Andrew Wells from Grown Surfboards always busy building great looking boards

The "Jelly Bean" with Lennox Heads in the background

5ft 8" mini egg built from all Paulownia and a great looking resin tint.

www.grownsurfboards.com.au

Hand planes

Now these are fun things to make and surf. What to do with all those small scraps of wood and hone your shaping skill at the same time. A great project for the kids on holiday or while you are building something else as well.
Check out the last post...

Tha global hand plane tour hits Australia

Gary Murphy in California , well known for his Brownfish boards has spent the last 12 months just building and shaping handplanes. He makes a range of designs and they are beautifully finished.
Jason Hall a photographer with the support of Go Pro cameras has sent one of Garys' hand planes off around the world for a tour of surf spots globally. Well it is in Sydney now and then will be on it's way to the Gold Coast for The Alley Fish Fry which I also organise ,the first weekend in March.I am sure it will be wet most of the day as many people try it out and we capture a little film of the days activities in and out of the water.

Check it out at : www.brownfishhandplanes.com
www.thealleyfishfry.blogspot.com

Joe Larkin , still building boards

This is Joe Larkin glueing up the blank for an 8ft 1931 Waikiki chambered Balsa board. I am not sure what age Joe is these days but he has been doing it for ever and still going strong.He has built many a classic board . His craftsmanship is second to none.Will have some more shots as it comes together.

www.joelarkinsurfboards.com

Appeal to build a recycled board

Kevin Cunningham wants to let you know about a new project he has launched to shape a series of wood boards that use found drift wood and plastic debris that washes up on the beaches. He is going to be using the drift wood in the skins of his boards for inlays and the plastic debris to make fins and also for inlays. He plans to show these boards in galleries and other venues.

" To make this happen I launched a funding campaign on Kickstarter.com. I am hoping to raise $3200. As an incentive for people to back my project I am offering rewards of t-shirts, stickers, tote bags, hand planes, and more."

Here is the link to the project site: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/408559255/spirare-sustainable-surf-craft

Not a surfboard but a great looking stick.

It's still wood on water...

Really enjoy your blog, thought that these powder surfboards could fit in there... I make them out of maple veneers and press them in a big mold I made...Next ... pack out channels with balsa wood and vacuum bag a piece of ptex onto the base... Boards have deck concave, tail kick, and zero camber, just like a traditional skateboard... Super fun to make and tons more fun to ride in steep powder .. No bindings, or straps, just deck grip, and surfboard leash...

More info at www.decembersnowskates.blogspot.com If interested ..

Thanks for your time

Kevin

Grain Surfboards announce 3 new classes for the coming year

Grain Surfboards is pleased to announce three new additions to their 2011 class schedule, which include Jon Wegener and Cyrus Sutton as visiting instructors.

For the past two years, Grain Surfboards has been inviting virgin board builders into their workshop to learn how to build their own wooden board from scratch. This year, the schedule includes three brand new classes expanding Grain’s offerings: early Hawaiian surf craft, body surfing hand-planes and a rapid-fire 3-day board-building workshop.

In the fall of 2011 Grain hosts Alaia pioneer Jon Wegener at their York-based workshop. For this unique workshop, students will have the privilege of spending two-and-a-half days with Jon Wegener learning about the traditional Hawaiian finless board known as an “alaia” (ah-lie-yuh). Students will be provided with the fast-growing “paulownia” wood to glue up their own blanks, cut their outlines, and under Jon’s skilled eye, shape the delicate arcs that create the magic of a simple, finless plank. On day three, each board will be oiled and ready for a one-of-a-kind surf session with the Wegeners who will bring their own personal quiver of alaias to try out. The class is scheduled for September 8th-10th, 2011.

After a day off, Grain will welcome the King of hand-made, Cyrus Sutton. Cyrus is the force behind Korduroy.tv, that other place on the web to learn how to make your own surf-craft. "Maine is such a pristine place and the guys at Grain are doing such great stuff,” said Cyrus who visited Maine last summer, “I'm really excited about this." In this one-day class, Cyrus will guide students through the process of cutting and shaping their own hand-plane. Use of edge tools, sanding and sealing will be covered as well as an in the water demo showing how hand planes can maximize your body surfing experience. The class is scheduled for September 11th.


“Jon and Cyrus both have the same passion as we do for helping surfers to build their own. Hosting them at our shop is another way to welcome new people to the experience while celebrating our collective passion for sharing, for surfing, and for craftsmanship,” said Brad Anderson, one of Grain's co-owners.

Starting in February of 2011, Grain gives “team-building” a whole new meaning. Teams of two students together build a single board with a Grain board builder directly helping as needed to keep on schedule. This class is designed as an affordable way to teach board building to anyone who either wants tips that will help in building a HomeGrown Kit at home, or is merely curious about how it’s done, whether they surf or not. This class is a great opportunity for couples, buddies, and family members. The 3-day Board Blitz will be offered twice in 2011, June 3rd-5th and August 5th - 7th. All the boards built in the class will be sold for the cost of materials which is around 20% of the cost of a new surfboard.

Grain will continue to offer their popular 7-day intensive workshop throughout 2011. The workshops include all materials, tools, and instruction as well as a near-gourmet breakfast and lunch. Each student leaves at the end of the week with a beautiful surfboard that they built with their own hands.


For the complete 2011 class schedule and more information, please contact:

Tyler Briggs
Grain Surfboards
60 Brixham Road
York, Maine
207-951-1820
pr@grainsurfboards.com

Nathan Grey has been busy...

" What started off as a 6’4” Alaia fish hybrid, now 6ft long. made from Paulownia scraps I had left over.Which I chambered and vented and then finished it with 100% Tung oil. I made the small keels with Solomon island black wood{ queen ebony}."

"10ft stand up paddle board built in paulownia and balsa and a bit of cedar."

" A couple of my hand planes for bombing shore break barrels, small one made in Balsa and the big one in Paulownia."

" They both have deep 3/4” inch concave through them."

Nathan is a great craftsman and an innovative guy who build furniture and wooden boards.You can check out what else he has been up to at : www.nathanielgrey.com.au

Rob Machado on a very small piece of wood.

Machado Peanut Cardiff h264 from rook productions media on Vimeo.

New board coming to life

Peter Mo applying the gloss coat to Tony Crimmins latest board. That sure makes the colour pop in the timber. Great looking board Tony. He will be glad he got it finished before Christmas as Tony is flat out in Brisbane with the floods in his roll of police logistics. He has plenty of long days ahead of him.

It is the time for giving and thinking of others.

Paul Jensen with his Father in law from Puget Sound on Christmas Day. " Years ago he had planted a Sequoia tree that grew fast and was lifting, then breaking the concrete slab, so Farrell had the tree taken out…Fortunately the tree sections were between 8 and 12’…Someone who cared, cut and dried the 4x4’s slowly and unforced…I was given a few sticks and knew what I needed to do…Build a board for Farrell who has been so supportive over the years of my surfy thing…"

7ft 2" Sequioa Swallowtail

Ready for glassing and making that colour jump..

The raw sequoia has this fleshy salmon color…

The frame and top skin ready to go together.

Happy New Year to you all

Happy New Year to everyone and thank you for your continued support. I hope we all have a better year ahead of us than we have just had.Here in Queensland we have thousands of people with their houses underwater and the biggest floods ever.Some rivers are yet to peak so the worst of it is yet to hit.When we have tough times this year , lets just be tankful that we are not one of these poor buggers waiting for the water to drop and see whats left to start again.

Happy New Year to you all from Grant, Jackie and Natalie here on the Gold Coast.

Taiyo Surfboards by Yohei Shiraishi

Yohei has been building wooden boards in Northern California for many years.They are framed and he uses the bead and cove method to build his beautiful boards.

This is a 9ft 11" longboard he has just finished.

He also makes his own wooden fins.

" Most of the wood used for this board is sustainably harvested from our local forests. Types of wood include redwood, Port Orford cedar, western red cedar, and fir. Botanically speaking, heartwood is a ‘dead’ tissue of plants, but this surfboard is pretty much alive, and it stands so natural in the woods. I can’t even imagine how harmonious one would feel on a wave."

Check him out at : www.taiyosurfboards.com

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you all. Thanks for your support this year and your continued interest in Wooden Surf Boards. Looking forward to a big year to come and some new projects in the shed.
May you all have a safe and happy break.

All the Best from Grant , Jackie and Nat.

Greg's new board

Greg Wheeldon has just finished another board for Christmas.

" 6’6” x 21 ¼” x 2 ½” fish I just finished over the wet weekend. Photos taken before rails attached and shaped."

Some pretty trick wood work here Greg. Nice job.

"Single nose concave, with double tail concave. I inserted foam blocks, as the glasser will fix in FCS plugs in a 5 fin set-up. I will probably use a quad fin setup, but the 5 fin plug set-up gives maximum flexibility."

" It is off to the glasser yesterday, for one layer 4oz glass, for finishing just in time for Xmas."

Fish are a great board to build first up as they are small and easy to manage at home in a smaller space. Not so expensive to build and get glassed.

The ride report from Mark Yee

"I took the wooden fish out for the maiden voyage this morning.
2.5 ft hightide waves at Winkipop, slight SE onshore but still very rideable... if you have a wooden board!
Legrope attached, a light rub with some cool water sex wax, a pre surf photo and I was out there.
I spent the first 5 minutes adjusting to the extra width and weight (6.4kg), but it paddled well and was still easy to duck dive.
A shoulder height set wave comes at 'uppers', I was a bit too deep and late and managed to nose dive, albeit in a graceful renaissance-retro wooden board kind of way.
Next wave I was in peak position, took off and....FLEW.
Mowing through sections the 2 guys on regular shortboards were struggling with. The full-speed trim all down the line and ended up at 'lowers' a good 150m away.
I spent another hour trading waves with one of the older regulars, feeling my way through the characteristics of the board. Any surface bumps were made negligible and before too long i had made a few tentative off -the-top manouvers. I think it will loosen up in turns once I can get a better feel for the extra weight-induced momentum of the board
The only time I thought I had pushed it too far was midway through an end section closeout floater.
Thinking to myself. Did Jensen design the board for this kind of stuff ?? And quietly praying I wasn't going to put my feet through the deck on landing, it air dropped off the lip onto the flats without missing a beat.
So I celebrated with a post surf photo, a coffee from Swell Cafe and am hoping to make a paulownia mini-simmons 5'5" sometime over summer."

Hope you guys are getting waves.
Cheers
Mark

Another one off to the glasser.

Good friend Tony Crimmons form Brisbane has just finished this board and headed off to Peter" Mo" to have it glassed here on the Gold Coast. Great looking board once again . Tony builds a beautiful board.