Luis Gasper from Portugal finishes his first paulownia over EPS board.

 "I started with an XPS blank, 2m x600mm x10mm"

 He made his own hot wire cutter

 "Previously, using 6 mm plywood, I’ve made two templates with the rocker (deck and bottom ) curves. Using some screws I attached the two plywood templates to each side of the XPS blank, and hotwired the same, creating the deck and bottom curves."

 "After that I’ve marked the outline and using a regular saw, I've cut the outline, following the line."

 "Using a sand paper (80 grit) I've shaped the surfboard."

"With a homemade jig, I marked a parallel outline, from 2 cm of the rails, and cutted this portion out from the blank creating the space needed for the solid rails." 

" The blank was ready to receive the wood."

 "I've ordered the paulownia wood from a company in Spain. And bought the polyurethane glue here in Portugal."

"Using your method as you do, I start gluing the parabolic stringer, with 5mm pawlonia stripes."

 "For the deck and bottom, I glued 5 mm paulownia with a little help of my homemade vacuum pump (created from an old refrigerator engine).

But the final result was perfect "

A happy man with his best friend 

Top and bottom skins now on and ready for the rails to go on.

 "For the rails, with another homemade “gadget”, my steam pump I bent the paulownia stripes for the rails, and glued all along the outline, at the end, I ‘ve used four x 5mm paaulownia stripes each side, and for the tail too."

 "I bought fcs fin boxes and a leash plug. Using epoxy resin, I glued all of them to the surfboard.

To give the right angle to the fins, another homemade gadget and the fin angle was perfect."

 "To seal the wood, after a long research, my option was to use a Portuguese marine varnish water based, appropriated for extreme water conditions."

 "And the final result is this amazing surfboard."

 It has been great to inspire Luis to experiment and try building a wooden board this way. The result speaks for itself.