with chippy gone there has been a really quitet lull. whats up every one? post and say what you are up to.
My name is Kyle,
and I am waiting for blanks so I can begin shaping several boards I thought of over the winter. Once is a concave deck HP shortboard. and I think i might shape a step-up for those slightly overhead-doh days. I also plan on stripping a blank i never finished glassing and making a retroish 5’8"-9" board that could either be a five fin Bonzer or a single depending upon my mood.The top two boards are EPS and epoxy the last would be a PU/PE
spent a ton of dough last year chasing surfboard construction rainbows…
my house needs a little TLC and some cool upgrades Im DIY’ing…
when I have a spare hour, I’ll make progress on my current project…a corecell decked composite with some added bells and whistles.
meanwhile, I’ve realized the the best compromise of everything is what Greg has been building and recommending for years…with maybe a couple bells and whistles for fun and giggles…i.e., Im not drinking the coolaid.
Chip is in total denial and will be back…withdrawl will be stressfull and sweaty…
repairing a Liddle 7’6" Inbetweener given me after the TSJ Stubbie Hull thread. Repairing my 6’2" EPS/RR fish that got baked during my post cure disaster. Rooster sent me a template for a 1994 (thanks Rooster!) Lis fish. Want to make a 8’0" and 7’6" semi gun for this next winter. My son wants an egg. My wife will be happy when the block of EPS #2 is out of the garage.
Got a nice lumpy 7’2" pintail for an upcoming Indo trip all done. I hope I can get Keith M. to help me glass it this weekend. I’m running out of time before the trip to get it in the water. Trying to figure out what to bring…the 7’2", my 6’4" edge fishy and the mat for sure. Might be some room for a stubby but swapping multi-fins for hulls is a little dicey when you’ve only got a few feet (or inches!!!) of water between you and razor sharp reef. No room for errors.
have shaped a 7’4" and a 6’4", need to glass them Saturday. I put nose and tailblocks on the longboard I sawed off during a flat spell, that’s mostly done but not finish sanded. Glassed a fin for a balsa board that’s half done. Waiting on a template to make a 6’2" MR-ish twin fin. Have a very old clark blank (just like Lob’s but no big balsa stringer…yet), have skinned but not shaped it yet. Going to grind off some fins from an old 8’4" gun to put fin boxes in it so it will travel better. too many projects to list…
Working on another balsa skinned compsand 7’6" or so big-guy-tri. This is my second compsand and where everything went right with the first one, everything seems to be going wrong on this one! There has been a couple of times now that I have run into problems and have had to step away from the project for a couple of days just to keep from making things worse. Was hoping to have it done for Memorial Day weekend but it’s lookng very doubtfull at this point.
Just need to sand & gloss a 6’1" quad. Bamboo from Oneula & fins, boxes, and advice from Robin - many thanks for the Hawaiian connections on this one!
Hotwired out a second 6’1" fish-type and 3 longboards - 2 10’ers and a 9’8" (those 1" pieces on the 2 fish which otherwise would have been 6’0"s had to come from somewhere). Many thanks to DanB who helped me suss my hotwire troubles.
Vac bagging pretty much everything these days. All 2# EPS. All appreciation in the world to Bert. Hate to see him chased away.
Lookit that - everything I’m working on, I owe to someone from here.
Maybe soon we’ll get back to passing around ideas and away from personal arguments, materials debates, and contest results.
done chasing rainbows for a 5 digit investment tagged to “learning experience”
will do some for fun and charity but gonna leave it to the gurus for the real stuff.
don’t mind sharing the knowledge when time allows who knows what they’ll make…
Chippy’s not gone he just muted from “Master” to “Lurker” it happens to all the old timers and there were some great ones even before him if you scrounge the archives…
like Benny1 said where’s all the builds?
been pretty sparse lately mostly yak yak.
Anyone see a 1lb EPS 4 man outrigger canoe around here?
soon.
just got to cut back on the yak yak like chippy did.
I shaped a 6 foot fish from eps. Painted it yellow with acrylic and a brush. Splattered some red paint on the bottom. Waiting for a lokbox install kit before I laminate it. Ive bought the following lokbox fins for this board and another. The Pavel keels, Zippi fish fins, and the CI “Free Willy” keels(turbos?). I can’t wait to put it all together between the 200 “Honey Do’s” on my list.
Surf4fins, The Lis fish from which I made that template was built around 1994.
I got the 13’6" fishboard to finish and two SUP surfboards to do. Dave Parmenter just shaped me a 12’3" SUP and Charlie is putting a balsa skin on it. I will do the glass work myself. Manoa made me a 12’3" 1# EPS blank with 1/2" balsa strinker to make the 2nd SUP. I also purchase a 10’4" PU blank from Aku-Bird Foam and will have that shaped mid-summer. So I got four projects to start or to finish.
Oh, I turned Grandpa four months ago and been playing that role to my brand new grand-daughter Hi’ilei. I try to spend at least on hour doing “grandpa” time every day. My grand daughter and I are bonding very well! This is great!
I just got over coaching my first seasom of girl’s high school water polo and that was a great experience. I made our this year’s MVP a 57" longboard skateboard made from mahogany and purple heart wood and glassed with 4 oz e-glass and epoxy. She was stoked and her surfing dad was excited too. Giving her that skateboard was a great high for me.
I will be going to my niece’s wedding in Las Vegas to see how the “wedding board” is received and signed. I sent up finish resin, tape, brushes, sandpaper, polish and my buffer to finish the board. My neice loves the board.
I look forward to learn how to SUP well and someday hook up with Carvenalu and Manoa and do our first SUP session in small surf first. So it may have been quiet on Sways but I’ve been booked pretty solid. I need to thank all my Sway pals like Benny1, Oneula, Balsa, Chip, Bert, Shark Country, Manoa, Jimmy, Kokua for teaching/showing teaching this old dog new tricks.
Hopefully with all these projects I can start making some noise on Swaylocks!
Mahalo,
D
SUP shaped by Dave Parmenter. Balsa skins will be done by Charlie Price. Uncle D to glass!
The Wedding Board shipped to Vegas and ready for signing on June 3.
Jesica Tatum Hi’ileiokealohalanikuakahi Varde at four months; the apple of my eyes!
Man I miss Chippy, Thinking about it, Most of us have something that he doesn’t. - EGO. He doesn’t pretend to have any answers, just pure stoke. Thats one project for me, to try and be more like Chip.
Shaping wise, my waking thoughts have been occupied by Bill Barnfields observations on Toe and Cant, an I just installed 4 way fin systems in a 6’8" thruster That allow me to adjust these variables to try and feel the difference. As my Kenpo teacher used to say when he’d fully apply a technique on me.
“To see is to be decieved, to feel is to believe”
I’m also Bonzerising a 6’8" Larry Mabile Twinzer fish, I have the fins cut out & I need to install finbox and FCS on the Twinzer.
I stripped a 5’10 fish and I’m cleaning up the Blank and applying Balsa rails Nose/tailblocks & skin in PU/Pe
& I’m saving hard for my 10 Noserider which Tyler is shaping for me later this year.
I’m still procrastinating on the Compsand despite having the Vacuum setup for 12 months. I tried working with a company to make me blanks, but no word from them lately, at least it helped me understand CAD. Its a bummer living in a small country where even getting an FCS plus is a major ordeal.
I’d like to build 3 identical thrusters for my front foot style, Machine shaped outline and rocker preferabbly (1) Standard thruster with the 4 way fin system, (2) Twinzer Setup and (3) 5 fin Bonzer set-up.
I have a little boy who turns 2 in August and another one on the way. Morning Sickness for my wife is full on right now, so I’m busy working, watching the boy, and taking care of the house - not doing any shaping.
I’ve lent my vacuum pump to a few friends to let them experiment while I am busy and I will let Sways know what they come up with. They are currently sidetracked with rocker tables and such. (Can’t seem to get them to just have a go.)
Its a shame I don’t have time with the flat spell we have on the horizon. Could really make some progress on a few things.
A granddaughter that cute AND a new Parmenter? Life is good for you!
Sun is getting hot, I plan on surfing the boards I have and saving money for a ‘work’ trip to Australia later this year so I have no complaints either.
Desperately trying to get board numero uno ready for the summer! Only 41 more wakeups left till vacation time! Sorry Folks havent had time to post pix of work in progress… Will do so within the next 40 days.
Work gets in the way of serious hobbies… darn it!
Have two fins ready for foiling, vents, and fin attach´ment system “a al Jouhou” is ready left rail (or was it the right one?) is more or less in its final shape, the opposing partner is waiting for its turn. The deck and bottom await thair final surface/sanding… the last 3 months have been “95 % non surf related” Now I’m in a hurry.
Sda to see chips gone… though I suspect (=hope) its a temporarry vacation…
