The modern Hot Curl by Roger Hall

Build it from scrap

Experiment No. 3 - Scrap Surf from Shwood Eyewear on Vimeo.

Foam and wood

 New Zealand shaper Roger Hall is a master at whatever he puts his hand to. His current passion is revisiting the Hot Curl model and ramping it up with more than a modern twist.

 These boards are finless and the wood adds the weight to help hold the tail into the power of the wave.

 As you can see it is a pretty solid lump of wood , but not just one piece. Roger loves to laminate and mix up the timbers he uses.

 Not only is it very hard to work with wood and foam together due to the differences in densities but he has so many different timbers that vary as well to make it even harder. And this is all hanging off the end of the foam. A true test of anyones skills. But as you can see not only is it a great design with the flowing lines of the board enhanced by the beautiful timber.

 Hands of the master.

 Form and function

 Who do you know that would cut and glue up 7 stringers and foam like this. I have seen him do 13.

Great shots from Mike C. Lets hope Roger can make it to the Wooden board day this year.

Mixing it up.

 From James at : kirisurfcraft.blogspot.com.au   " Here is my latest board - I've called it the Flounder.

The Flounder is one strange fish. Should be a blast to ride though.

The Flounder is inspired by Tom and John Wegener. It is a combination of my parabolic alaia, my traditional alaia and mini simmons hybrid. Here is the Flounder and its cousin the Alaia Hybrid. Both about to be branded and oiled."

Looks like some interesting craft with lots going on and great to see James experimenting. Will wait to hear how they go. Alaia's are not easy to ride and this is surely mixing it up. Nice one James.

Berlin build by Jan Dressler

 This is a board that Jan Dressler built in his apartment in the middle of Berlin. This is a wave SUP that is Paulownia vacuum bagged over EPS and lanolin finish. " This July the board will travel with me to Sylt a small island on the boarder of Germany and Denmark. "

" Here you can see a slight sort of dent in the rail. This happened very early when I was trying to get a clean outline out of a vertically glued up blank. As I hadn't found a supplier for 3000mm plus EPS blanks of the right density I glued up 1000x500x100mm pieces. The naturally harder glue lines crossing the foam  outline made impossible for me to keep it flawless while shaping."

 "Here's another example in the very tail section. (Pls note the Elu planer. It is a marvelous alternative to the notorious Skill 100 for much less money and 240V. Similarly rare though."

 Bagging the deck.

 Nice touch with a small ebony tail block

" Grant please meet Anita. She's my first one and designed as a paddleable blend between a flatwater cruiser, a floating taning plattform and a '65 Riva Super Florida. The hollow non laminated Strip and Feather construction is quite leaky but everybody loves her.

Jan and I had been in touch on and off throughout last year and at Christmas he came out to Australia with his wife and twin 5 year old boys. They travelled from Melbourne to the Gold Coast in a camper van. I met up with them for a day surfing in Byron Bay and then they stayed with us here on the Gold Coast before heading out of Australia. Jan works in the film and television industry and loves his surfing.

Jame's 6ft 6" simmons

 James Mason from Adelaide South Australia got hold of me a while ago to see if I could help him with a board. So I designed him a 6ft 6" simmons and got it hot wired out of VH EPS for him. Then I glued the first rail band on and had the board cut on the AKU machine. Packed it up and sent it to him. James then vacuumed the skins on and laminated the rails before shaping them.

This is the result. A great looking board for a big guy to have fun on.

"Got it in the water this morning ,very surprised at how easy it was to catch waves on a board that is nearly three feet shorter than anything else I have ridden.
The biggest surprise of all was that I could get up and turn the bloody thing! I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to ride it at all."

6ft 6" x 24" x 3"  62 lt

Plenty to look at...

Hi guys,
 sorry I haven't been posting as much as I sometimes do, but have been busy with work. But there are  plenty of pages to sift through before this one. Thanks for all your interest and support. If you have a project or a something to share send it to me.

Busy man

 Geoff Moase from Dovetail Wooden Surfboards here on the Gold Coast has busy building a new range of boards.

 Geoff is also our go to man for Paulownia here on the Gold Coast. He can mill it to what ever you need to build a board. As you can see he knows his stuff and can guide you with his experience.

 This is his son Jack a keen surfer as well as learning the trade.

dovetailwoodensurfboards.blogspot.com

http://paulowniatimbersales.com.au/

A man ahead of his time

Tasmanian surfing history on display

"Using boards, clothing, contemporary accounts from newspapers and those who were there making it happen, as well as some awesome photographs, HOME MADE - Surfing in Tasmania seeks to understand Tasmania's contribution to surfing culture and also what makes surfing the islands unique and special. As well as showing off some beautiful surfboards!"

" Boards on display vary from a nine foot six inch long monster called 'The Gun', used by professional Tasmanian surfer Shaun Wallbank to surf Tasmania's biggest waves, to Margerie Thompson's board, made in 1925 from an old cedar table by E Harvie Thompson and used for bodyboarding at Clifton Beach for forty years until the 1960s.
The collection of boards shows the evolution of surfing. Small, home made boards from the 1920s were taken to beach parties and picnics and ridden prone, straight to shore. Tasmania's attraction for modern day surfers from around the world is shown through longboards used to surf some of the world's biggest waves.
Many early boards were homemade, in backyards or even near the beach itself, but the exhibition shows how commercial interests were quick to catch on to Tasmanian's enthusiasm for surfing with timber companies in Hobart and Launceston producing boards from the 1920s onwards.
Materials, too, have changed. the simple sheets of wood with, perhaps, a steamed nose and battens for stength of the early belly boards were replaced in the 1950s by the 'Okinui' style boards of shaped wood on which the surfer could stand, introducing the shapes and styles of boards and surfing we recognise today.
In the sixties and seventies the mood was for modern, man-made materials and the exhibition includes boards made from polystyrene and fibreglass form Tasmanian firms such as Turn, Tern, Fresh Juice, Milch, Osprey and Stranger. A return to traditional materials is shown by examples of hollow-framed timber boards made in the last few years and including traditional Tasmanian boat building timbers, such has King Billy pine and Celery Top pine.
As boards and the sstyle of surfing changed, so did the culture around it. The beach shack culture of picnics and days on the beach for families and groups of friends of both sexes for the relatively well off of the 1920s developed after the war with the emergence of the competitative, disciplined, exclusively male Surf Lifesaving clubs. By the sixties, surfing was appealing to a younger generation rebelling against the discipline and conformity of the post war years and these young surfers sought out new beaches and breaks, often driving for hours or trekking through the bush for miles in search of breaks that would be nicknamed - Fluffies, Horries Flobnobs, Rubbish Dump - to preserve the secrecy of their location."

" The exhibition includes examples of early beachwear; woollen swimsuits, football shirts and board shorts. Early wetsuits were also exclusively male, with the girls having to make do with ill-fitting wetsuits unaccustomed to their shape. We don't have an early wetsuit in the exhibition. But we'd love one, so if there is an old, mouldy, snagged or even torn, wetsuit hanging around in the back of your garage or shack, please do let us know!"

 http://www.maritimetas.org/

Byron Bay Surf Festival 2012