The cheapest possible surfboard build.

General Discussion
21

I think its great to think about minimizing costs/reducing wasted expenses. best solutions take creativity which is the essence of swaylocks. Don’t like talking about “cheap culture”? how about “efficiency”? Almost the same, but more likely to recognize that a board that costs less up front, might be less efficient/less cheap if it gets discarded or falls apart sooner.

As for time spent making the board, kayu is right on. time is the most precious resource, we all need to be careful to spend it wisely. however, If working on a surfboard project in your backyard makes you happy, that’s time well spent. if you’re just doing it so you can get a surfboard for the lowest possible financial expenditure, its probably time poorly spent. In my experience the cheapest way to get a surfboard is to buy a beat up used one. you’ll spend plenty of time fixing it though. the cheapest way to build a board is another story.

IMO blanks are a relatively low cost factor in the process. Blanks of many varieties can be sourced pretty cheaply, if you don’t mind extra work/creativity. old windsurf boards/ eps insulation/redwood benderboards from home depot/ offcuts from huck’s carpentry/whatever are all good examples of blanks that can be acquired for $50. the best board i ever made was made out of $13 dollars worth of plywood, $40 of wood glue and nearly all of my discretionary time for a month.

I’ve made 4-5 boards so far. dreamt up many more. The biggest cost factor for me (by far) is in the glass and resin. I’d say the best way to reduce that cost, is to practice and developsome solid glassing skills. Or at least I think so, cause my skills are junk which is why I waste waste so much resin/$ making boards, and why I can’t afford to make more of them.

22

Its funny how this conversation has turned - for myself, its not a matter of being “cheap”.  Like I said before, I bid work to plenty of rich people who are “cheap”, who can afford to pay a reasonable price for quality, but would rather hire the lowball guys - unlicensed, uninsured, cash-under-the-table crew.

For me, being self-employed in what has now become a horrible market, its not a matter of cheapness, its a matter of not being able to spend money that I just don’t have.  I really like designing and building my own boards, but i often don’t have enough money to buy a good quality blank.  So thats why I got started building wood boards - the out of pocket cost to build a board is much less, for me, since I use scraps and inexpensive woods.

Time is a valuable resource, heck, almost seems a waste building surfboards by hand, when we could be spending our most valuable resource on earth playing video games and playing farm on facebook LOL.

23

13 out of the 15 boards I ever built were made from old beaters ,  that I stripped and reshaped .

I still had to buy q-cell [fix hacks] , resin , cloth , hardener , pigment / spraypaint [to cover said ‘hacks’ , and ding repairs] . *

 

I ‘may’ have saved around $75 -100AUS on the BLANK ,  doing it that way .

It all depends on [my ] perspective , I suppose . As , I was doing it as exercise[s] in making boards with the funds available at the time , and also , to [hopefully] try to improve with each board [?] . ( Which did not neccessarily happen , of course ) . Luckily , I HAVE had a LOT of free time on my hands to do these projects , over the years [fins , too !] …so it wasn’t a 'time constraint ’ , a ‘getting paid’ , or doing it for others type scenario, for me. More a LABOUR [it WAS , at times !] of 'love ’ / curiousity / challenge .

 

 One thing I got satisfaction out of was the ‘phoenix’ [?half-rising?] out of the ashes of some pretty desolate[d] boards .

Doing it that way , I was , however , limited by the outline / rocker / thickness / width / foil[s] of the existing boards , to an extent .

 

Quite a few [old 6’6-7’] single fins I stripped  , were shortened …and made into either thrusters , or 2+1’s , or “multifin” options [as those who saw some (2004 onwards) ‘chipfish61’ threads , may have  probably noticed…]

 

 SO… would I do it again ?!

 

 … hmmmm…

 

  maybe , maybe not . I’d like  to be able to go with a good , new blank. And , again , take my time .

 

 Being that I got rid of every surfboard I’ve ever  owned , before moving the 3000 miles east to where I now live  , and that the place I’m staying is PACKED  with surfboards … I really don’t see the “need” , at present .

 

 I DID , however , hang onto [and send before my arrival] , five fair-sized boxes full of fins , fin blanks , semi-foiled , and foiled  homemade fins.

 

Along the same lines , the times I have ‘cut costs’ on making fins , unless I have paid extra attention / time / work on the fcs fin tabs , it hasn’t always ended well…

 

just my ozzie 2c worth …

 

  cheers

    ben

 

" Chip never saw the point in avitars my eyes aren’t much good and they are so little."

…  haahaaa  classic , tom !    At least ,  with “so little”  eyes , you can save money on **glasses , **eh ?  :wink:

 

  • costs … ‘q’ cell , anything from $3-10aus  per ‘bag’…   6oz cloth… c $8aus per metre ,  resin …c $ 15-18aus per litre ,  hardener [catalyst ] …c. $5 ,   pigment / spraycan paint [acrylic]… around $10aus .  finbox , plate and screw …around $10-15aus ,  fcs plugs… c $ 2 each  [ 6 , minimum]
24

Good comment. Many of the “cheap” builds using things like insulation foam, or stripping old boards require a lot more labor. If you don’t take that into consideration, it ends up costing less. If you think about the time it takes to use those materials, it can add up to quite a bit more than if you were to start with a PU blank and glass with PE resin. You can’t build an epoxy board in a day or 2 without heat curing equipment. You can build a PU/PE board in one day using UV cure resin, one long day.

Artsy boards are a totally different thing. I think it’s hard to quantify the time an “artist” takes to do things, because the end result is usually a really special piece. I don’t do artsy because my experience has shown that boards get beaten up over time. If you use a board enough it will get it’s share of dents, knicks, water intrusion among other things that you can’t avoid. If you want to surf, you won’t be going in right away because of one of these things when the waves are pumping.

25

as mentioned above …

 

  I would be interested , following on the train of thought ,

 

  to hear from people : -

 

  1. how much their boards cost to make ‘economically’, shall we say ?  [ …ie: within a smallish budget]

  2. how long said board[s] lasted ?

 

[ eg"  ‘huck’ …that nice-looking  wood fish , in your photo …how long ago did you make it , and is it still ‘seaworthy’ / “alive and kicking” , TODAY ?  And …how heavy / light is it , please ?   …is it easy enough to ride , or does it feel a bit 'cumbersome ’ / heavier  , nowadays ? ]

 

and , maybe , for a comparison …

 

  how much their commercially bought boards cost , and how long THEY lasted ?

 

…was there , in fact , a noticeable difference [apart from money involved?]

 

one of my points / queries,  being …

 

…does using ‘cheaper’ materials neccessarily  equate to a ‘cheaper finished’ board ?  …and / or ‘lesser’ performance where it counts , in the** water **?!

 

Further , would it even really be noticed ,  among the majority of us , who are not kelly slater ability surfers , but merely a bunch of older guys who dabble in / play with "ocean going toys "  [ I nearly said ‘adult toys’ , but … well , you know !  :wink: ]

 

  cheers !

 

  ben

 

 

26

 

" i n t e r e s t i n g g g   " !   …

…and …

 

WHAT happened , Lee ?

 

 DID they go ahead with it ?

 

what was the result ?

 

is it still around , today ?    [any photos of it ?]

 

was it finless and leashless ?

 

  cheers

 

  ben

 

…slater once rode a DOOR ,  in a surf movie …

27

‘glitches’ ,  at my end

28

The thing is that I absolutely love messing round with surfboards. When I’m down in my shed shaping I’m about as happy as I can possibly get. It’s all about the journey for me.

29

Hi Ben - the fish is seaworthy yes, and it was a heavy bugger too, at around 17 lbs. if I recall correctly.  But it rode fine, the weight was only an issue when carrying it  =)   Its 4 or 5 years old, haven’t ridden it in awhile, because I have been riding my longer boards lately.  Every now and then I think about taking it out for a spin.  Working in L.A. right by Malibu this past summer, and surfing Malibu almost daily, you really just want your best-paddling wave-magnet, because the crowds there, are, well, Malibu crowds are Malibu crowds, you guys know, but one good set wave makes it all worthwhile.

I guess my boards, some of them anyway, are “artsy”, and all of them have been built on a tight budget.  Most of my 15 boards have lasted, in one way or another.  One of my wood boards was painted pretty, but a real dog in the surf - I sold it to a woman to make a table out of.  I sold two of my foam boards to surfers, gave one to a friend as a gift (he paid for the foam and fiberglass and resin) and one of my artsy wallhangers to hang on someone’s wall.  Kensurf got one of my boards as a wallhanger (and I got a board in trade from him so pretty I’ve only paddled it out once).  Two of my wood boards got major makeovers.  Two of my foam boards are my daily drivers, and a third is my back up.  Some of my other boards are still seaworthy, like the fish, but currently being used by my wife in a retail display for her business.

Stingray has helped others save money by horsetrading and bartering and just plain sharing, which I think is a great idea.  Plenty of swaylockians have sent or given me free stuff over the few years I’ve been here.  So there is a cost savings there, for sure.  Kensurf bought me a gallon of resin for that wood board I built for the trade, and I gave him some of my framed artwork because I didn’t have any money LOL.

Time is valuable, but using your time, and your creativity, and ingenuity, to make a homemade surfboard, even if its using inexpensive or unorthodox methods or materials, is a great way to spend it.  Really, in view of how much time people spend in front of TVs, computers, video games, cell phones, etc etc, is taking extra time on a surfboard project really the problem?  Shoot, you should see how much time people spend stuck in traffic in L.A. - I’d much rather be slow-building a board for fast waves.  Some of the guys here build stuff with their kids, or their dad, or their girlfriend, some people build surfboards because its therapeutic for them - the time spent has to be viewed in a different perspective.

How about time spent surfing, since time is valuable, should we paddle out and say I’m gonna hurry up and catch my quota so I can get back to doing all my important stuff?  Heck no, surfing is the important stuff, board building is too.  One of the best ways to show that you value your time, is to spend it doing something worthwhile, and savor spending it, enjoy spending it.

30

I learned early in my career.

not to step over a dollar to save a dime.

After all, time is money.

Work smarter not harder.

That being said,

I spent a grand total of $ 80.00 on this project.

Free blank ( the stringer was separating)

 

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31

We’re really at cross purposes here. If I wanted a great board I’d fork out and buy one from a decent shaper. I make boards because I like doing it. I enjoy the process, and I’m only constrained by being able to afford the materials.
I don’t know where you are from, but if your from the US it might surprise you to know that per capita incomes here in NZ are considerably less than in the US. Our isolation from the rest if the world and weak currency means that imported surfboard materials are quite expensive here. So for us seeking out cheaper ways of doing things is often a matter of necessity. Also for the record though my boards last a lot longer than off the shelf boards since I pay extra attention to making them strong where they need to be. Come and surf my local spot and you’ll see why I do this.

32
33

Thanks bud. Where do you get your epoxy paint from and how do you thicken it?

34

Beautiful board Barry  the Idea of surfing that where its intended for gives me the heeebegeebees.

If it was my job I would have a different approach.

The boards I’ve made except one have held up fine most  better than a otr board  no deck craters  The one that failed was 4x4 deck and I mis timed a duck dive lip hit me with my knee on the board  then it buckled surfing low tide close outs not really a surprise.   I’m well aware that they  likely don’t surf as well as a custom would.  They are getting better thanks to this place.

 

Spud how about pics of ya local this thread is running low.

 

35

Made many boards that cost zero in materials , because someone had some nice wood and wanted something different…also seen many fine boards made with alternatives that didn’t cost so much…that’s not “cheap” , that’s efficient (as one poster remarked on the last page)…cheapness in itself should never be the target…leave that one for the “cheap imports” from you-know-where - they’re aim seems to be “cheap” , so that’s all they will ever achieve…

36

Hi,

I’ve heard something in this last months that hasn’t been said here and maibe it should

Have you heard about EPS+ polyester resin together? I thought I wasn’t possible until a friend showed me a SUP made with it. He says a lot of resin brands has this type of resin (maibe is not even polyester) for making molds with EPS and keeping low costs.

 

 

 

 

37

Only if you can spend the time you save to make money. Major difference between being a pro and DIY garage hack who builds boards for fun. I still feel like I’m cheating when I shape PU…

 

38

Pretty hard to beat traditional pu/pe.  $200 or less for a typical shortboard for a backyarder like me isn’t too bad.

39

When I make a PU board, even when I factor in my time at my hourly rate I’m still making them a hell of a lot cheaper than an off the shelf board. (It takes me 12 hours work from shaping to waxing up.) This is moot of course as I enjoy it so much I’d probably even pay to do it!
I’ve made 27 PU boards now and I’m looking of a new challenge, hence my query regarding unusual materials.
Thanks for the feedback. I’m going to hack something out this weekend I reckon!

40

Kayu, I get where you are coming from, this “cheapest board” thing has its unintended consequences, if over-the-counter cost is all you’re looking at.  Kinda like that saying, the high cost of low prices.  When i got back into surfing after 20 something years, I bought a brand new board on ebay for $300 (a fish), and was surprised when I picked it up it came with fins, leash, and board bag.  I asked the girl at the warehouse how they could do that, and she told me the boards were all made in China.

That was the first I had ever heard of such a thing - in my day, surfboards were pretty much just made by surfers.  I asked her if there was surf in China, and she looked at me funny, and said not much where these come from.  I used that board one time, and the deck was filled with pressure dings.

That was when I decided to start making my own boards, and my next board was my first wood board, reverse engineered off that fish (that was no doubt reverse engineered off someone else’s board), and from then on I have pretty much designed all my boards myself, even if they’re inspired by another board.  I sold my China board for half what I paid, but kept the leash and board bag for my wood fish.