John Sutcliffe from Mangawhai on his home built wooden twin keel fish surfboard enjoys a small peeling wave at Ruakaka beach.

John is a regular support of the wooden board day each year and loves his wooden boards.Great to see them out in the surf where they are supposed to be.
Nice one Johnny.

The Kiwi boys are hard at it building boards

In Auckland Mike Grobelny has been hard at it gluing up blanks to process using his unique milling and shaping methods to be able to bring some of his boards for the Wooden Board Day in a couple of weeks.

Here is a freshly cut Cedar blank underway, a bit heavier than Paulownia but a nice clean cut.

Paulownia blank with all the chambers linked back to the gortex breather leash plug combo.

The process...

Up North , Roger Hall is flat out selecting timbers , gluing and chambering
to create more of his wonderful boards.

A very time consuming and exacting process with many hundreds of pieces of
timber glued together.

You know the outcome will be unreal.

Just some of the machining and preparation that goes into it.Hours of work before
you can start to shape a board.

This is a 9'0'' reproduction chambered Redwood Hot Curl,
Roger just finished this off yesterday

Just down the coast from Roger , John Sutcliffe has been building his first fish.

This is Johnny's Kahikatea Twin Keel Fish, getting glassed at Surfline at the moment,
will have translucent green twin keel glass ons.

The inside scoop supplied by good mate Mike Cunningham who will be bringing a few of his hand planes and maybe a belly board.I haven't heard from Bobby Crisp if he is coming as yet . A be rap for the Kiwi boys who love to come over and slide a few warm winter waves as well. It is not that easy jumping on a plane with board bags full of wooden boards. Thanks guys for your support and the great effort that goes into it.We look forward to catching up and checking out your latest creations.

Kiwi , John Sutcliffe's chambered log

John has just picked up his chambered Redwood and Pine strip longboard. The Redwood was locally milled and he made the board to donate to raise funds to build a skateboard park in Mangawhai.
" The usual positive input from Roger and an awesome glass job by Matt and Emma from Surfline Surfboards. Carmen and I will be there in August with a twin fin fish made with Kahikatia which I have just started."

Nice fin to compliment the board.

Kiwi fush underway

Johnny Sutcliffe with the framework of his wooden fish project, redwood rails and the stringer is unkown species but he retrieved it from a skip bin.He will keep us posted on the progress and we should see the finished project in August. Nice one John.

The Kiwi Alaia

John Sutcliffe from New Zealand is looking forward to a fun summer at his local break of Mangawhai Heads in the North Island. He has just finished his first alaia and I don't know that they are that common in " The land of the long black raincoat ".

Kiwi John and his Kauri board

John Sutcliffe from New Zealand has just finished this great looking New Zealand Kauri board to bring with him next week . He is looking forward to some warm water at The Alley and to slide a few waves at the point.

Johnny Diesel lapping up the Alley waves

Nothing better than a few waves on a wooden board you built in the shed at home. Better still if you can surf all week like this in winter.
John just couldn't get enough of the winter swells at the Alley
We have had 3 weeks of sunny days and another week ahead of us and up to 27c , not bad for winter. John brought his wooden board for the week to the Gold Coast and surfed each day before heading back to New Zealand. He will be back next year with a new project added to his quiver. Thanks Johnny Diesel for your support.

John Sutcliffe's board is ready to get wet

John Sutcliffe from New Zealand  has just finished his board and wet it's head. This is the one built in the garage next to the GT Falcon. Roger Hall and Matt Waite from Surfline Surfboards glassed it for him.

" Sunday was the official launch at Mangawhai Heads. The surf wasn't really co operating but I had a ball. Its so cool to actually surf something I made myself. Anyway here are some photos for the blog.

Cheers John"      We hope to see John with his board in August.

An update on John Sutcliffe's board in the shed .

As you can see you don't need a lot of room to build a board. Just move the GT Falcon to one side and get into it. Looks like he has used a pine frame and light pine strips for the skin. I will let you know when more detail comes to hand.

The things you find in the shed

Kiwi John Sutcliffe is a truck mechanic by day and a closet wooden board builder by night .Here is a sneek peek at his first board under way. Good on you John , look forward to an update.