There was a foam blank (unshaped foam; what a shaper would start with) that was left in my yard from a previous tenant. The landlord said I could try to make something of it, but it was brown and weathered and I thought it had no potential. It looked like the other guy started shaping it, but never finished, which made me think the brownness indicated a deep water log. I did cover it with a trash bag just in case.
It came to pass that I needed to practice glassing surfboards and the one I plan to build costs $200 and I want to make sure I can get a good finish on such an expensive board, so I was trying to think of how I can practice on the cheap. That’s when I remembered the junk core in the yard. Maybe if I sanded down a little, it might actually reveal undisturbed foam beneath and it could look like a regular surfboard!
I went to examine it. I found it sitting in a corner of the house. It was covered with dead spiders and webs and eggsacks. I immediately had an image of a spider wrapping itself around the board. Thus it came to be set in motion that I would make the spider.
I don’t have much of an interest in working with foam, but it presented some design possibilites that made me interested in working with it.
Particularly, I wanted the board to have a concave deck (dipping downward from side to side), the idea being that it would work to push my body or feet in toward the center and create a kind of barrier that would help “keep me in the surfboard”. I imagine I can generate a little more energy on my turns due to the extra resistance. I did consider the possbility of this design “adding weight” to the board, since water might sit in the concave deck, but I found one board shop where they made decks that way, which made me feel glad that I’m not the only one who thinks that way and so I went with it. It ended up working out quite well. It feels really good, the way it holds me and I can feel how centered I am, held in the board. The board sits completely underwater when seated. I haven’t noticed a particular impact on the water being on the deck. I don’t pay that much attention, but I’m sure it just slides off the back and when I’m riding I don’t think water stays there long. I have a small fascination with moving weight to the rails.
I made the board with turning in mind. I gave it a Vee tail. That is, when you look at it from the back, the bottom of the board looks like a “V”. This facilitates in making it easier to rock the board back and forth from side to side. It also gives a bit of hold in the wave (a mini fin).
I decided to go with a quad fin layout. The thought is that if I’m going to be turning and going on rail, putting the board on its side when I’m turning, I will basically be relying on having only a single fin in the water and partial of the 3rd in a thruster layout. If I have two fins working together on a side during the turn, I should be able to get more energy through the turn. Quads are supposed to do better in the flat, which I think is true. Also mushy waves, which I surf a lot. Guys drop in on me, because they think I couldn’t make a section I did. I used probox fin boxes, since they’re the easiest for a hobbyist to install and I can adjust my fin positions and angles. In the pictures, the fins are at 6 in the rear and 8 in the front. I wrapped as much woven roving as I could fit. I think it helps increase strength and reduce weight of fins. So far, I haven’t had a problem, cracking, etc.
I wound up making the board without the use of power tools, except for a router for the fins and a drill for the leash plug.
I used a hand-planer to form the shape of the board after I had marked up the foam with the shape I wanted it to be, then sand it clean. I left the board about as large as possible. I sort of wanted it to be like a “short long-board”. I think I even modeled it after a board that was four inches longer and I just basically “cut if off” at the tail. You can see the board has a little sense of “being cut off”, but I still put in some roundess in the tail, keeping hard edges to really drive through turns. It seems to work about as well as any other board I’ve ridden.
I kep the nose wide, to help with catching waves. I think I might like the nose to be a little “sharper” since when I drive of a mushy lip, it sends me right back down the wave, when I want to rip through the lip, which I think a pointed nose facilitates.
On the hull of the nose, I put in a “dome nose” shape. I had read about one surfer or shaper complaning that nobody knows now to shape a dome nose, so I tried to make one. I studied images of the SR-71 black bird for reference. I felt like such a subtle, convex shape would further aid, like the Vee tail, in turning.
I find this board to be difficult to catch air with. Like mentiond before, when I hit the lip, I get pushed back down the wave and I think the convex design of the hull really pulls the board into the water.
After shaping the board, I sanded it as smooth as I could and further defined the shape. I finished rough areas with light-weight spackle.
I marked the outlines of the spider with a pencil and painted it with acrylic paint. At first I didn’t want to put any color but black, but I decided to make it a black widow, because I wanted the board to look poisonous. The web wasn’t in my initial plans, either. My roommate encouraged me to. I wanted to make it look like the spider was weaving the web. There were a few ways I could try to put one on. I like how it turned out.
I laminated the board with regular fiberglass and epoxy. I don’t think I was quite liberal enough with the epoxy. I had some trouble where I was sanding through some of the spots I think was from weak, weathered foam. I dropped the board on its side while washing it and cracked it. When I was sanding my fix for that, I noticed some weak areas that made me put another sheet of fiberglass on the hull. I also went ahead and added an extra sheet of “strong” class fiberglass on the deck, since I was noticing some pressure dings.
I’m planning to put a traction pad on the tail and some clear traction on the deck that should allow me to show off the spider and reduce or eliminate the need for wax.
This is the second surfboard I’ve made. Dimensions: 6’4 1/2" x 22 1/4" x 2 1/2". Weight: 9.6 lbs.
https://swaylocks7stage.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/spider.jpg