Saturday, December 20, 2014

Flama Dorada 7'10 - 2014

"The Dorada 7'10 egg is actually our #00 model, built in 2010 after a year long process of trial and a lot of error. This was the very first board with no leaks, the ultimate proof that our technique for building hollow unglassed boards with paulownia wood was completely reliable.
We surfed the board a few sessions and passed it to a friend, who passed it to a friend... until we lost count. No idea of how many people surfed it or how far it traveled, but when it came back to our hands three years later it looked like it had been through a war. It has never been re-varnished, the bamboo fin has been repaired a few times, it has dings all over the place and it seems to have a couple broken ribs. But still, no leaks at all!
I just dicided to give it a go on a recent Mediterranean swell... and what a rush! The trim on the Dorada is so ridiculously smooth that now I'm wondering if wooden boards mature like wine... Could it be?"




If you are into being green and build wooden boards , this could be the event for you

" The Eco Challenge  events began with Surfrider Foundation Sunshine Coast and recently on the Gold Coast. Our aim is to assist Surfrider Foundation Australia branches with fundraising and connecting with their local community by holding an Eco Challenge. These family friendly surfing lifestyle events will comply with sustainable event management guidelines and promote alternative surfing products & services."

Event: Sunday 15th of March 2015, 7am all day at Tugun SLSC, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.

Eco Challenge  events evolved from a love of surfing, community & sustainable event management.

For mor information : ecochallengegoldcoast.com

Event Supporting Partner Information : www.climatewave.com/event-supporters-info

Market stall invitation  :  www.climatewave.com/invitation-market-stall

Monday, December 8, 2014

Master shaper Roger Hall and Barkers collaboration

Roger Hall of Surfline Custom Surfboards has been making and shaping quality surfboards in Ruakaka, New Zealand for over 40 years. Barkers have collaborated with Roger this season on a range of surf inspired board shorts and tees to get you through summer. We drove up to Ruakaka a few weeks ago to interview Roger on his rich surfing history and to talk about the collaboration. Limited stock of the range is available in Barkers stores nationwide and online at barkersclothing.com. For custom surf board enquires see surfline.co.nz.
 

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Going the " Doctor " on your wooden board

John Purnell loves his board so much that he has gone to greatr lengths to repair it on a number of occasions. This was the final straw. He has his breathed life back into his best mate.

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Nathan's hollow wooden Bonza

  He has just finished building this little bonzer for himself and It has been a long time coming.
He has been building it between furniture jobs, over the last few months.

 It is a hollow construction, with ribs, with a 9mm balsa wood bottom skin and a 6mm paulownia deck skin, with balsa wood rails.
He glassed it with 2 x 4oz top and 4oz on the bottom with entropy super sap resin.

The bottom,is the traditional bonzer concave, single running in to double concave with a bit of V out the tail, with the side runners sitting on the edge of the concave.
He also did the E wing flyer like the Campbell bro’s do on their boards, a pain in the arse to shape and glass, pulled some hair out in the process.

Dimensions are 5,9 1/2”-20 1/2”-2 1/2”


He foiled the fins from 6.5mm birch ply with a few 4oz layers.

Nathaniel Grey
www.nathanielgrey.com.au

Saturday, November 29, 2014

4ft 2" x 21" Mini Simmons / and body board for Glenn deep in Victoria.

A bit of a challenge hand shaping this little puppy , but it turned out to be lots of fun. Glenn wants to be able to ride it finless as a body board or put a set of keel fins in and ride it as a Mini Simmons.It has a full length concave that sneaks out through the nose between the rolled shoulders and a full width one out the back. Fast and full of lift. Also a slight concave deck to lay into.





 3mm rail band going on
 4mm and 3mm skins cut and ready for bagging
 Setting up the rocker table , as simple as it can be and all that is needed to hold the rocker
 Sucking it down onto the foam so that the foam is encapsulated in wood now
Simple and 2 hours later it will be all done.

All trimmed up and ready for the rail bands to be laminated
3 laminates of 5mm thick rail bands put on one at a time
 You will be amazed at the hold you can get with good quality masking tape
Cleaned up and trimmed up once again

Then nose and tail blocks laminated aon all at once

 Cleaning up with the hand plane once again


All ready to go off and have the fin boxes routed in and set in epoxy. Plus Glenn wants to be able to use it as a body board as well as a stand up Mini Simmons, so it will have a leash plug each end.
I like to use Futures boxes and fins as I have faith in the method I use to install them is strong and reliable. Because the board is so small and most fins too big I have taken a pair of these solid glass K2's and have the guys at Alkali Fins in Ballina re shape and foil them to a simmons inspired design I gave them. It will bring the area and size of the fin down a lot to suit the board.Plus the rounded profile will be way more fun and forgiving , as this is a powerful design as it currently is.
They did a great job and suit the board very well.


Oiled up with 4 coats of lanolin brings out the colour






A great little project that should give Glenn heaps fo fun.




A couple of rare classics looking for some tlc.

Lee Kearney from Evans Head has been carrying around a couple of old balsa boards for quite a while now in hope of someday restoring them but has realised he will probably never do it and is keen to get rid of them and was wondering if I could help him out by getting the word out there. One is a Gordon Woods and the other was striped back before he got it but was apparently a Wallace. They would both be full restorations. The woods also has the registration sticker on it. 

"If you no anyone that would be interested he woulkd like to hear from you."


 
Contact Lee on : 0428 283 855  or l.kearney.11@student.scu.edu.au