Wooden Surfboard night at Gold Coast Surf Museum

Last night some 100 + people gathered at the Surf Museum at Currumbin to have a beer or two and a BBQ on the deck before Bushy introduced them to our guest speakers.

Left to right , Mike Connor , Tom Wegener and Roger Hall.

Tom was first up and had a few early English belly boards showing flex and how simple surfing has been for many people. Then he moved onto the Alaia and how they came about. He is always a passionate story teller and all round interesting guy.

Mike was his country casual self and covered the building of framed wooden boards and that method of construction.He fielded quite a few questions on Paulownia and tools ,as he is known to have quite a collection in his shed. Mainly focusing on sharp tools.

Roger explained the process of chambering boards and the use of different timbers. The board he is holding has 9 different species . He also covered the question of weight associated with wooden boards and explained it very well. The ride and feel of wooden boards.Even though he hand shapes foam boards all day he is a passionate collector of woods to use in boards.

Thanks to all those who came along and to the Surf Museum for hosting the night. It is a great venue and run by a great group of volunteers . If you haven't been along to check it out , please do. They have a number of wooden boards on display all the time. An enjoyable and informative night had by all I am sure , and now look forward to the day in the park.

5ft 10" Paulownia fish

My experimental all Paulownia fish is finished in time for the wooden board day on Sunday.
5ft 10" x 22" 6mm deck and 5mm bottom over a 6mm frame and 4oz glass top and bottom.Concave deck out through the tail and a rolled soft V in the nose to a flat under the front foot , double concave V out through the tail.It was very strong before glassing and could easily not been glassed and just oiled. Next one will be for sure.You never know until you have a go and that is what this is all about.
Check us out on Sunday at The Alley.

Great looking solid Paulownia " Log "

Here is an email I just received ...

" A recent post about a solid paulownia board - that suggested that they were not so successful - has encouraged me to email you with my board story. That a solid paulownia surfboard can be successful.

Last year I finally plucked up enough courage to get started on making a board for myself. I was inspired by all the wonderful photographs on your web page, and decided that considering my limited woodworking skills that I'd try and build a solid surfboard. I bought some plantation paulownia from here in New Zealand (Paulownia Enterprises), purchased a pdf on how to build a balsa board from Mark Riley's webpage....and then got started (with some help from my young
sons). I copied the shape of my 9' 6" noserider, though reduced the rocker a bit. I made a few mistakes along the way, but finally the board emerged. It has a recycled matai nose and tail, and rimu stringer. I emailed Tom Wegner for oil advice - he suggested linseed oil and gum turps (took 5 coats). I think it looks great (photo attached), and what's more it rides just fine. It's a tad heavy (I'm going to chamber the next one) but it's easy to paddle into waves and keeps a good fast line.
I made a standard fin shape out of plywood to get started with - but it needs something a bit stiffer and with more area. Maybe a D fin will work best - going to make one soon. Because of its weight I've had to master riding without a leash, and prefer to have some room out there in the waves.But boy what a feeling - riding your own wooden beauty.

I'd love to come over to the board day - but too expensive for me to fly at the moment. Hopefully the next one.

Keep up your great work."

Cheers
Ashley Rowden
Island Bay, Wellington, New Zealand.

Great story and a great looking board. This is how it all starts for most of us. We are all experimenting and trying new things to see what works and suits what we are after . By sharing out experiences we can move forward. There are no right and wrong ways of spending your time building something that will give you so much pleasure when you catch that first wave.

Thanks for sharing your story with us.

The Woody "Bush Pig"

Mike Connor has just picked up his all Paulownia Pig. Like myself he built the foam one as a trial horse at Christmas to see how she went. All good and lots of fun so a wood one was next.A classic shape that suits wood for sure.
You can catch up with Mike at the Gold Coast Surf Museum Saturday night as he is one of the guest speakers.Or check his board the next day in the park at the Alley.

Ye Olde Log

Ian Moulton just sent through these shots of his latest project.
" I copied my fathers old 64 stringless Shane which lives in the rafters. All the wooden framework, deck skins and fin has been custom laser cut from 4mm hardwood ply. "


" The rails are laminated cork. As I am a fan of recycled wood, I kept in mind throughout the build that I wanted a rustic looking log. "

" The board is just short of 9'3". "

Cool looking fin Ian.

The funky fish...

Tarik Van Prehn from Portugal has just built this 6ft twin fin with a full to double concave bottom.The deck is Japanese Pine and the bottom Northern European plywood. Rails are Cork , Balsa and styrofoam with Balsa fins. A good looking board and some nice looking timbers.

Woody "Alley Slider" ready for action.

At Christmas I shaped a 10ft x 24" x 3 1/2" "Pig" inspired old school log for fun. The piggy bit comes from the fact that the wide point is 18" behind centre and that is the thickest point as well.
The original pigs had rolled bottoms tip to tail. Mine has a concave in the nose that runs right through to the wide point which is rolled but then gets more V out through the tail.It all works great and is such a fun board to ride. Step forward and she just takes off and with the fuller nose it is very stable to nose ride. Step back and it just pivots round the fin.

So I set about building a wooden version with the same dimensions.I look forward to the feel between the two.

I went with the resin tint to give it a different look but still have the wood grain come through.

Brothers or cousins ? I look forward to the glide. All built from Paulownia. 6mm frame , 8mm deck and 6mm bottom. Plenty strong enough even unglassed and weighing it at just under 10kg I could have oiled it and surfed it like that it felt a great weight and strong as. But ended up with 4oz top and bottom to toughen up the surface. Not sure of the finished weight but it feels fine.

This is a Future Fins " El Capitan" at 9.5" . I tried it in the foam Alley Slider and it was loose , but I like the stability of the Hatchet fin , so "Wiz" is making me a 10.5" Hatchet and a 11.5" flex fin for it in beer colour tint.

John Cherry , master craftsman.

These beautiful wooden fins are for a 11ft x 23 1/2" chambered Balsa and Redwood glider John is building.

All clamped up and ready to finish shape. A big job ahead of him, but what a great looking board.

Chambering all the pieces is a delicate operation at any time.



I showed John my wooden version of the Alley Slider and how it turned out. He then sent me these shots of one of his favorite boards " I didn’t want to beat up my Phil Edwards model, but I still wanted to ride it. So I built and shaped this chambered balsa for myself (with Phil’s blessing)."
It is also interesting to see how two boards with the same dimentions feeel when built from different materials .

Nobby's board almost ready to pack for Australia

Nobuhito Ohkawa from Japan has been very busy trying to finish his board to get it down to the Gold Coast next weekend. He flies in next Saturday with his wife and a couple of boards. All Paulownia , all from the same tree. He has a very detailed approach to building his boards.Come and check them out next weekend if you are able.

www.nobbywoodsurfboards.com

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.

The solid Paulownia test...

David from Paulownia Paradise in Melbourne just sent these pics and the following story to share.

" We were often asked how a solid Paulownia surf board would perform so we used 3 lengths of 2”Paulownia timber that were quite bowed and just glued them together then shaped a 9’10” long board from solid timber with no holes drilled not chambered at all and weighed in at 12.5 KG and just a linseed oil finish."






" We laminated a D fin out of 6mm Paulownia and gave the end result to Ken Reimers of KR surf to test it with an honest result ."

The result - "Not enough rocker , not enough buoyancy and the fin buzzed so we have proved that this is not the way to go."

So if you were thinking this would be the way to go. Don't. Not solid anyway, chambered works e all know. Solid Balsa works , but not solid Paulownia. So thanks David for the exercise.
David will be up from Melbourne on Sunday 8th of August ( next weekend )with samples of his timber and Paulownia Alaia blanks to check out.

www.paulowniasurfboardsupplies.com

How to get there

Nobby and Paul Jensen at last years Wooden Board day in the Gold Cost Sun newspaper.

The Gold Coast Surf Museum is not far from the Alley right opposite the entry to The Currumbin Wild Life Sanctuary in Tomewin Street. Look for the big surfboard.Saturday night at the Surf Museum to meet a few people and a few beers , put faces to names and all that.Great venue and some great boards and memorabilia to check out as well.

Check it out at :
http://surfworldgoldcoast.com/events/wooden-surfboard-night/

Bobby Crisp and his Mini Simmons

Bobby Crisp from Deluxe Industries in New Zealand has been busy building more beautifully detailed balsa boards. He loves fine inlays and wood details. He used to be in windy wet Wellington , but has moved as far south in the even colder South Island as you can go before dropping off the end of the world. The cold hasn't cooled his passion for these great boards.
Bob will be here on the Gold Coast next weekend with some boards for you to check out.

www.deluxeindustries.blogspot.com