Wooden Surfboard Project, Winter 2010-11: April 2011

I'm a guy outside Chicago who spends a few weeks a year in San Diego surfing, am an ok surfer but have never shaped, don't have cabinet-makers skills, and have no nearby surfboard shops to go into to ask advice . . . the last one whose first project should be building a hollow wooden board. I tried it nonetheless and now that I'm done it was awesome. My understanding of board features, characteristics and trade-offs as well as my appreciation for those who actually know how to do this has skyrocketed.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Glassing update

Spoke with Moonlight Glassing last week. Since I won't be in town again until late May, they're doing exactly what they indicated they'd do, i.e., taking their time so that the resin cures correctly. They were routing and placing the center fin box and then it'll go to final glassing and polishing. I'll beg them for pics.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Another !@#$-up

so, it's my first time. Apparently, the care I took in placing wood blocks for the side fin boxes was not well informed. Moonlight hit air when drilling to set the side boxes - a thin slice of moon-shaped air. Next time, I'll get more of a tutorial on the router path for FCS fin boxes - or I'll do glass-ons.
Wasn't able to pick up the board before leaving San Diego on Saturday. Will see if Moonlight will send pics of the final look. I can't get out there again until late May.

Have started to plan the next one, however. Am thinking I'll step up the technical difficulty with a bonzer fish. Not sure if I can pull it off, but am thinking through how to construct something resembling a Campbell Bros Octafish, single to double channels, bonzer fins, and wing included.