Garage Works - 1/21/2026

I didn't hit the beach today - now that I've gotten some work done on the new board, I'm inclined to get this one over the finish line.

Plus in my mind the waves were going to be small.

I got the cover sheet of basalt placed on No.43

All trimmed and ready for epoxy

The cuts in the cloth are not aligned to the cuts from the bottom deck lamination.

I made relief cuts on the longitudinal side of the foot strap inserts.

15.4 ounces of epoxy - this lamination is super tight!!!

Front foot area

Rear foot area

Really tight!!!

I'm thinking I've got 5 days of work left on this board.

Garage Works - 1/20/2026

Got the laps from the bottom laminate sanded flush

I'll be pigmenting the fill coats so lap lines don't really matter

And I got the foot strap inserts epoxied in.

I took the scrap carbon I had from the last builds and placed patches down to stiffen up the areas expected to take the brunt of jumping.  I also placed innegra where my feet and heels will be spending the most time.

I had to cook dinner so I'll defer adding the top basalt cover laminate, trimming and laminating until tomorrow.

The loose "rectangle" pattern in carbon is to try and get the stiffness more or less symmetrical over the board.  Again - with pigmented fill coats, none of this frankenstein assembly will show - and it is a good way to make use of prior laminate excess to maximize material usage.

Garage Works - 6/28/2025

And also from yesterday - I spent some time in the garage trying to get No.41 over the finish line.

After remembering I had a trench in this board, I looked to see if the area I cut to place the back foot strap was clear of the trench - NOPE.

That made my decision to fill and patch easy - so no foot strap inserts on No.41 

After thinking about the repair, I figured it was easiest just to fill with milled fibers/epoxy, then add carbon patches above the cut areas.

And here it is all patched and waiting for the epoxy to harden. 

I had already pulled the peel ply and added the fill coat last night, and this morning I sanded and sprayed clear coat - but that's for another post.

Garage Works - 6/17/2025

And after the foiling session, cooking dinner and cleaning up a bit, I got a bit of time in the garage.

First up was an emergency ding repair for Rick.  This board fell out of its spot in his board rack.

Here's the nose ding all sanded and opened - ready for fill.

And I sanded the entire surface of No.41.

Here's the bottom.

Here's the top.

Here's the rear.

I found two spots that needed fill and a patch - so I took care of those this evening.  Fill on the right corner... and I didn't take a picture, but there is a patch towards the nose on the top deck.

And here is the nose job fill on Rick's board.

More sanding and filling in the immediate future for me.

Garage Works - July 9, 2024

I had a never-ending meeting this afternoon at work.  That coupled with contending with late afternoon west bound Oahu traffic and today was a 13 hour work day.

After I got home and settled, I hit the garage to sand the fill jobs, trimmed up some patch material and set about getting the patches epoxied into place.

This is the nose ding repair for Zach

And this is Zach's KT Drifter bottom deck ding repair

This is Marvin's new Majek-Appletree C@$h board signal transmission windows installation - this one being on the top deck

And this one on the bottom deck.

And this is the last fill coat for Prayot's AFS Pure 900 wing tip rebuild.

I'll sand and spray these tomorrow and they can go back to their respective owners.

Random Pictures from a Random Surfer's Journal

I took a break after lunch - we went back to Patagonia and I sat on their couch and browsed through a Surfer's Journal.  Cool pictures abound -

I love the surf culture and how prevalent it is everywhere you look up here.  Oh, and the shop had these cool patches.

La got the Whale Shark one for me!