Tuesday, October 30, 2012

9ft 6" Balsa Cedar longboard

 Jack from Dovetail Wooden Surfboards with the board his dad Geoff built
 Wooden frame and a great combination of timber for the skins
 Geoff built it as a stock board but thought he should give it a run and see how she handled
 Well after the first wave he was comfortable and he has now found a new ride.


 A keeper to add to the quiver
If you are keen for a well built board that weight no more than a foam and glass version , then get hold of Geoff at : dovetailwoodensurfboards.blogspot.com

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Hand plane classes at the Byron Bay Surf Festival

Lots of work on this one

 Toru from Japan and a happy girl with her first hand plane
 A great weekend and a great day at Wategos Beach www.byronbaysurffestival.com

 Toru had a great range of tools for people to use


Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Wooden Boards at Coolum Sunday 18th November



Want a chance to surf and skate alongside amazing athletes? Golden Days Surfrider Eco Challenge offers this opportunity. With the support of local industry giants, Surfing Queensland, Tommy Wegener, Codfish, Surfing Green from the surf side of things to Boardstore and Drawing Boards for skate, this day is an opportunity for the local community to get out and enjoy the coast with a slight twist.

Deviating from the traditional surf competition style, Surfrider Foundation is bringing a surf event to Coolum Beach, as part of Golden Days Surfrider Eco Challenge on Sunday November 18, from 8am-5.30pm. The surf event will be held from 8am-midday. Surfers will be awarded points on the heart that they put into their surf, not on technical expertise.  It’ll open up a whole new ball game.

President of the local Surfrider Foundation branch, Sally Atkinson, feels that this event is both an opportunity to celebrate coastal communities, as well as bringing wooden surfboards out for everyone to enjoy, irrelevant of age or experience.

“It’s not only good for the environment, by promoting a more eco-friendly material, but it’s about people from all walks of life coming together,” Ms Atkinson said.

There are several surf event categories people can enter into. The ‘Beat Fred’ wooden surfboard event is a different way to get your finless fix. The finless Alaia surf event is where the community gets the chance to challenge current Noosa Festival of Surfing champion, Fred Branger for the best wave of the day. Those not versed in the delights of the Alaia can try their hand at the short (including mini-mals) or long board event, aptly named the “Short and The Long Of It.” This is an opportunity for men, women and kids to surf together, as handicap points, depending on experience, will be allotted to each surfer.

For those not brave enough to jump in on the surf action, they can bring down their wooden surfboard and have a yarn or two about the wave that got away. Otherwise, local surfing legend, Tommy Wegener, will have his boards for hire, for a mere gold coin donation.  This “stoke fest” will bring the sheer joy of wooden surfboarding to everyone www.tomwegenersurfboards.com.

The highlight of the surf will be the Guinness World Record attempt for the 'Most Surfers Riding the Same Wave'. Currently the world record goes to Earthwave, in 2009, South Africa, for 110 surfers. Come down and throw yourself and your board into this. All styles welcome. The first attempt will be made at 11:30am, at Coolum Beach, on Sunday November 18.

Codfish http://woodensurfboards.com.au will raffle one of their boards on the day, with all proceeds going to the local Surfrider Foundation. Surfing Green, who has contributed to event organisation, will have a retail stall at the event showing their latest wooden craftsmanship www.surfinggreen.com.au.

Appreciating that the Sunshine Coast has a thriving skate scene, local skate retailers and performers, Boardstore www.boardstore.com.au and Drawing Boards www.drawingboards.com.au will run the skate event associated with the Golden Days Surfrider Eco Challenge. ‘Trix on Stix’ will cater to the under 10’s, that are up-and-coming to the sport (8am-9am). ‘Smash the Wall’ will feature older skaters with aerial displays and feats from 10am-midday. It’ll be stylised skating at its best. Tricks, jams and demos will feature. Boardstore is offering $500 of gifts to local skaters on the day. This will be held at Tickle Park, Coolum Beach, November 18.


The Golden Days Surfrider Eco Challenge is an event of the Golden Days Music Festival www.goldendaysfestival.com.


Pre-entries for all surf and skate events and overall festival
information can be found at www.surfriderecochallenge.com.

For more information on the Surfrider Foundation Sunshine Coast and/or event inquiries visit: www.surfrider.org.au or contact us on 0405 567 930 or surfridersunshine@live.com. Surfrider Foundation Australia is a non-profit organisation dedicated to the protection of waves and beaches. We do this through Conservation, Activism, Research and Education (CARE). The foundation has 29 Branches and Beach Representatives nationwide.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Paulownia for the people

If you are in New Zealand and looking for Paulownia for your projects , then check these guys out : http://www.paulowniaforthepeople.com They can supply you with all your needs.
Whether it be to order some timber or to share your latest project, Call Sean at 09 4356198 or 022 0902 215.

More of a writer? Drop them an email at hello@thesurfemporium.co.nz

"To see us in person. Drop by The Surf Emporium, on the Corner of Kamo and Station Road in Kamo, Whangarei.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Wooden surfboard courses

 Rob and Gary from Tree to Sea Australia had another sold out course in September.
   " Our September Workshop saw a few new models, a couple of retro single fins
     and Old School Retro Pigs. Everybody had a great time and made new friends. "

More Workshops are planned for January and February in 2013 details are on the website www.treetosea.com.au

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

New board in the Dominican Republic

 Chris from Costa Norte Surfboards in the Dominican Republic has just finished a new board to share with us.
" It was a little challenging finding and using local materials, but everything worked out ok.  The end weight turned out to be about 11-12lbs."
" Also the technique I use for doing the rails first worked great once again.  There are several strips with the rocker profile that follows the outline cut into them that are laminated together in a jig to give it it's outline shape.  BoardCAD works great for printing out those templates for those strips.  Then the internal framework it added followed by the top and bottom skins.  It is proving to be a relatively fast way of building hollow wooden surfboards."
 "The first time at the beach some local guys commented on the board, that it looked neat but they weren't sure how it would work being that it was heavier than a normal surfboard.  One of them took it out and caught a few waves and when he came back in, one of the first things he said was that he didn't notice the weight at all once in the water. "
 " Wood is just such a different material than foam and fiberglass.  You don't build quality acoustic instruments out of foam and fiberglass.  The best acoustic instruments are made out of wood,  because of it's vibrance and resonance."

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Riccardo's simmons

 Riccardo is from  Comacchio, Ferrara,  in Italy and has a passion for wooden boards.
"Woodfaith project born in September 2011 as a result of an artistic career. The interest in handmade, combined with the passion for surfing has led to creation of different types of boards, a mini-simmons (hollow surfboard) and several long-skateboard. The fascinating aspect of these boards is represented in retro style shapes and old-school decorations. The love and respect for nature has led me to create a line of boards, entirely handmade and treated with eco-friendly products."

 " My first creation was a hollow surfboard, a mini-simmons 5'5".
 "A long process with much satisfaction but the small number of swells in Adriatic Sea, however, led me to find a product that emulates the feel of a surfboard that you could use on the road any time.
So I started to shape a long skateboard 6 '6" following Hamboard's example, with their huge trucks and wheels, able to rapid carving like real surfboards."

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Board update from Stavros

This is the latest project from Stavros a Greek national who lives in France.
" The Future fish is made of White Fir and pine wood. Frame, White Fir, thickness 10mm and the weight is 624gr Bottom, White Fir, with a thickness of 6mm.Top, pine wood, with a thickness of 6mm. Rail strips, White Fir , 6mm x 6mm x 2m Board weight after shaping 3,5 kg"

" The construction technic is the same with all the other Hollow wooden surfboards with rail strips,
with one exception, I have cut out rail strips with out the cove, rail strips that is rectangular 6mm x 6mm x 2m, and it works perfect as you can see in the pictures."

" The Future fish, is a Hybrid wooden surfboard, it 's fat like a longboard 3" thick, with thin sort board rails, and fat double wing tails chopped in the middle,  5' x 20"x 3", nose rocker 10cm, tail rocker 4,5cm, and a single cone cave bottom."

       Also it will be quad fin with a new model of fins that I have made  and call the elab-model.





Thanks a lot
 Stavros      http://www.facebook.com/sxdreamwoodenboards 

Tony and Grain in Maine

 Hi guys,

Jen and I just spent a couple of days in beautiful Maine.  Its a great time of year to be in this part of the world as the summer crowds have gone, winter has not yet arrived and its fall, so the trees are all shades of yellow and orange as they drop their leaves.  In addition to a nice (refreshing) surf at York Beach we also visited Grain Surfboards.  We were treated to some Maine hospitality and given a tour of their factory which is located in a traditional barn about 15 kms inland from the coast . The factory is exactly as it appears in the pictures and is a dedicated wooden board shop, with pretty much everything you need to build boards and more - i am still dealing with a major dose of shed envy and have a head full of ideas for future projects.
 Whilst we were there Mike arrived back from the Sacred Craft show on the West Coast and despite having just stepped off a 'red eye' flight was still up for a chat before heading off to get some sleep.  I took the opportunity to invite him down to either the Fish Fry or the Wooden Board Day next year.


Hope you are getting some waves.

Tony Crimmins

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Paul Jensen course in Australia

The Comboyne Plateau New South Wales - Australia
 Paul be teaching a five day Hollow Surfboard workshop starting Saturday, December 7, 2012... 

" If you can't do those five days straight, we can make arrangements for you to fit in the five days, either prior to or after December 7,8,9,10,11...
I'm flexible... I'll be on The Comboyne until December 20...
Please e-mail me what would work best for you... The Comboyne Plateau is a great venue... I did a workshop there in 2010 and have great memories of a fantastic group who all went home with outstanding boards... Tuition is $800, materials are $50 per foot of length... Your board options are the 5'10" fish or the 9'0" longboard... 


contact me at:

Sunday, October 7, 2012

The "green" , waxless board

At Christmas I started experimenting with building an unglassed wooden board. It is an idea I have had for a while and I finally had time to get it all together. Part of it was being able to build a board at home in the garage with few tools and less time and effort than other methods I have tried. I started with an EPS core which is flexible and waterproof to a point , then polyurethane glue which is flexible and 100% waterproof. Paulownia timber which as you know is flexible and waterproof in salt water. Most people have used epoxy resin to glue wood to foam , but I wanted to try bagging the wood to the foam with the polyurethane glue as it is so much easier to use and way less mess. Also when it dries it is a close match colour wise to the timber. If things need to move or flex then all the   components are pretty compatible.I started with a 5ft 4" mini simmons design as I have built many of these and then the project wouldn't need to be a big production. I used AKU shaper and took the normal foam board file as the base to work from and set about turning it into the core of the board. I took 4mm off for the deck timber thickness and 3mm off the bottom. Then squared the rails off by 23mm. This was to allow for a 3mm parabolic stringer in the initial stages of the build and then 20mm of rail lamination buildout. I use a Core Fusion EPS blank which is a very hard foam compared to most other EPS out there. The machine cut leaves the surface of the blank burnished and somewhat sealed from the heat of the cut as well as slight corrugations from the cutting blade. So I left it as it was pretty much as it comes out pretty clean.
5ft 10" - 5ft and 4ft 8" blanks ready to get the treatment

  First up I laminated the 3mm strip right round the perimeter of the board which seals the edge and creates a parabolic stringer to hold the rocker as the blank has no stringer.This is held in place with masking tape while the polyurethane glue goes off. At 3mm thick it flows round the outline pretty easily. If need be you could hit it with the steam iron and a moist tea towel which heats and steams it up to bend way easier.When it all sets off you just trim the timber to the foil of the board.
3mm strip of Paulownia glued round the edge to seal it and provide a parabolic stringer

Next I cut the deck and bottom skins to about 5mm oversize all round .The deck is 4mm thick and the bottom 3mm thick. I use a squeegee to spread the polyurethane glue very thin on the EPS blank as it foams up as it takes in moisture from the air. I use a spray bottle and mist a little water onto the Paulownia skins to assist with the reaction. You see the glue go from a honey colour to a more creamy colour as it reacts and foams. You need to give it time to do this for it to do its job.
spreading the polyurethane glue out nice and thin

A couple of pieces of masking tape to hold the skins in position on the blank and then slide it into the bag. Seal the bag and turn on the pump for 2 hours to let the glue cure. It is all pretty simple. The glue foams and expands and the bagging process is compressing the whole lot so I imagine the glue is being forced into any pores of the EPS and certainly sealing it very well.
Nice even pressure all over, very simple and very effective

The vacuum pump does a great job as it is gentle even pressure on all surfaces at once. It can pull 90% of one atmosphere which is 90% of 14lb or there abouts so I believe. Vacuum bagging sounds hi tech to most people but using it this way it is simple, neat and tidy with no mess. If the timber skins are thick and the rocker in the board is significant then the bagging can flatten it out. You can cut some foam blocks to suit the desired rocker. Once you have the board in the bag and before you turn the pump on place the foam blocks outside the bag under the nose and tail in the right place to hold the rocker. Add a weight or maybe a tiedown strap over the middle or lowest point of the rocker in the board and pull it down to the table. Then as the air is sucked from the bag you can control the rocker integrity you designed into your board. You could also laminate a thicker parabolic stringer around the board first up to beef up the rocker retention.
All trimmed up and ready to laminate the rails

Once you turn off the air and slide the board out you will be amazed at how neat and tidy everything is and how far you have move the construction process forward in such a short time compared with other methods. Also how light the board is. It is strong and light already before you even add the laminated rails.
Thinner strips and a steam iron make the job easier

So all you have to do is trim off the 5mm or there abouts of extra deck and bottom skin. Don't have too much overhang when you bag it as it will be pulled down and be levered over the parabolic stringer as the weight comes on and may split. So just be neat and even all round.
Building more than one board at a time means there is always something to do on the other boards while the glue dries

Now all you have to do is laminate the rails the 20mm build out. That may be 4 x 5mm strips  or 5 x 4mm strips. It depends on the grade and grain in the timber and the curves you are trying to pull round. Paulownia will soften greatly with steam as I mentioned. The more you trim the timber to the shape of the railband  the easier and cleaner the job will be. Lengths with nice straight grain and no knots with bend evenly and make for a better result. I use the polyurethane glue and mist of water on all the glue ups as well and find I can pull most curves with masking tape to the board.
No clamps just masking tape

It is a matter of one at a time and with the glue going off in a couple of hours you can do a couple a day. For this reason it is easier to do a couple of boards at a time and alternate from one to the other. This way for hardly any more effort or time you can end up with 2 boards at once.When you have all the laminates done it is just a matter of a sharp small hand plane to first take the rail bands down to  foil of the board. I find this the best way to then approach shaping the rails. So you end up with the rail band tapering out from the deck and bottom with a square edge to the outline.
I built these four boards all at once in 3 weeks before and after work and the weekends

It is a matter of planning the end result and checking your profiles in AKU , maybe even cut some templates to spot check by. With only a 20mm rail build out it isn't that bigger job really. Take your time and have a sharp plane. Rub some candle wax on the bottom of your plane and it will slide real easy. Just finish it with some different grades of sand paper.By having the deck and bottom skins supplied thicknessed and drum sanded you should not have to sand them at any point. It all means you end up with a cleaner, better looking, more accurate board. It saves heaps of work as well. You just need to blend the rail to the deck quietly as you bring the rail bands down with the plane.

All you need to do is tape the spot where you route the fin boxes in and use epoxy resin because you have an EPS core. Sand over them to tidy it up and smooth things out.




There you have it, light,  strong and ready to go. All you need to do is decide what finish you would like. I have often thought about lanolin ( the natural grease from sheep's wool ). It is waterproof and if you have ever been in a sheering shed you will now how good it is at preserving wood and when buffed it polishes up nicely. So as part of my experimenting I coated this board I made at Christmas with Lanotec's general purpose product. I brushed it on and let it dry in the sun and recoated it a couple of times. It only has 4 and 3mm of timber to soak into. It is dry to touch when it has soaked in. What was a surprise and bonus was when it hits salt water it is as sticky as and you don't need wax at all. This board has been surfed extensively since Christmas and only been recoated twice since. Everyone has been amazed at the feel and grip level. I was not my intention but this may be the greenest way I know of building and surfing a board ? The Lanotec guys had not heard of this before  and the Fix Tech guys who make the polyurethane glue I use had not had anyone use there glue for vacuum bagging before either. I have since built 4 more boards this way and they are very different to ride. I think the combination of no glass and so no hard surface allows the board to soak up vibrations and chatter and the EPS and captured atmosphere that it has gives it glide and a nice feel to the wave.
10ft x 24" x 3 1/2" with the only resin being to hold the fin box in. Rubber stamp for the logo , cheap and effective.
I just thought that the outcomes of this project and my experimenting have provided some nice conclusions worth sharing with you. The waxless finish is great and quite unbelievable until you feel it for yourself. Try it on any wooden surface.The foam core also saves hours of frame building and is a great weight saving overall. And using Paulownia with all its great attributes is a no brainer. Not having to glass the board saves kilos of weight and a lot of dollars as well. Check it out for yourself and let me know how you go.

grantnewby@bigpond.com    
surfboardsbygrantnewby.blogspot.com.au