How strong is your wooden board?

 Dan Johnston like a lot of us get asked this question, so he put this together. "I thought your blog group/friends would like to see how tough wood boards can be. I had one returned with the nose snapped off, a 6" rip of the wood and glass on top/bottom and one side. The kid just said 'it broke'. All I know is he really did it hard against something that wasn't going to move. No water inside so his story doesn't match reality. It's fixed and looks perfect but maybe some day he'll tell us what really happened."

You take care.
Kindest regards,

Dan       www.BlindDogSurfboards.blogspot.com

A special board

 Peter Walker, one of this years guest speakers at the Wooden Board Day was commissioned to build a very special gift.

 This board was commissioned by the University of South Australia as the official  farewell gift for outgoing Vice Chancellor Peter Hoj.

 7'6" hollow Paulownia,  Stephen Bowers painting, Mark Taylor of Mid Coast Surf , glassing

Here is the proud new owner, Peter Hoj with ex prime minister of Australia Bob Hawk.

The birthday board

Geoff Moase of Dovetail Surfboards in Burleigh Head had a request for a Balsa board for a birthday present. So the first thing he had to set out was the rocker bed and the stringer for the

 6' 4" x 18 3/4" x 2 1/2" board.

 

 He milled all the Balsa and positioned it on the rocker bed

Then he builds the rails and creates the structure of the board before then adding the frames

The deck about to go on and seal her all up

Geoff on the left with another happy customer with a very special board.

www.dovetailsurfboards.blogspot.com

DIY Paipo workshop

DIY Paulownia Paipo Workshop 

 Saturday , September 22  |  11am - 3pm

Come and join us for a creative day shaping your own Paipo or wooden bellyboard. Geoff and Jack Moase from Dovetail Surfboards will guide you through the steps and the details in the paulownia construction of these unique and popular watercraft. The cost of $75 will include lunch, your paipo blank and the use of some tools. Further details upon reservation.
Refreshments available for purchase.

Location : Patagonia Store , 15 James Street , Burleigh Heads.

Call the store to reserve a spot :  07 5576 1901

Hollow Hamilton Surfboards

 

Edward Hamilton 111 from Jacksonville Florida has been building some beautiful wooden boards and has also teamed up with a local artist to offer one off works of art as above. Mark George is a local graphic designer and together they can create something special.

Check them out at : www.hollowhamiltonsurfboards.com

and www.markge.org

Wooden boards of Greece

SX Wooden Surfboards began in the backyard of a home minutes from the waves in Santa Marina, Athens,Greece. Stavros Hatzikonstantis combined his love of board sports with a passion for wooden boat-building techniques to create works of art for riding waves that have less impact on the environment and more positive impact on your surfing.The beauty of SX Wooden Surfboards lies in the blend of softwoods, the artful patterns naturally produced by the wood itself. In the future, SX Wooden Surfboards will continue to build custom dream boards and develop new surfboard shapes in collaboration with our customers.
Check out some of Stav's boards below...

Check out what else he is up to here -  4stepsurfkit.blogspot.fr

Mondobongo Wooden Surfboards from Portugal

Igor Regula from Portugal has started building wooden boards and would like to share them with you. Check out what he has been up to : mondobongosurfboards.blogspot.com.au

Board building classes Brisbane

If you live in Brisbane and you would like to build a wooden board , then now you can. Stuart Bywater who is a designer and crafter of beautiful furniture is starting classes on a Tuesday night from 6pm to 9pm. For full details contact him :
telephone : 07 3256 9000
address : 182 Crockford Street, Northgate QLD 4013
email : surf@bywaterdesign.com.au
website : www.bywaterdesign.com.au
blog : bywaterdesigned.com

Sustainable Surfboards? Meet builder Danny Hess

Surfers are some of the most ardent environmentalists, yet the sport is awash in petrochemicals and carcinogens, from neoprene wetsuits and urethane leashes to polyurethane boards and epoxy. Danny Hess thinks there’s a better way, and he’s made bringing sustainability to surfing his life’s work.

 

  The 37-year-old surfboard shaper is making waves in the $7 billion surfing industry with his adoption of salvaged wood, natural finishes and organic resins. Hess wants to transform how surfboards are made — and how they’re used. His boards are built to last, an anomaly in a sport where surfers might trash a board or two every season.

 

  “What I’m trying to do is build heirloom surfboards that are passed on from father to son over many generations, rather than these disposable things that we’re just consuming,” Hess says. “The idea is that you just buy one and take care of it and hopefully you don’t have to come back and buy another surfboard.” His work as a contractor provided a solid foundation for his work as a surfboard shaper. “One day I had this “aha” moment where I realized I could create these molds, like the ones I was using to bend wood for cabinet doors, for surfboards,” Hess says.

  Wood surfboards are nothing new, of course. Boards have long been made of wood and natural oils, and some surfers have never ridden anything else. But polyurethane has been the standard for half a century, mostly because it is cheaper, lighter and easier to use than wood.
 hesssurfboards.blogspot.com

Read more HERE

The Eddy Sled

Just a quick update on the newest model named The Eddy Sled - 1st prototype is 6'1 by 19' by 1'. It is a parabolic design with tiny red ceder keels and a square tail. It is sealed with linseed oil/gum turpentine and bees wax. The first prototype was built here in Australia and I took her over to Chile to test her out in some long peeling point breaks, unfortunately the surf I had over there was not ideal, but the board still worked really well. To cut a long story short I ended up surfing at Renaca, a heavy, punchy, beach break in central Chile. The Eddy Sled paddled slightly better than a regular alaia, due to the increased buoyancy from the added length width and improved directional control from the mini keels. The real high point however, is the fact that in overhead heavy and hollow waves, this alaia hybrid held in really well. It is still loose enough to pull out a few sliding 360's, but plenty of hold when you need it most. I really loved building and surfing this board and so does her new owner, a Chilean bloke named Edwardo. I'm about to finish off another board very similar to this but with a swallow tail for a slightly snappier feel. Enjoy the photos and any queries just drop me an email. Cheers James - check out Jame's blog for updates : kirisurfcraft.blogspot.com.au

A man who loves his wood.

John Birchim from Santa Barbara is a guy who loves wood and loves his surfing. But he has some great skills with working with wood of all kinds. He builds things very creatively and with flair. Check out his site to see what I mean. Very inspiring.

http://www.jayawave.com/about.htm

A nice tribute

Rick Malwitz of Malwitz Custom Surfboards began in 2004, from a dusty basement in landlocked Philadelphia and was sixty miles from the ocean. In 2006, MCS became Brooklyn-based where he got to know and love the NY coast. He was the only shaper to be working in a dedicated commercial shaping room in Brooklyn and gained plenty of recognition and press. Since then, an emergence of the craft has started to spread through the city with people shaping boards in tiny backrooms and guest bedrooms. Then in 2010, he relocated to South Jersey. Rick like many of us has family who have introduced us to wood working and building things.

Rick sent me this to share as I think it will be relevant to many of us. "Here's a simple tribute to my grandfather. He was a master woodworker who would make me beautiful fin blanks regularly. The day of his funeral I was going through his workshop and found a large bin of precut wood strips planed to size, all his templates, drawings, and clamps. He knew his time was coming soon and had it all ready for me. Pretty awesome."
malwitzsurfboards.com

Never forget the people who have contributed to your journey as you build wooden boards and learn skills that make it possible to build boards you are proud of. Family are special and will be proud of what you achieve. Thanks Rick.

The Munich woody

 Florian Rothmoser has emailed me the following... "I've been following your blog about wooden surfboards for some years now. It's really a great source of inspiration for me. Since a few years I also build wooden surfboards, now I finished number six. Living near Munich in Bavaria, the atlantic ocean is more than 10 hours drive away. But as you probably know, there's a riverwave at the Eisbach in the center of Munich. I build a wooden surfboard especially designed for this wave."

" I use a EPS core, hotwire it to shape and glue 3mm poplar ply on it. On nose and tail I use several layers of birch ply for protection."

" The rails are hollow and made of pinewood. The board is not glassed, only some epoxy to protect it from the water."

Thanks Florian for sharing your great looking board and your river surfing. Very interesting for those of us who have never tried. Check out his blog and other projects. fonasurf.wordpress.com