Monday, September 28, 2009

Frank has finished his board

Frank Kaczmarek snapped his favourite foam board so he set about building his first wooden board by slicing up his foam one to get the templates to build the wooden one.You can see his project in a couple of earlier posts. Frank also brought his unfinished board to the wooden board day. It created a lot of interest as people were very interested in the frames and what was happening inside.
" Well, The board is finished (at last) . I ended up doing all the glassing and final polishing myself, and while not as good as a professional job I'm glad that I did everything myself.
I've had a couple of surfs on it at the sandpumping jetty on The Spit on Sunday and Monday mornings. It takes a bit of getting used to and is of course heavier than my former fibreglass board it was modelled on.
I'm pleased with the result and will be surfing it regularly. I'm getting a lot of interest and questions from other surfers who want to know about the construction and what sort of timber was used. Now comes the task of tidying up the garage so my wife can put her car in there again.
Thank you for your help and advice and I look forward to seeing you at the next wooden board gathering if not sooner somewhere in the surf. "



Thursday, September 24, 2009

Herold builds himself an Alaia as well

Herold , a Dutchman living in Japan , teaching English to the Japanese, still with me. Anyway he came out to the Gold Coast to do Paul Jensen's wooden board building classes at The Eco Village. Built a great board to take home with him and then decided he needed an Alaia. So off he went and spent the day with Richard Harvey to shape an 8ft Alaia.



If you would like to do the same or buy a blank , get hold of Richard.
info@harveysurf.com or 0414 557 624

Friday, September 18, 2009

Bob Babcock builds his first Alaia for his best friend Mike..

"This is the 1st I’ve built, poplar and pine, 7′-6″, 17″ tapering to 16″, 3/4″ thick. The pieces are doweled together with dowels spaced at 4″ on center…overkill I think….but the boards will break before the joints do.

A little pyrography on the deck, both as artwork and to provide grip. Most of it with a Hawaiian tattoo influence."






"This is with just two coats of oil on her. 4 more to go and a buffing. I had fun building this and am going to start another shortly.

Much thanks to Tom Wegener for sharing his stoke and wisdom."

Mike must be a great friend as you have done a nice job on this board. Bob is from the Cape Cod area USA.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Hand made in Brooklyn New York




A nice clean example of a hollow wooden board / Paul Jensen method for sure.By Malwitz Custom Surfboards. Rick builds custom boards and is also a freelance designer / animator.
Also check him out here : http://driftsurfing.com/blog/?p=886 www.malwitzsurfboards.com

Mark Nunan's new knee board

" Thought you might be interested in my latest creation. Hollow wood kneeboard slab, 6'8 by 24 by 3. I sliced up an old baltic pine table and vj boards for the deck , paulownia rails and bottom. The fin boxes are jarrah(surprisingly easy to make). It's a big boy cruiser with wave catching ability and speed the main objectives(as an experiment). Had one surf so far and it is obvious it needs the side fins. "


Friday, September 11, 2009

Greg Wheeldon's board ready to get wet.

Greg is an architect from Brisbane who took the week off to do the Paul Jensen Hollow Wooden board building class I organised at The Eco Village Currumbin. Greg took his time and put in a lot off extra effort to create a very nice board. A great first effort and he is keen to build one for his son now. And that is what this is all about. It was a great experience for Greg and now to build a board at home with his son and share in something that they will enjoy and remember for a long time to come.

Greg chose some nice timbers here, Paulownia and Western Red Cedar.
Designed and shaped his own fin from off cuts
Nice touch with the leggie attachment.
Great glass job by Miami Longboards on the Gold Coast
Rails cork and 4mm bending ply

Thursday, September 3, 2009