Havent posted for a while -but have been busy building my first hollow wooden board in my spare time . My first board has come in a bit heavier then I would have liked ( about 8 kg for a 5 ft 8 board ) , and have had nightmares getting resin to dry in the wet / cold weather down here , but she is almost done. Anyone else building there own . Have found a source of King Billy Pine I reckon will greatly reduce the weight on the next one .Used a bit too much tassie oak in this one , looks good but heavy .
You might like to check out some of Andy Wallace's handywork. Fine craftsman and top surfer (bugger keeps beating me in the mal comps).
www.freedomsurfboards.com/
www.instagram.com/andy_freedomsurfboards
Some nice ones there mate,I didn't know he was around there.A guy here makes Paulownia timber boards!...
Oh and I'm back in the water againAnother needle tomorrow
Some really nice boards there Stuk thanks for that . Have yet to go down the paulownia timber path , mine at this stage are all made with timber scraps laying around . Have found coming home after work and ripping into a board with a planer / sander is a great de-stress when there is no surf around . Have 4 boards , 3 chambered and the 1 hollow all in various stages of build at the moment . Here are some pics of the hollow build so far - lots of hours in these . Would love to know if anyone has had a crack at a foam core wooden board - thinking that will be the next project . Hoping they surf okay but if not we always need extra firewood they should burn pretty good
And this one is a pic of what happens when resin with uv catalyst is taking days to dry due to moisture / low temp in mid tassie winter and is left out in the rain . .
nice one mate - keep it up.
I would have thought Tassie oak would be pretty heavy hey??
king billy would be great but I think in Tassie if you can get some celery top pine - would probably be the lightest you would get.
paulownia in Tassie would be pretty hard to find I would think.
Yep tassie oak is heavy - had a heap of offcuts in the shed and I love the colour so used them up . This one is every third strip tassie oak / Pine ( timber pallets )/ red cedar , which seemed okay but then used tassie oak in the nose block which really cranked the weight up . Haven't thought of celery Pine , will chase it up . We have used a bit of makrikarpa Pine in chambered boards , once again bit heavy .This one is a chambered Makrikarpa Pine board my son has made - in the line to be fibreglassed when the weather warms up .
hi Tassie, tony has made a few hollow boards, the big problem is they can blow up and split the seams if left in the heat and then suck in the water
sure he can give you a few pointers.
cheers
Dave
Thanks SP , have really enjoyed this board - even though it is yet to get wet . He is another pic of a wooden board owned by a mate of mine . These were known as okanui boards and were built in the 60s when apparently there was a shortage of balsa wood . My mate can remember this one being surfed in town back in the 70s . Surprisingly shirt for that era - think it's around the 7 foot Mark
My Father did a pattern making apprenticeship in the late 50's in Melbourne. He made a few boards he called Okanui's for some clubbies down in Port Phillip Bay. He said they were based on the shape of the boards the Yanks brought out for the Melb Olympics.
Story goes they got pinched from the Clubbie shed.
He was never a surfer just liked to make stuff from wood, I grew up in the bush with what today would be called a SUP made of timber, lasted for years paddling around the dams
Wish I still had it or one of the okanui's he made.
Tassie, that one looks in surprising good nick.
Wonder where the boards your dad made ended up GWatto. Talking to a professional board restorer the okanuis are pretty rare these days . Reckon this one has been hanging in the shed it's in for at least the last 10 years .
Had an experience with stolen vintage boards last year . Bought a board from this bloke that told me he had purchased the board new in the mid 70 s . Board arrived so I cleaned it up and sent a pic to the shaper ( very well known shaper from Sydney area in that era ) . Anyway the true story came out -board was a one off and had disapeared after being left in a motel room at the NSW state titles 1988 . Had not been seen since until I bought it last year .
Yep Dave can't claim credit for the board rack - son is a carpenter built it for me last Christmas .
Plan has changed - always was my plan to surf it till it died but local craft shop wants to sell it on commission and at the moment would be nice to offload a few more boards - decisions
you blokes getting any waves - been flat here for weeks - easterly change Monday - finally ( over the southwesterlys )
That the board show next weekend Andy ? would love to go and take my Terry Horton fresh juice along - apparently it's a Terry Horton tribute this year . Unfortunately the wife has booked me into a conference in Launceston same weekend - because the Halloween after party looked like fun . So instead of checking out boards , drink , food will be sitting in a lecture theatre - almost guarantee the surf will be pumping as well .
I'd love a wooden board I couldn't surf such a piece of art it would need to go on a wall they are beautiful