I’m ashamed to post these amateur attempts with the work that Shwuz and Benny1 have posted but Chip asked so I guess every one suffers…
Two interesting experiments in the “thin is in” school.
Both boards were made out of a single 2" sheet of 1lb EPS so they are thinner than 2".
This is the third in a series of four 8’0’s my brother seems to be obsessed with.
The first was a 3" thick 2lb EPS blank CMP made for him, The next two were formed using a rocker table and a 1" thick redwood stringer. Balsa lam top and bottom rail wrap top with solid 2" balsa blocks for the tail and two koa pen blanks for the nose. 21" wide, This board’s been tested with positive results…
The next is an experiment with solid balsa rail build outs on 1lb EPS gone bad. 7’4" vector shape with horizontal bamboo stringer that’s dove joined into the the balsa rails. Cork layers were used in the nose and tail with 1/8 balsa to make the bend. Marquetry inlay strips were inset into the sapele deck after the fact and bamboo patterned cloth applied to nose and tail. concaved the deck to 1.75" thickness down the middle. Slight vee going into a heavy vee in the tail. 23" wide… You can see the headaches of using 1/32" veneer (sand throughs and breaks) I had to strip and redo the bottom in balsa. (think of converting her to a 3fin bonza after testing it with the keel and paddlefin)
The final was a definite surprise.
6’8"x20.5x2.5 2lb re-rockered and stringered molded blank I got from Jim Richardson. A copy of my Merrick Flyer with an extreme pulled in nose. Paint over balsa was a Silly inspiration but mostly to hide the rail patches from the rail wraps. The deck has a single 15" wide sheet of 1/16 maple wrapped around the nose and tail balsa sides and bottom for the rails. Dropped and dinged on the rails before I even finished it…Used Krylon Fusion paint for the blue and Posca’s for the pins. Spray coated with Acrylic sealer and Lacquer sealer instead of a gloss coat( I had to sand a horribly pitted epoxy final coat off) . Almost gave this one away to my bro (seemed too small) until I got it on some head high waves this weekend and she just flew and carved some pretty unreal lines. Blew some minds including myself as this was the third board I tried that morning and pretty much was expecting nothing.
Right now on the saw horses in the back are the number four 2" thick 8’0" waiting for its top shell (1/32" sapele and sycamore hardwoods this time), a 7’2" bamboo/balsa rounded pin mingun waiting to be glassed, a 9’0" b-day present (thanks CMP!) from CMP waiting for it’s fin boxes and to be glassed and a 10" refurb waiting to be painted and glassed.
I give up after that. Time to clean things up for the holidays and enjoy riding these things instead of constantly building them. Anything that takes you away from getting in the water to actually surf (and get better at it) isn’t worth the distraction. But I have to admit though I’ve learned one hell of alot about sandos this year via trial and error.
That is some mighty fine work. I especially like the third one w/ the blue paint. reoprt back once you’ve ridden then. interested on how they handle. also, I didnt see it in reading, but did u vac bag them?
Yeah, the 8’ single looks like it would be a ton of fun on the right wave, as does the “Flyer”. Glad do hear it worked well for you! And don’t get too hung up on looks, they look fine to me, and besides the reall test is in the water.
But seriously man, after I just spent like 2.5 months on only three of these, I have to ask, how do you find the time?!
Amateur? You’re being way too modest. You do good work.
I think you totally nailed it with that flyer. Great choices - wood, paint, pins, shape. How much does that skinny boy weigh?
I did one board with hardwoods. Mahogany & birch veneer. Splits are a nightmare. I won’t do it again - balsa, with maybe some redwood & cedar is it for me. You are really challenging yourself with some of those woods. I know its tough going, but your results are something I can’t touch. Nice work.
It’s so hard to do all this with out any facilities or the time to do it right.
The front of your house does not make a good board building space.
Silly/Scott, here’s the story on the flyer.
I took her out two weeks ago in wind blown ankle snappers and all she did was pivot couldn’t get any lateral drive like my 6’8" surftech flyer does in monster mush. Paddling her sucked too compared to the original but she has a more pronounced pulled in nose (which I like). On Friday I caught the tail end of a 2-4 southy first with my 7’2" bamboo bottom fun board with those red Hanalei boomerang fins which didn’t work at all, then my 6’9" Surflight which as had problem getting any horizontal ditance off the first turn. I finally decided to give this maple/balsa flyer one last go before abandoning her and lucked out on a long head high peeler where the board just came to life. Not really springy but the board jumped past sections and carved 180 cutbacks without losing one ounce of speed. That one ride really left me in shock cause I didn’t know I could do those things with my bum knee and it must have looked good cause everyone started asking me about the board when I paddled back out after riding that one wave all the way to the shore. I ended up with two more smokers where the board just took off like it had wings so much so that longboarders who normally drop in with no second thought pulled back 15 yards away as they saw me coming down the line. So I don’t know how to explain it but I changed my mind about giving her up…
The funny part is when I took her the next day to a more steeper peaky type of wave down the beach she didn’t perform well almost like she acted like a fish or something or needed a lined up wall to do her thing, but definitely a keeper for Haubush and Barber’s Point waves.
Meanwhile I’m trying to get as much time in on this baby below so I can do a report card here for Noel.
So far similar results… Seems to come alive when there’s some steepness to the face and a wall to work her in…
Just need more size here on the south… Maybe I should take her to Makaha or Tennis Courts…
Benny this is what I’d ride along with my nugget a starfin on. Other than that superthin tailed board like the frankenstein balsa. I haven’t had much success with a star on a “normal board”
A Ricky Carroll Horan replica 6’6" 22.5" 3.25" (100% pure fun)
