I had been plotting this project for about a year. I wanted to build a big SUP/paddle around/surfboard from EPS and test my theory about using high density EPS foam as a stringer. I knew the board would need to be thick and figured a 4 inch wide block of 4 pound foam down the middle for a stringer would keep the board light and make it strong as well. And easy to hotwire, which would avoid having to do the hardest step, ie cutting and shaping the wooden stringer.
I was thwarted at every turn. Couldn’t get 12ft foam unless I went to Insulfoam miles away and picked it up myself. Couldn’t carry a 12 block on my car without loosing half of it in the wind. Took months to find 4 pound foam because Insulfoam didn’t make it in Florida. No rocker templates, no outline templates for shaping. Not enough room in my garage to shape. No way to glass that big thing in my garage. Afraid of building an un-surfable beast at great expense. Found a local shop to agree to build the blank if I got the foam, but they couldn’t find the time to actually build it so I missed my shaping appointment. Whaa, whaa, whaa.
I persisted and here is the result. Thought you’d like to see it. It is 11.5 ft and 24.5 wide and 4.75 thick. It weighs exactly 22 pounds. It has a fair bit of vee in the tail. The rocker is 7.5 in the nose and 5 in the tail.
Major thanks to Davo Dedrick of Cocoa Beach for agreeing to shape and glass it. Also, thanks to Davo for making a huge exception and allowing me to do the resin color on the bottom. I really wanted to do some part of the board and had a vague idea of how I wanted it to look. Davo put rail channels on it for my mental insurance against snapping.
Davo and his son are master glassers. I have seen a lot of epoxy glassing, and these guys are the best I have seen. Their finish work is equal or better than poly. And they have a guy who does pin lines by hand with a roller and NO TAPE. Actually, that’s not possible and we all know, but Davo insists and I didn’t want to be rude. But, hmmmmm. Maybe it’s possible. (If you don’t drink for weeks in advance, and wear ear plugs to keep out the distractions, and you do only that one thing all day long and……no way.)
If you see me in the lineup, pretend you are my friend and I’ll let you have a wave. And you can laugh at me while I try to teach my wife to surf on it.
Actually, I’ve had it out once and yes it catches waves like an 11.5 ft board. But it is perhaps too narrow for me to SUP. I have another blank left and I am thinking about building a wider, more full outline SUP. If I can move a bunch of crap out of the garage.
So, here goes some pictures. Davo is looking for a very big curve.
