Marks board

Well it's been a huge amount of time between boards - so busy on the farm and there just didn't seem time.
Thought i'd better get my act together and make a mate (Mark) a new board.
Had a lump of foam that i thought I'd try my beginner foam scraping skills out on....

Parabolic stringer going on ready for the skins to be vac bagged over the top and create that strength.

Skins on - now for all the rail bands, there is now faster setting polyurethane glue - time saver!!

Annnd - POP goes the grain with that first touch of resin. On the last couple of boards i've been using the entropy bio resin - super sap.

 I wanted a bit of colour and have wanted to try a cloth inlay - can now tick it off the list, puinched the fabric off my mother in law, though it quite fish scaly looking

 A few bits of pin lining

 Fins from the helpful fellas at Gearbox surf fin boxes and Hanalei fins Robin Mair in Hawaii and his South African - Aussie counter part Lance Pearson. Cheers guys

And the happy young grommit himself with his new stick

Whew - now i need some surf pics and a report .........

Another Paipo on the go, Thought i'd use up the nice jap ceder planks i had left over from the last board. A 5' paulownia skin i made up ages ago for another board, and a piece of cloth - as i've never done a cloth inlay before.

Also thought I'd have a play with bottom channels, just to see how far the vacuum will pull the timber before it either crushes the foam or splits/cracks the timber. Haven't got there yet, amazing what shapes the vacuum will pull the timber into.

Just thought I'd add some pics of Rod's board and a few shots of the new gearbox fin system and Hanalei fins.

All Done.
Rod's board finished just in time to take to the Waipu fish fry. Was a bit touch and go if I'd make it or not.
Great project, learnt a lot. made a mistake or two. but overall very satisfying. New gearbox finbox system from Hanalei fins was great to use, with excellent help and support from Robin Mair in Hawaii and Lance in Aussie.

Haven't posted anything for an age! Been busy on the farm. I have however made a few bits and pieces.... With Piripi and the rest of his Rawiri clan leaving us for Indonesia for a couple of years I received a few boards - in all different states of repair!  have two nice L44 boards that Piripi broke in half while new. One is repaired and being surfed by Lauren Ambler, the other glued and waiting for some sticky stuff. Another couple have torn out leash plugs and various dings repaired and ready for the Hokianga kids to get out on them. - Will add pics
I now have foam !!!! 
Ready for starting work is a paipo - a 5'8" simmons - and a 6'4" for uncle Rod,
 Sick of his longboard, but struggling with the shortboard, he will shortly have a pretty high volume hydro simmons, 6'4", full concave from nose to tail, hydro type hull.  16mm rail build, 3mm planks top and bottom and a 4 ounce layup in epoxy - the eco sap stuff, forgotten what its called. board set up as quad/thruster - five fin.
Pics have come out funny due to the fish eye camera view, the board is actually quite straight.
timber is  Japanese cedar.

 

Glassed, 2 x 6oz sanded, fill coated, sand and sand and sand - pin lines done. Still a bit crooked but getting better!. Now to drill in and fit the leash plug and do the fin box install.

Waiting for a new blank that i'm hoping will be here in a few days...... Uncle Rods new board, a 6'4" hydro simmons - one of Grant's - cheers dude - again!
Anyway, had a chunk of foam from when i made the last paipo and thought i'd make another. Decided to use the Agave stalk I've had leaning against the shed for the last 12 months, cool stuff but lousy to work. very hard on the outside, and softer than flax stalk inside. all okay when you glue it in, but as soon as you start foiling and exposing the center you have huge sdifferences in density, put that next to the foam and its very gently gently with the sandpaper. pics have come out a bit dark - i'll take some more as progress continues.
little patch up in the crack of that buttcrack i forgot about! 

Well the big Paipo is finished, as par normal when doing anything new i learned a hell of a lot. First mistake was believing what i read on the web that poyfilla is the nz version of what the americans call spackle, a white surfboard filler. I dinged the blank, filled with polyfilla - laminating coat - polyfilla goes brown. Looked like an 80yr old with bad sunspots- ugly. I thought i could do the distressed look art work as a cover up and as i only had black pigment - black it would be. More ugly! Black is a difficult color. And my skills low. I like nice clean boards so it was a tad disappointing, never mind it wont affect its surf-ability just aesthetically not what i wanted.My mates haven't seen it but are calling it my flutter board (little foam board that kids in nz use to learn to swim) No one knows about the poem underneath, can't wait for the abuse - Will be a good laugh. I've ordered a pad for it from Casey at Cove Pads, will hopefully arrive in the next week.

Well decided to do something different..... I've thought about making a bodyboard/paipo for some time, and as well i wanted to try building a board using the "normal" foam and glass method. Looked on the web at a lot of  different boards. Jeff Chamberlains mega platter looked intriguing, its a prone board of  XXX proportions, pretty sure its 6'3" x 29" - a BIG slab of foam. but apparently a great ride, able to make big sections and fast....... got on AKU and decided a rough shape oversized of around 5'4" x 26", didn't really know what i wanted to do so this was just a rough shaped block with no details. Wanted to incorporate Grant Newby's hydro hull and a scooped deck. Didn't get out the power plane (chicken) instead went for the sureform and sandpaper. A word of caution to those not in the know....... do this far from the house as this crap gets everywhere. and you WILL have grief when you bring it inside the house.

Sketched out the basic shape and started slashing and scrubbing away.
While cutting my facets for the hull entry i really like the look of the chine running into the back of the board - so left a long chine down the rail, i really have no idea if this will be an advantage of liability - time will tell....

Going to quad fin it, used Hanalei fin companys quad layout and have fin boxes (probox) and fins coming.
I think i'll glass it in 3 layers of 6oz and epoxy. its stringerless so i'm a tad concerned about strength.

waipu cove fish fry

Had a great day at the waipu cove fish fry, beautiful weather, nice small wave. A heap of people of all ages out enjoying themselves,  from 10' logs through to simmons and paipo - cool

Myself, Grant Newby and Thomas Bauer a timber board builder from the netherlands.

A quick pic of some of the boards

Watched these two very stoked gentleman walk up the beach and had to take a picture, awesome to see