Ben, only thought of “weight” as I wrote the last post.
Sweet pics, it mustve been a blast ! Nice day too.
Pic no. 2 is great… the different textures on the wave face and the light,classic.
Like a Ron Stoner photo where its all moving but theres a quiet focus we all instinctively understand.
Theres a new one for my screensaver slideshow !!
Thanks a lot, SF.
Dr. Strange,
Thanks! Fun to finally get it in the water, too. Sank to my nipples…not used to that. Wood feels good, very different than fiberglass/PE or epoxy. Need to look into other flipper options, and improve my skills.
SF,
All I can say is the pics make it look better than it was, but can’t capture how much fun I was having. None of those held up for more than 2 sec. Oh well. Waiting for more waves, now. I will pass the compliments on to my photographer/wood-burner. Oh, and speaking of weight, the board, after its first session, is still at 25 lbs.
–Ben
Ben,
Great thread start to finish! Did you feel the rails bite like a body board, or did it want to slide out on you? What is your size and weight? I love the second pic as well…looks like you about to get covererd up… Keep updating this thread with pics riding this sweet board and enjoy!!!great logo!!!
Bob
awesome! so good to see pictures of people riding their equipment here on swaylocks.
at first glance, laydown alaia riding looks pretty straightforward. but there’s an art to locking that edge in & trimming at full speed in down the line surf. correspondingly, there’s great joy to be had too. i hope you get plenty out of your board.
thanks for a great thread.
11ft, did you try standing up?
is that deaveraux ? when?
Oldy,
Thanks! I get a thrill from riding (well, or poorly) my own creations, so I’m psyched to be able to share with you all. Thanks to you all for the encouragement!
Quote
at first glance, laydown alaia riding looks pretty straightforward…
Too true. It looks simple, but I’m not to that point yet. It is like driving a manual shift car for the first time…I feel like I’m just practicing getting it into 1st gear, but also stalling out a lot. I figure since I’m having fun, I must be doing something right.
SK,
Yup, Dev. on Sunday around 11:30 in the a.m. Surfed the point all morning and decided to ride the plank by the stairs (where it was barely breaking, but less crowded…i.e. nobody out). I am busy trying to figure out how to ride it laying down. If I get that dialed in, maybe I’ll start thinking about riding it standing up.
–Ben
So after 5 weeks in the summer sun and rain this is whats happened to the test pieces.
5 weeks must be equivalent to about a years worth of surfing exposure.
There has been some absolute blistering days of sunshine as well as buckets of rain too.
The permanent marker has almost gone from them all and it was on before the wood was treated.
When wet only 2 of the samples bead. The rest just soak it up.
The commercial wood preservative and the car wax still bead in a uniform manner and protect the wood and that was with just one application. The waxed wood has stayed lighter in colour. The wood preservative still feels a little sticky/oily.
The surprise for me was the epoxy resin that didnt protect any more than plain vegetable oil.
SF.
Thanks for the update. I was just thinking to myself, “I wonder how Brett’s wood is doing?”
As far as epoxy goes, I made a transom for a boat a while back, and all the reading that I did suggested putting 3-5 coats of epoxy on wood if epoxy alone was to be used. Could it be that one coat just isn’t enough (I think you only did one coat…I could be wrong)?
Update on the alaia:
Got my first ding when I was heading out the door one day. Decided to ride something else. Took it out on a teeny day and hiked over to my local beach break. SOOOOOO FUN! Got some nice peelers, and got it into second gear. Saw a teeeeeeeeny little tube. So stoked.
Took it out another day at my local reef break on low tide, thinking that it would be fun. Nope. It was whipped by the wind all day, and it just was a bit to inconsistent, and closing out. Good exercise, but no remarkable rides. Worked on duck diving the plank.
–Ben
Ben, yes I only did 1 coat of epoxy, in hindsight I shouldve done more. Good to hear you’re using your board, I’m jealous.
“Got my first ding when I was heading out the” tube and skipped over the reef. sounds better…
SF.
hows that wood holding up
Hey I made a 6 ft pine alaia from laminated pine from home depot. Its pretty heavy but once you get the hang of it it rides great. I sealed it with minwax and it works geat.Good luck!!
LOVE this artwork