The Karl Mackie fish story

Karl lives in Cornwall the hub of surfing in the UK some might say and this is his story.
" Cheers for showing an interest in my boards, Well...I had been making my own foam boards for a while, experimenting with single fins, Quads and Twin fins, inspired by the greats from the ‘Morning of the earth’ period, I was getting more & more interested in going back and building from raw materials, and surfing all kinds of crafts."

" I went traveling in 2009 and ended my trip in Noosa Heads, While staying with a friend I met a Noosa local called Parish Watts (vintagepacificsurfcraft.blogspot.com), an established board builder of the vintage tooth pick and handplane. I returned to Cornwall, UK full of ideas and inspired to make a wooden surfboard using materials from my local area, the plan was to build a wooden surfboard as eco friendly and cost effective as possible. "

" The board has been made almost entirely from Ply, apart from the rails where I have used pine strips. The top and bottom of the board is from a whole piece of 2mm ply, I would have loved to have used strips of good quality wood, however in the UK the cost would have run away with me. The tail is made from Balsa and the rails from cork. "


" Handplaning in the the UK is hardly recognized, certainly in Cornwall its still very new, i have been a bodysurfer for years now and I wanted to take what I had learnt in Noosa and apply it here, My Handplanes are made from boat builders high quality Gaboon Marine Ply, there are 4 boards in the line up, based on the aesthetics of the fish, the rounded Pin, the mal and for smaller hands the Mini, each board is hand crafted with channels, concave and hard/soft rails, I finish them untreated or coated in Raw Linseed oil. "

" By far the most exciting time in surfing for me has been the shift into wooden board building, the possibilities and the stoke from building from nothing is a wonderful thing to treasure."

It is a small world we live in. Parish Watts was at the Wooden Board Day last year with a great display of his wooden tooth picks. It is a shame Karl can't be here this year as well. But you will be able to check out Parish and many other great boards for sure.

Check out Karl's site here : www.cloudsalt.blogspot.com

Nobby in Japan flat out to finish his single fin

Nobuhito Ohkawa and Paul Jensen at last years Wooden Board Day with Nobby's beautiful all Paulownia longboard.He built two longboards for last years gathering.

Nobby is in the final stages of building a 6ft single fin to bring out for this years Wooden Board Day.Herald Poland who was here on the Gold Coast the other week took a poster back to Japan for Nobby

Check out Nobby's work at : www.nobbywoodsurfboards.com

Franks progress report...

Frank has been busy building his fish at home in the garage and just sent in these updates to share.
" I cut all the short pieces @ 45 degrees , taped them together and edge glued them, a total of 96 pieces. "

" The four composites so created were then glued to the frame like the other planks."

" And as you can see one can never have too many clamps.Because the two timbers , i.e. the paulownia and the western red cedar do not bend equally under the same pressure I had to insert an extra 3/4 length stringer on each side to provide a fulcrum to bend the 45 degree pieces evenly to make the curve of the deck as it rolls down toward the rails. "

" Near the tail I inserted a foam block on each side to anchor the fin boxes. There is also a foam block to take the gore-tex leash plug/vent near the V of the tail."

" Now I am starting to laminate the rails, starting with the V in the tail. The rails will be alternate layers of paulownia & w.r. cedar. I have also started on the fins, working on them while waiting for the glue used in the lamination to set."

" I don't know if the board will be finished by August the 8th, but I will bring it along regardless."

Frank is a bus driver here on the Gold Coast. Loves his surfing and has been building the board between shifts on the buses. He has set himself a tricky job with all the detail with different timbers and angles , but the result looks great . This is his second board and just shows once you get the bug you are willing to challenge yourself to build something personal and different.

Great job mate and we look forward to catching up in August.

Roger Hall ever the craftsman.

The humble New Zealand Cabbage Tree.

Rough as guts New Zealand Cabbage Tree is the wood of choice for this project for Roger Hall to build a 7ft chambered Gun to showcase his talents at the Wooden Board Day next month.

The chambered beams all laid up ready to be glued together.

A long and detailed job with any sort of wood.

Even Cabbage Tree fins for this one.

A great grain and textured pattern to work with.

A board in the rough, ready for hour upon hour of shaping and hand sanding.No small task with timbers that are stringy and with differing textures to work with.





Another work of art, functional art at that by a great shaper of surfboards in any medium.

Roger Hall the quiet achiever in his element covered in dust, wood or foam.
Come and check out his and others great work at the Wooden Board Day on Sunday 8th of August at Currumbin Alley here on the Gold Coast.

Jon Wegeners great looking longboard

Jon Wegener just posted these great shots of this board on his blog and I asked him if I could share it on mine with you.




Jon said "This is Curt and my 4th hollow longboard. It is a 9'8'' with sequoia and paulownia lumber. This is one of the nicest looking surfboards I have ever seen and am very proud of it. Upon first review, I did not see any crystallization with the sequoia, always a worry. The Bing Jacobs factory glassed it. The fin came out insane, again no crystallization. Stoked. You need to see in person how cool the grain looks. It kind of looks 3 dimensional. I really want to keep and ride it, but I can't afford it. I am riding Number 1 paulownia hollow presently. Wood longboards rid really good. So much momentum and forgiveness."

Thanks Jon for sharing this great looking board with us.

Check him out at :http://wegenersfinlessfrontier.blogspot.com

Herald back for a surf.

I was out having a surf at the Alley today and ran into Herald and Steve who both did the wooden board building classes with Paul Jensen at the Eco Village last year. Herald lives in Japan and was out here for a family visit , but hopes to get back for the wooden bard day in August.The boys were sliding a few on Steve's Tom Wegener woodies.

Time to get the rails down

My brother Lance was visiting from New Zealand so I gave him a mask and told him to hang on to the board for me. He got a few face fulls of shavings for his efforts. Thanks mate.

Coming together slowly... not a job to be rushed . The exciting but nervous part of the whole deal.


Pretty happy with where it is at now and will finish sanding and fine tuning under the lights of the shaping bay.

Two mates with shared memories for a lifetime

Duncan and Scott , long time mates decided to build a board each and have spent the last few months chipping away at getting them finished and ready for glassing.

The first waxing after getting lots of photos is always a milestone with a new board. But when it is one you have built yourself , its special. An exciting time , to see if it floats and then how she will go.

A great experience that you never forget , that first wave , that first session you have waited for forever.I said to the guys they will learn a lot about themselves doing this. They have. And now for the next project I hear.

Check out the boys journey at :

www.journeyinwood.blogspot.com

Andrew Wells from Grown Surfboards with another great board.

" Its a 6'4 fish, paulownia with cedar stringer and some camphour accent strips on the deck. Shane Martins had the airbrush out again and has done some beautiful koi fish on the bottom.

Look forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks."
Andrew has built this fine board for the Wooden Board Day on the 8th of August

www.grownsurfboards.com.au

Richard Harvey, ever the innovator

Modern art , wood sculpture and letterbox slot ? No , fin and function.

Tears of stain...

Fin in or no fin at all .

Richard says " It has a full high low rail and can be flipped over, without the fin, and reversed around to have a different tail shape option." I like the way he thinks outside the box.Be sure to check it out at the wooden board day.

Wooden Surfboard night at the Gold Coast Surf Museum the night before the Wooden Board Day

Surf World Gold Coast

Wooden Surfboard Night

Saturday 7th August 6.30pm for a 7pm start

$15 per head includes a sausage sizzle and drink

A great opportunity to mix and meet with other people interested in wooden boards and hear from some very talented individuals who build them.

Wooden boards come in many shapes and styles of construction. Tom Wegener, Roger Hall and Mike Connor will give a brief overview of their various methods of board construction and experiences. This will be followed by an open question and answer forum with the guys. A sample of what will be on display at the Wooden Board Day in the park at Currumbin Alley the next day.

Tom Wegener

An expatriate Californian lawyer turned surfboard shaper transplanted into the hills behind Noosa at Cooroy. He has spent the last 10 plus years building wooden boards and researching and finessing his love affair with the ancient Hawaiian Alaia

finless boards.” I hope the eyes of other shapers will be opened to the possibilities of applying the oldest methods in the world to today's cutting edge technologies.

"Historically in surfing, people have looked for lighter, faster technologies, thinking the holy grail is somewhere in carbon fibre and lighter, stronger materials.

"But my approach is to look as far back as we possibly can at the few surviving boards from the ancient Hawaiians and study what Captain Cook and his crew watched when they saw surfing for the first time, and draw inspiration from that."

Last year Surfing Magazine voted Tom “Shaper of the Year”. A great honour and recognition of his exploration into the heritage and roots of surfing that has inspired a new wave of innovation into this sport. " Wood is Good".

Roger Hall

A Kiwi with over 30 years of shaping boards in every shape and style, who has a well know reputation for innovation and quality. Roger has incorporated wood in to the handmade boards he builds for many years. Whether it is multiple stringers, nose and tail blocks, or beautiful inlays, Roger is a master of it all. He has always had a healthy supply of various timbers on hand and loves to combine them wherever possible.

A recent quote from Slide magazine sums up Roger very well. "Roger's enthusiasm and passion for finely crafting something more akin to a work of art is strongly evident. It would be a safe bet to say the prospect of bettering his craft is admirably motivating him much more so than the almighty dollar."

Mike Connor

A passionate woodworker who hails from Corndale, located west of Byron Bay. Mike’s interest in working with wood began some 25 years ago when he began experimenting and building various items as a hobby. He is largely self-taught although the opportunity to attend classes with local world-renowned cabinetmaker, Geoff Hannah, added inspiration and refinement to his creations. His love of wood has resulted in him exploring and collecting local and exotic timbers to the point of filling a large shed.

For the past 10 years Mike has pursued a full time career as a craftsman making various customised pieces ranging from furniture to woodwork benches, wooden tools and workshop jigs to make outcomes more accurate. Some teaching has followed and his desire is to share knowledge rather than keep it secret.

Today he specialises in crafting ukuleles and guitars as well as surfboards. This interest in surfboards has seen Mike link up with Bob McTavish to help recreate some of Bob’s well-known designs in wood.

To book a spot or buy some tickets for the night please contact the Surf Museum :

Tomewin Street , Currumbin , Opposite the entrance to the wild life santuary
PH: 07- 5525 6380
Surf World Gold Coast is a not-for-profit museum dedicated to celebrating the history and culture of surfing.

Tony's board finished and road tested.

Ride report - " Surfed for about 2 hours off the shops at Lennox in 1 - 2ft clean beachbreaks. didn't leak (very important), paddles pretty well, good volume, caught heaps of waves, took a while to get used the nose riding rocker, not as loose as I expected after riding the pintail yesterday however moving the fin up may fix that, trims nice and gets good momentum. Suspect that it will be at home in small point waves, would like it to be a bit more agile so will keep playing with fins until I get it feeling like I can change direction when I want. 10" greenough fin looks at home"

www.tonycrimminstimbersurfboards.blogspot.com