Franks fish

Franks latest fish all ready to get wet once we have some surf again.

Nice job on the Silky Oak fins

" Hi Grant,
Here are some photos of the finished Fish II. I also made fins for it from silky oak wood but because they are quite thin they will be mainly for show, I’ve got a set of “normal” fins for everyday use. I replicated the silky oak fins based on the bought fins.

The board is constructed of a variety of timbers 6 mm thick over a 4 mm marine ply frame. The dark centre panel and pinstripes are walnut, the pale wood is Queensland kauri and the pinkish wood is silky oak. The rails are red cedar and paulownia. It’s all finished with 4 coats of flexible marine varnish, the only epoxy used is to embed the shell and the fin plugs and leash/vent plug. The dimensions are 6’10” x 23 3/4” x 3 1/4”. All of the inside has also been sealed with varnish.

I want to thank you again for designing the board for me and I’m about to try it out as soon as the surf allows. I’ll let you know how it performs.

I have enough wood left over to build another board, a project for next winter. So if you don’t mind I’ll probably be asking for one more board design when I decide what kind of board I want to build."

Thanks Frank for sharing your latest board with us. Let me know how I can help with the next project.

Chesters fish

There are many ways of approaching building a wooden board and there are no easy ways as I have often said. Here is another approach to consider...



" Hey there. my name is Chester Harding and I just wanted to send you a couple of pics of a Fish I made…. I went to the Fish Fry in Cornwall last week but only found out it was down there after I rocked up and left my board at home. Its a bit of a weird design I made. I used balsa for the rails but glued them in-between the ribs, so the dark lines in the rails is the support ribs running thru the board. the rest is made of pine I ripped down from some logs. Hope people like it…."

A different way of doing things that suited Chesters skills and knowledge base. And the outcome looks fine . Thanks for sharing Chester.

Mark Riley and the Surf City Exhibition

Mark getting the blank ready

Mark from Riley Balsa wood Surfboards has been invited to shape a solid classic balsa board for the opening night of the Surf City Exhibition.
From the arrival of Californian 'malibu' surfboards in the 1950s through to the unleashing of the triple-finned 'thruster' in 1980, Sydney was Australia's surfing capital, its 'surf city'.
It started with a young, restless generation - with their 'finned' fibreglass boards, rock 'n' roll, cars and bad attitudes - hitting the surf and clashing with an outraged alliance of surf-club officials, councillors, police, disapproving parents, a spellbound media and a wide-eyed public. Before long, surfing was 'king' and as its fashions and new-found freedoms were ignited, Sydney produced a line-up of top riders and cutting-edge board designers. The evolution of surfing in the 60s and 70s saw Sydney surf writers, publishers, film-makers, bands and businesses gain international attention as innovators and stirrers.
Surf city at the Museum of Sydney will return to the beaches of the 50s, 60s and 70s and show how Sydney's love affair with surfing has left an indelible, salt-stained mark on this beach-crazed city.

September 23rd - 5pm to 9pm

www.hht.net.au/whats_on/exhibitions/exhibitions/surf_city

Address: Corner Phillip and Bridge Streets, Sydney, NSW 2000

Contact: 02 9251 5988

Admission:

• Adult $10 I
• Child/Concession $5 |
• Family $20 |
• Members free |

Hours: Daily 9.30am — 5pm | Closed Good Friday and Christmas Day

Tony's new pintail underway

Tony Crimmins from Brisbane is making a habit of building great looking boards and his new pintail is no exception

He is looking at a finished weight of about 9.5kgs which is great for a 9ft 6" board.

And this is a great looking fin to set it off.

Nice and tidy , well thought out and as straight as can be. Tony does a nice job.Looking forward to the finished board.

Some great looking wooden boards from Canada

Flama Surfboards in Spain

I have just been sent a link to Flama Surfboards in Spain by Aitor Veguillas which is very interesting. The guys have been experimenting with Paulownia to build boards that have very little impact on the environment. The boards are unglassed , just oiled. It seems they had a lot of troble getting Paulownia in Spain so they went to China and sourced a shipment themselves back to Spain for their projects.

The guys build a very nice board and cold press the components on a large table.

3ft 11" Micro Simmons

Cosmic Experience from Flama Surf on Vimeo.

For a look at what they do : www.flamasurf.com

Sublime Experience from Flama Surf on Vimeo.

Hollow wooden board building class with Paul Jensen in San Francisco.

Paul Jensen , just got back from a trip down to San Francisco for a small HWS class... " We built two small fish, one big fish and a couple of longboards...

Our shop space was great, an i-Pad case factory with a lot of room to move...Nice......

I shuffled the class hours a bit...The first three days were 9AM to 5PM...The final two days were from 2PM to 10PM...The late start gave a feeling of having a at least a half day off...I surfed, others went into work...I'll do that again...

The workshop participants were all very keen, had heaps of skills and great life experiences to share during our long hours together...We all had a lot of laughs and everyone went home with boards ready to glass..."

If this is what you would like to do get hold of Paul and organise a class for yourself and a few friends.

Wooden board building class in Germany

I have just received these shots from Paul Reisberg of a three day hollow wooden surfboard workshop in Bremen / Germany and here are some results. They used the Rich Blundell method and had three really intense days with glues, wood shavings and cold becks beer.










Remember if you want to do a class that maybe a good idea is to get hold of one of these guys or organise a class yourself with one of them.

Contact : Paul Jensen - hollowsurfboards@comcast.net
Contact : Rich Blundell - via Tree To Sea
Contact Paul Reisberg - paulitspaul@gmx.net

Byron Bay Surf Festival

Andrew Wells of Grown Surfboards will be holding a workshop / introduction to building a wooden surfboard at the new Byron Bay Surf Festval on :
Saturday October 22nd 4pm
Southern Cross Room – Byron Community Centre

The Grown Surfboards workshop will briefly cover the philosophy behind my surfboards and will cover the form and functionality of hollow timber surfboards. Then in more detail we will go through the hollow timber board building process using visual aids to show the various aspects of hollow timber surfboard construction. Will conclude the workshop with a Question and Answer session.

We love surfing and are passionate about our oceans and preserving them for the next generation of surfers. “Grown is all about turning a positive passion into a productive and ethical business” This love of surfing and responsibility to minimise our impact on the planet evolved into producing hand made boards from recycled and plantation grown timber.

Check this and other great activities on their website. Great to see a get together just to celebrate why we go go surfing - For Fun.

www.byronbaysurffestival.com

Good looking first board

This is Colin Ashford's first hollow wooden board. Nice job. Have no more details from him. So maybe he can send some build pics to share.

Building a solid Balsa board by Mark Riley