Final Day of the Hollow wooden board building at The Eco Village

It was a big day today and lots to get done to finish the boards.Lots of noise and dust most of the day. The boys were loving it to see their boards get rails and to start shaping them.

Gerard would rather be doing this than be at his desk as a solicitor.

6mm thick strips of cork and 4mm strips of bending ply builds out the rails
Contact cement and lay them up

Then rout them down and get rid of the excess
Tony sanding between layers
Cleaning up the excess


Jimmy went with just layers of bending ply. You can see the frame and rail band .
Radha gets into the sanding to bring that shape to life

Herald hard at it to get his board done and off to the glasser to make the flight back to Japan

Greg doing a nice job of the 9 footer
Time to trim the tail and make way for the tail block
There you go thets what the construction and structure is like.
Rahda ready to rock and roll. He even had time to shape his fins.
Jesse , pretty happy with his days work and why not. A great experience.
Long day and the boys are still at it.

Day 4 of hollow wooden board building at The Eco Village

Day four started a little earlier as we needed to get a lot done today.The decks and bottoms had been been glued on and some finer sanding to do.

Jesse smoothing things out on the 5ft 10" fish.
Phil gets into routing off the overhang on the deck skin.

Greg just taking in his handy work. He is doing a nice job.
Tony gets a hand to rout off the deck skin overhang.
Herald's got a nice looking 9 footer coming together to take back to Japan with him.
Tony hand planes the the outline.

Jesse pretty please with what is taking shape.
Paul takes time out to be interviewed for the Channel 9 local tv news and Daily News paper as well.
Rahda tackles the butt crack on his fish.

Day 3 at the Eco Village hollow wooden board course

Day 3 started with a bunch of the boys again catching some nice little winter sliders at The Alley before class .

Top and bottom skins sanded and the outline cut out ready for the next step.
Paul the centre of attention as to guys look on , lining up the frame to clamp the deck in place.
Clamped and ready to commit to gluing it all in place.
Herald and Paul's wife Pam getting set to place the frame on a 9 footer.
Steve Solomon a jeweller from Brisbane helps Greg Wheeldon an architect from Brisbane to get it all lined up.
We have a great space here in what will become the recycling centre for the Eco Village.
Tony decided to make the 7ft 3" into a pin tail
Gerard and Phil hold tight as Jesse gets the clamps all on.
Some nice colours in the cedar

The 9 footer coming along
Radha can't wait for the glue to go off and get the bottom on.
Jesse looks pretty pleased with the progress to date.

Day 2 of the hollow wooden board building at the Eco Village

Day two of the board building saw the guys peeling off the masking tape that held the wooden strips together while they laid up a 4 oz layer on what will be the under side of the deck and bottom skins.The resin brought out the colours on the woods that they had selected and the boys were pretty happy.

Tony Crimmins a policeman from Brisbane with the deck skin for his 7ft 3.
Jesse Watson from the Sunshine Coast eyeing off his handy work.
Gerard Hatton a solicitor from Newcastle seems pretty happy to be out of the office for a few days.
Young Jimmy Holt decided to create a bit more work for himself and do something different.
Jimmy and Jesse took some time out to trace round some of the other frames for future projects.
Herald Poland , is a Dutch national living in Japan and teaching English.
Greg Walton an architect from Brisbane getting down to the finer points with Paul Jensen.
Radha Pedersen prepping the frame components for his 5ft 10" fish
Looking fishy in the morning sun
Paul pulling the frames together with cable ties.

First day board building class at The Eco Village

The first day of the hollow wooden board building classes at The Eco Village in Currumbin has gone well. The guys all turned up with tools and keen to learn from Paul Jensen. An interesting mix of guys from all over and from their 20's to 50's.Herald even flew out from Japan to join us for the week. So the day was about meeting each other and getting familiar with the workshop , as we are working in what will be the recycling centre for the Eco Village community. Then it was down to selecting from the timber I supplied and sorting colour , book matching and grading. Paul was on hand to guide the guys and cut thinner strips where required. The boys taped these together with masking tape and then later in the day glassed what will be the underside of the strips.

Damo choosing and sorting his timbers for the top and bottom of his board. I had supplied Western Red Cedar and Paulownia finish sanded to 4mm thick and in various widths.
Jimmy Holt looks deep in thought as to how it will all come together.
Jimmy has Paul Jensen cutting a stack of boards at 45 degrees to do something different.
Phil Ascot , checking that he has enough width as he select a few sticks.
Radha didn't muck around and got into it pretty quickly and had his coming together well.