The Singapore Simmons

I have just been sent this email and it is great to see that people all over the place  and the most unlikely of places decide to have a go at building wooden boards from scratch by themselves.

" My name is Dhiya Muhammad from the tiny Island of Singapore. Don't get me wrong when I say Island, practically its a concrete island, we don't get waves here, we need to travel out or wait for the monsoon season for the swell to hit in the neighboring country Malaysia. I am a Graphic Designer by education and trade but making things by hand has always been in me since young."

 " A couple of months ago myself and partner along with some friends planned on a vacation to Bali. Constantly on the net and a frequent visitor of your site I had the utmost craziest idea to build a wooden hollow board."

 The pictures tell the story and in the end the result looks great fun. I am sure Dhiya would say it is a great experience and a very rewarding . He is probably planning his next board already.

For more details here's his blog: http://mdrnst.tumblr.com/ click on the pics for the descriptions.

New 5' 9" Jelly Bean from Grown

 Starting with CNC cut paulownia frame

 It is all paulownia with cedar feature strips. The cedar came out of some old skirting boards that a mate of Andrew's rescued from a rubbish bin from a house renovation down on the northern beaches of Sydney.

Andrew Wells at Grown Surfboards

Japanese belly board surfing history

Little has been known of the history of surfing in Japan until now when good friend Nobihito Ohkawa started collecting pictures and information from many sources to compile their history.

The oldest written document is a diary of one haiku poet who lived in Sakata. He visited Yunohama beach, north eastern Japan in 1821 and saw children riding on the waves with 'Itago' The Itago is a wooden plank from a fishing boat. But it was not as popular as in Hawaii where kings enjoyed surfing. That’s because the sea was the place fisherman worked and was not considered a place for amusement.
In the 1880's, bathing beaches were opened for medical purposes. However this changed as public beaches soon came to be used for pleasure. Then, common people came to beaches for leisure. From this period, the 'Itako' wave riding tool began to be widely made.

For more information and some great pictures of early surfing visit Nobby's site.

Fish scales wooden rails

 Mike Grobelny from New Zealand has built this 4ft 10” x 22” x 2 3/4” foam core simmons as a summer project. I hope he gets to bring it to this years wooden board day on the first weekend of August.

 Bamboo top and bottom , Paulownia rails, Cedar and Rimu tail detail finished with varnish only.

       Port hole to check out inside as you surf.

Biofoam core routed out to lessen the weight.

The French twist

french wooden and alaia surfboards.

 5'11 Single chambered paulownia wood paint by Nils Inne.

 These guys do nice work, check them out...

http://hiddenwoodalaia.blogspot.fr/

Tail blocks and finless fun

 Roger Hall in New Zealand is experimenting further with his finless Hot Curl boards. Like he does he puts everything into it. So not just foam and glass. No not Roger he has hundred of pieces of timber as the stringer as he glues up the blank as above.

 All carefully glued up to be sliced with perfection and added to the stringer line for looks and weight I would suspect.

Stringer done, but not Roger.

 The tail block to add weight where you need it to hold the finless tail into the wave.

He is a master craftsman for sure.

This is the 7ft prototype 

Taking the finless drop

Fully tested and a happy man, thinking of the next step.

Nothing wrong with this one

Timber from a time when men were men and trees were bloody big.

Japanese inspired Shoji board

 This very intricate work is by Huck from California who was inspired by Japanese art.

 

"The construction is inspired by Japanese shoji screens, and the art is inspired by Japanese kites.  Made with a grid framework and covered in polyester heat-shrink "Polyspan" tissue. "

" The art was added using colorfast tissue paper and water based polyurethane floor varnish, then glassed with 2+6 top and bottom, epoxy resin sanded finish. "

" This one is a 7'3" egg shape, as a tribute to the art and craftsmanship of Japan. I haven't decided if    this belongs in an art gallery or in the surf, so I haven't ridden it yet."