my wife with, we streched the string accross the cloth one line at a time. We followed that with red, white and yellow. The trick is to mixed the hardener only when you are ready to lay the color down. After the stripes are done, I filled with orange tint. At first my wife was reluctant because of the messy process, but once she saw the end results she wants to do another one.
The images of the five women on the red board was done by my daughter Lissa on the sanding coat.
My paddles are made the same way I posted earlier. The blades are glassed with carbon in the back and six oz. in the front. I am going really thin on the blades so I am using the paddle guards from www.surfcohawaii.com. That is the black stuff around the edge of the blade. The smaller paddle is a surf blade at 8.5" and the other one is a flat water 10" training paddle. The 10" paddle blade is a glue up with red wood and balsa.
My wife wants one, with a mexican blanket pattern, believe it or not. Thanks for your details – now I won’t be afraid to tell her she’s going to have to help if she wants it to come out right ;>)
I want to make an SUP, but I plan to do it as a compsand. I think for my size it would be about 9’4" x 27" x 4".
I made a wiliwili/koa paddle but since I don’t have an SUP, I haven’t figured out if it’s long enough, too long or jus right. It doesn’t have the T on the handle yet. If it’s too short I can always make it a canoe paddle.
I still have wiliwili wood for you to make paddle blades. I kinda been on “Hawaiian time”, but I’ll get it to you.
I’ve been making my paddles about 8 to 9" above a person’s height. A person at 5’8" would get a paddle around 6’4". Of course this is just a guild line and not a hard fast rule.
If you want to try my boards and paddle to get a feel for for it you are more than welcome. Kaneohe Bay is a great place to practice.
UncleD, great looking boards! If you don’t mind me asking, what glassing schedule did you use? What is the finish weight of these boards? Your Daughters artwork is stunning!
I glass the bottoms with 6 and 4oz. The decks are 6 and 4 oz. with a 6 oz deck patch. The 11’ is about 27 lbs and 10’6" is about 23 lbs. I use DAP fast and final to seal the board. I also use epoxy sand coats and gloss with PE.
Yes they are 2 lbs. The 10’6" is home made and the 11’ is from Fiberglass Hawaii. They sell 11 ft. locally for $198. It’s a really thick blank. Our blank of choice is the made coping 10’8" Clark Foam gun rockers and adding about 3/4" thickeness in the center. We have been also making SUP’s with the KingMac 11’3" blank. It can yeild a 27" wide at 4.5" thick. Their lighter weight blanks are just has light as 2 lb. EPS.
Very nice boards! The color separation on the mexican blanket is unbelievable for epoxy. You gave me new hope to do some further test, since an epoxy mexican blanket is something i´d like to do for ages…
Thanks for the invite to try the SUPs, but I’m not so sure about Kbay. Did you see that news clips with all the sharks out at the sandbar. That was pretty wild.
Maybe we can all get together during the summer for a swaylocks potluck and see what everyone’s been up to.
Everything is good in San Diego. I will be in the islands pretty soon (starting mid-July) so let’s do a potluck. We can put a thread up in the events section and get the Oahu swaylocker together anyway. Last time was fun!
I am up for a potluck! Those sharks are just hammerheads. Every summer they go into the bay to have their pups. We use to see them all the time on the sandbar when I was a kid. They have a very spooky big black back fins. I am more afraid of box jelly fish.
BTW, I surfed with Foam Dust and Slugger at Threes on Saturday. Let me know about the potluck!
Let me talk to Bernie and see what would work. Better yet, we should plan it around Keith’s trip here.
I haven’t seen Derreck for a while. I bet you guys had some nice waves.
I surfed at Diamond Head and it was windy. I rode a non compsand EPS board I made for the first time and found that it had a couple of pin holes. It was blowing water out for a while through those tiny little pukas. Gonna have to throw it in a vac bag then sand it all down and finish it again. And we put glassed on fins on that one, so it’s going to be a hassle.
