Miguel Aragao is a passionate wooden board builder

 " Hello "wooden" surf dreamers
An old friend came to me demanding a wooden surfboard for a Christmas present to his lady. He would like to start her on this activitys of surf."

" And after an "abracadabra"(should be a Santa Claus hohoho) a malibu, 7`1`` singlefin came to live. The "ForFun"(course it has a name!) is a beginers good padler & easy takeoff, but at the same time it has all the features to ride with performance in a big range of wave conditions and sizes. "

 "All my friends were like... "A singlefin for starting to surf?!".  Yes, a singlefin! And why the hell not?! In my idea is the simplest and easier configuration for gaining speed and power, in a turn, just by leaning on rail. No need of a pivotal body moves around like on "thrusters" or with "stabilisers"(am I right?)."

" The fin is made of oak, a very well dried oak I got from some old drawers. The rail go from roundfat in the front midle to well balanced downsmooth edgy in the tail. On the bottomside you can find a rollvee going softly from the front third to more foreshadowed(???) in the back(tail)."

" This `board is a "step up" on size and on the finishing quality of my agave projects, I think I`m getting the hand of the fiberglass job in such wood cores.
Ok,ok... Enough talk!
Have fun!"
                                Miguel  (miguelaragao@live.com.pt)

Christmas wood

 These are a couple of boards that I started in the lead up to Christmas and finished over the break.

 They are all Paulownia vacuum bagged over polystyrene and finished in lanolin

 This pintail is 9ft 6" x 23 1/2" x 3 1/2" - with a 6mm thick deck skin and 4mm on the bottom. the only resin is holding the fin box in.

 It came out pretty nice and I have another one to start.

2 x 5ft x 22 1/2" x 2 3/4" @ 40 litres -  2 x 4ft 8" x 22" x 2 1/2" @ 34 litres and 1 x 4ft 4" x 22" x 2 1/4" @ 26 litres

Andy Longs Flinders Pig

Andy Long is from Flinders in Victoria and got hold of me to help him with a board. He wanted to build a hollow wooden board but I talked him round to building one vacuum bagged over styrene. So I bagged the top and bottom skins on for him and sent him the timber ready to laminate the rails himself. Then some templates to help shape the rails. This is the result ...

Andy adding the first rail bands to the board.

 He wanted it to be a little piggy and it looks great.

  " Bit of a test, but with the info you gave me, took my time & really happy with result. I do like the old boards so decided to glass this one ( covers up my stuff ups, gives it some weight for glide & hopefully protects her from the local reefs to)  with poly which really brings out the beauty in the timber. Dan & Choc Oke from Oke surfboards did the glasswork, finbox & shine. Fin from Byron's Wizz. Bit timid about putting wax on her, but dying to have a wave."

"The other board is a timber  kookbox with rails & fin, I rescued from the dumpmaster. Guy throwing it says his uncle made it in the late 50's & used it on the local beaches @ Flinders, Pt Leo & Shoreham. Been stored under the family holiday house since the 70/80's. Fair bit of work to bring her back, but she's come up a treat. Thanks again for your assistance & guidance. Really happy with the result & will give you a ride report when she gets wet."

Nice job Andy, I am sure you will have some sweet waves on her.

Tasmainia :the birthplace of Australian surfing

Mark Burgin sent me this story to pass on as it is an interesting piece to share.

Tasmania may well be the first home of surfing in Australia. The common theory is that surfing started at Freshwater Beach in Sydney with the arrival of Duke Kahanamoku and his exhibition of surfing during the summer of 1915. My grandfather was among the many people who went to watch the Duke surf after his much publicised arrival from Hawaii. A recent interview with David Montgomery (my chiropractor!) revealed that there were Australian surfers out in the water when the Duke gave his demonstration. Not to say that the Duke wasn't a big influence on surfing in Australia but it appears he was not the first to surf in Australia.
American whaling ships were turning up in Hobart for provisions from the very early days of the colony. Many early convicts’ only chance of leaving the colony was aboard an American whaler, whose crews were very sympathetic to their plight. Whaling ships were always short of crew as the work was extremely hard in very trying conditions and they were often at sea for up to five years. Mostly the crew were under twenty-five as the work was so tough anyone older could rarely keep up the pace of sailing the tall ship, chasing the whales in rowing boats and then processing the carcasses into oil.
Whaling ships were the space ships of their day, exploring areas of the world that no westerner had ever seen, in their relentless pursuit of whales for their precious oil. These ships stopped at many islands well before the missionaries brought their message and the custom of wearing clothes.
One of the first stops for whaling ships out of America was Hawaii. One of the activities that the young crew participated in was surfing. Surfing was a common recreation in the Hawaiian Islands with both men and women participating, usually with out wearing clothes! It is easy to see why crew though this was a good sport to get into, with girls riding the waves.
Early Hawaiian body boards were called "paipo", were only around 5' long and were made of solid wood. There are reports of surfing in Hawaii from the early 1830’s, about the same time that whalers were arriving in Hobart. There is probably little doubt that whaler crews would have carried boards with them when they arrived in Hobart. Bellerive beach was close to the anchorage, and has a long history of surfing. So it seems there was surfing in Tasmania from very early days.
Huon pine was used to build early surfboards in Hobart by Risby brothers. Risby brothers were a milling company established in 1844 and soon moved into hardware and shipbuilding. The time they started to make surfboards is unclear, but the model owned by David Montgomery dates from around 1930, when they were being advertised in the Mercury. David said the elderly gentleman he bought the board from in 1997 told him it belonged to his grandfather, which gives some substance to the early reports.
Whilst it is not certain where the Huon pine was sourced it is a good bet to say it came from the Huon Valley. The Maritime Museum in Hobart is holding an exhibition soon of early surfing equipment and the board from Risby brothers will be on display.

 This is the Rigby board  3ft 6" long x 13 1/2" inches wide x 5/8" thick with 3" of nose lift and note the little Rigsby Bros bronze name plate on the deck.

There is also an interesting connection between Hawaii and Franklin (Tasmania) from very early days.Lady Jane Franklin was a regular visitor to Hawaii, perhaps when her husband John Franklin was off trying to discover the North West passage.
Lady Franklin was a guest of Queen Liliuokalani at the royal palace in Honolulu on Oahu in the late 1800's, before the annexation by battleship of Hawaii by America in 1898.
 Lady Franklin assisted the queen in designing the Hawaiian flag. The Hawaiian flag is the only state flag in the U.S. to have the union jack as part of the design. Did the remarkable Lady Franklin play some part in its presence in their flag? We will probably never know.

Busy Break for me

I hope everyone has had a good break and have arrive back at work safely to face the New Year. I have been busy building wooden boards over the holidays. Here are 4 mini simmons and a 9ft 6" pintail all in getting their fin boxes fitted by Peter "Mo" before I embark on final shaping the rails and finish sanding them. I have another 2 simmons nearly ready for fins as well.

 This is a 4ft 4" x 22" x 2 1/4" simmons I finished for Raz just before Christmas. I is a step down from the 4ft 8" he had.

 The ones I have on the go are 4ft 8" and 5ft simmons of the same design as this one. All of them are unglassed and finished with Lanolin.

Happy New Year from the Gold Coast

Happy New Year to all of you that have supported the Wooden Board Day and my blog. Close to 600,000 pages viewed now. Thanks guys and look forward to seeing you and your boards in August 2013

Paddle out for Chris Walton

 Today Friday 28th Dec we had a paddle out at Currumbin Alley for local surfer Chris Walton. Chris was unfortunately critically injured in a freak accident when a verandah over the street front of a number of shops in James Street Burleigh Heads came crashing down. Just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Chris was the developer and master mind behind the Currumbin Eco Village up the valley from the Alley where he was a regular early morning surfer. He was the most passionate man you could ever meet , the Eco village was his life and life's work. It was with his support that I organised the wooden board building class conducted by Paul Jensen to launch the Wooden Board days in August 2009. The class was held in the recycling centre at the Eco Village. Chris was also a client at work as we did his advertising for the Eco Village.

Chris and I at the Eco Village 2009

 Herold from Japan and Paul Jensen

 Classes in full swing

 Jesse Watson from Black Apache Surfboards

Chris was a good guy taken too soon , survived by his wife Kerry and son Fin.

Thanks mate for all your support.

Boards need names ?

 Toby surfed this little 4ft 8" simmons at the Byron Bay Surf Festival and just had to have it. He picked it up from me last week after I finished the 4ft 4" for Raz to replace this one. Toby said it was so good to ride this board that has named it "Morning Wood"

  "Been surfing the board heaps and love it man, attached a crappy pic of a mushy day, but so stoked- the thing makes me smile....YEW!  'best morning wood I've ever had....ha'."

 

 This is Raz's 4ft 4" x 22" x 2 1/4" that I built him to replace the 4ft 8" above.

 Raz has called this the "Micro Chip"

Unglassed Paulownia finished in Lanolin ( the waterproof grease from sheep's wool)

Merry Christmas

Grain on show

Fozzy's first board

David "Fozzy" Fosbinder lives in San Diego and has just shaped his first Paipo out of Balsa. He is not sure yet what to finish it in , but I would suggest glassing it as Balsa is prone to suck in water and so you really need to seal it up tight. And with its soft nature a good hard coat would be best rather than varnish or most other things. It will then last and take a few knocks. Looks like fun. Go Fozzy.

Grain at the Surfing Heritage Foundation

Grain Surfboards brings NEW 4-day surfboard building class to Surfing Heritage Foundation in San Clemente, CA   

Just imagine it, six people building boards with their own two hands surrounded by the complete history of surfing told through shapes; guns and toothpicks, alaias, noseriders, thrusters, kneeboards and more.

On February 6th through the 9th, Grain Surfboards will be setting up a West Coast classroom smack dab in the middle of the Surfing Heritage Foundation- one of surfing's most treasured collections of history.

Curator and Creative Director Barry Haun: "We have not done anything like this before in the space. We're very stoked to be able to host this here and look forward to documenting the class to share with our followers."

Grain's unique construction style makes it possible for every surfer to build something just as functional and beautiful as the classic boards that will surround them as they work.  The class includes the full course of instruction, use of tools, all the supplies and materials and two meals a day.  Each student walks away \with their own wood board ready-to-glass and a free membership to the Surfing Heritage Foundation.

" We're doing alot to help surfers get the chance to build their own - our new 4 day class format allows people to take just a few days off from work, and setting up a moveable shop close to where people are saves the expense of coming to all the way to Maine.  We are so honored for this opportunity to work within the walls of SHF," said Mike LaVecchia, Grain Surfboards co-owner.

The class is only open to six students - spots fill up quickly. Registration is currently open.

Click here to find out more on the classes
Click here for more information about the Surfing Heritage Foundation

Wooden boards Vancouver Island

www.wefisurfboards.com

Tree to sea ...

An original Bob Simmons in Victoria

The real deal out for the day -  shot from Scott Wintle

Wooden board classes for Chile

Paul Reisberg in Cornwall in the UK arbosurfboards.blogspot.com.au would like to let you know that " from end of November until early February I will be traveling and surfing in Chile. if there are any wooden board builders from Chile I would be happy to connect with them. I can't bring any tools or material with me but if anyone in Chile is keen to organise wood and glues I am definitely up for building a board or two whilst i'm there."

 Paul uses the Tree to Sea method of building boards for his classes and this is a selection of boards built in recent classes. So if you are interested in a class with him while in Chile this is a great opportunity to learn from a great teacher and accomplished board builder.

arbosurfboards.blogspot.com

Back to basics where it all started.

 Torsten Kofler from Brisbane recently did a surf trip with a group of mates to Tupira Mira Surf Club just north of Madang in PNG." During our stay we visited a village just south of Tupira called Tavulte to surf a left hand point break where we met up with the local groms who surfed homemade Paipos carved out of tree trunks. Here’s some photos. The kids were having a ball surfing these wooden boards on their bellies.

 These surfing shots are by Ben Millington from an article he wrote in Niugini Blue. " The locals on Kairuru island about a  two hour boat ride from Wewak on the northern coast of PNG carve their own solid wooden boards out of trees from the local bush."

 Maybe the Hawaiians weren't the first to surf ?

 Some of these kids had never seen a white man surf.

" By the way, the surf at Tupira Mira was some of the best I’ve ever experienced. For 3 days, the surf was head high and above and for the remaining 3 days it was chest to head high. There were only 5 of us surfing so crowds weren’t an issue. The locals gave us right of way on the waves and even hooted us onto some. Awesome."