After all my searching here on swaylock’s, I’ve noticed that there are a lot of first board topics, but there is no one topic for everybody to show their first board. This could be pretty helpful for other first timers, and I’d really like to see the first attempts from he guys here who’ve done tons of boards. There must be some interesting firsts done by the people who didn’t have a mentor/swaylock’s to show them how to do it.
I took my first board out today in Newport, and it didn’t fall apart. It actually rode well, and some guy asked where I got it, as if it doesn’t look like something i threw together in my backyard. It’s 5’7 by wide and thick. I was afraid it might not float me enough since I usually longboard, but I could definitely have gone smaller. I foiled and glassed on the fins, and made a resin leash loop, but none of those broke off. I’m pretty happy with it, but my next one should be way better since I made so many mistakes glassing this one.
it looks better in pictures than when you’re holding it.
I'd like to see a thread go even further and have some show "outsider art" boards. That is boards made without formal training or the influence of Sways....or any boards made while institutionalized.
A lot of sway folks have seen my first board already, but I'll go ahead and add it to the "first board" thread. It was built without any training, access to a shaper, or Sways (I didn't really know much about Sways then) - but I received a lot of help from the tree-to-sea wood board builders' forum.
I kinda copied an existing board, made a few changes, designed the build and came up with my own system (rails first), and just went for it. 4 oz. s-cloth, epoxy lam and hot coat, poly gloss coat, fcs fin system for homemade fish keels.
Took me about a month and a half, lots of trial-and-error learning curve type stuff, and it has plenty of flaws. But it rides great, and it launched my board-building journey!
My first board wasn’t influenced by swaylocks, or any other formal training. I did have a friend show me how to glass in a one time lesson by doing a board for another friend, and I bought a paperback book that was the surfboard builders guide for that period of time. I don’t remember if this was the first or second board I made. Both were strip, re-shape, then glass of older boards, and more out of necessity than anything. The slides I scanned were dated 1978. Board was re-shaped with a surform and small stanley planer for the stringer. The shots are when I was glassing the board. After those 2 boards I didn’t make another board until 2005, just fixed the ones I bought.
You can barely see that there are 2 channels on the bottom, but not like today’s boards, these are separated by a fairly wide middle section. I had read somewhere that this would make the board faster.
This was my first board, pretty basic Fish really with a thruster setup, unfortunately I dont have any other pics of it. It ended up being overshaped ( too thin and knifey) and pretty heavy amateur glassing job as well but I was stoked with it. Loosely based the outline on a MR fish and added a thruster setup…
My first post, my first shaped board. Hollow Jensen method; thank you Paul. 7’5" long, 23" wide, 2.75" thick, 10 layers of cork/ply rails; deck and hull are sandwiched between 8 oz cloth. Luan stringer, spruce ribs. I weigh 260.
It still needs wet sanding, leash loop, and a fin. I’m not a very good surfer; but look forward to taking this out at Westport. I also have a 5’6" tapered hollow core wake surfboard nearing completion. Thank you to Paul Jensen for his generosity in sharing his knowledge. I never would have started this without him.
This is my first board, but I was lucky and was able to have Dave Yearwood help me out, and I had the glass job done professionally. On my next board I really want to try glassing it myself… summer is almost here…
this is my first attempt. i was quite surprised. it paddles fast. i built it thick for gutless summer waves. theres a whippet on it cause my buddy told me i should put it there one night when we were knocking a few back. the idea stuck.
Longtime lurker here (been doing my best to “read the archives!”)… I worked on my first board at the same time as a whole house renovation, so it took a looooong time- every time I worked through the pile of building materials stacked in front of the board I’d work on it a bit. A HUGE Thanks to all the folks who post and generously share their knowledge on here… It makes Sways an amazing resource!
My board #001 is a PU/PE, 10’ log that will hopefully noseride a bit. I’ve since done lots more reading on here and have plenty of ideas for improvement. Anyway, here’s a few photos.
Howzit nwlogger, So that is your first board build and you did the whole thing with info from the Sways archive? I guess we are doing a great job of posting building info because that is a nice looking board and I would never believe it was a 1st build, you definitely know how to apply what you read. By the way welcome to Swaylocks. Aloha,Kokua
Thanks for the feedback. I’ve definitely read lots of your posts on here and I appreciate you sharing your knowledge! I might not have done quite the whole thing from Sways, but it was great for getting a general understanding of what I was doing and filling in the gaps on lots of little “wait, what about that?” type questions, not to mention generally keeping me stoked about building a board when it was 38 degrees and raining here in Oregon. I’m a pretty visual learner, so in addition to reading on Sways I ordered up a few videos that were really helpful too. (In case other first timers are looking at what’s out there) I found “Surfboard Shaping and Design” was basic but helpful for the shaping end of things. I got “Glassing 101”, which was not bad but pretty bare bones, and Roger Brucker’s “The Master Glasser”, which was excellent and had a lot more depth on resin tints, cut laps, pinlines, etc.
Howzit nwlogger, "The Master Glasser" with Mr. Cleanlines is a top notch video for somebody who wants to learn how to glass a board since he is a top notch builder. Aloha,Kokua
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