Garage Works - 10/9/2026

This one is getting close to being finished.

I sanded the laps and got two coats of epoxy on the rails.

Tomorrow I'll sand the rails again fairing everything in, and then finish it off with a clear coat.

I should be able to return it on Sunday (or Monday).

That will leave room for me to work on No.45 - a prone/FD foil board that I'll wax the top deck instead of using front foot pads.  It'll have a flat nose and higher tail rocker (similar to No.44 - but cut for prone board dimensions).

Garage Works - 10/8/2026

With all the rain coming down - I was grounded and didn't have distractions.  I've been wanting to get this repair finished.

I got the sand the other rail and cleaned up both rails with acetone (so the epoxy will adhere better).

I also stopped by City Mill and bought some 2" rail tape.

Each rail took 1.4 ounces of mixed epoxy

I'll sand the rails again tomorrow and get a fill coat on.

I should definitely be done with this by this weekend.

I also moved the front bridle lines forward on the BRM S3 5.3, and placed the original harness line back on to the bar.  I didn't take a picture of this.

Lastly I got the Foil Drive mini pod mounted on the Evolution Surf Cedrus mast.  I want to take out the Cabrinha Whippit 850 out tomorrow with the Tweaker 160 rear stabilizer (shimmed more positive to see if I can get a little more "grip" out of the stabilizer.

Rainy days are productive days -

Garage Works - 10/2/2026

Got the bottom fills covered with fiberglass patches

I'll start working on the rails next.

Looks like this board was put through the wringer...

Garage Works - 9/30/2026

I am fighting the flu right now, and the surf seems to be jumbled up from Hurricane Nolo - so what better time than now to fix more dings.

This is Rich and Staci's 10' SUP.  The movers put a bunch of holes in it and they asked me to fix it.

I had recently finished fixing their surfboard (the seafoam one prior to this) - and this one was out drying (it seemed heavy - but I couldn't tell if it was the board or water inside).  After drying while the seafoam surfboard was being fixed, this one did seem to get lighter.

I sanded the spots that needed to be addressed.

Today (since it was a rest day again for me - three days in a row), I went ahead and placed colored fill into the spots that were opened.

These will get a light sanding and I'll place fiberglass patches over these and the rest (that didn't need fill).

Gotta get this one done because it is big and is taking up a lot of room in the garage.

Garage Works - 9/26/2026

This was a rush repair order - the seam opened up on Prayot on Friday afternoon

I had to wipe the saltwater off and dry it

But it held up to Hurricane Nolo today at Kailua!

And this evening I went ahead and got the fiberglass patches on this ding repair order.

I'll sand this one tomorrow and get started on the SUP board repair

Garage Works - 9/18/2026

The garage is getting full...

Prayot dropped off two of his three parawings to have the canopies sewn up.

And I got the fill epoxy on the dings on this board repair.

The tail had two - the leash did not have a rail saver on it.

There was an open ding here.

The port rail gets a lot of love.

And these two were up by the nose.

I'll sand these down tomorrow and get fiberglass on top of them.

This board's bigger brother is sitting outside drying out (it is heavy with water inside I think).

Garage Works - 8/18/2026

The wind seemed to be up and down - so I opted to work in the garage this afternoon.

I got the sanding done on No.44 - from 40 all the way to 400

Bottom deck

Top deck

I found a tiny weak spot (under the blue tape).  I'll drops some epoxy in it tonight so tomorrow I can spray clear coat.

I also worked on the mast repair for Stu (now Norm).

I'll sand this and get it over to Norm before the weekend.

Garage Works - 8/16/2026 - Mast Repair

And since I was working with epoxy, I figured I should try and get this mast fixed for Stu (who traded it to Norm).

The goal was the fill the gap in the front side of the mast foot (so it has a tighter fit on the front side).

Mold release on my fuselage -

And tape to keep the epoxy fill off the fuselage.

Here is the mast with the epoxy hardening.

And the fill in place.

Now I just have to trim the excess off and fair the top side in - hydrodynamics!

Garage Works - 8/16/2026 - No.44

Hurricane Lala (yes that makes La and I giggle) was throwing it all at Oahu today.  I got up early this morning to the sound of wind and rain.

With all that churn, I knew the beaches would be either pretty mucked up or outright closed.  I figured it would be a great time to get work done on No.44 

It took a couple of hours, but I got the rough sanding done on the fill coats - both top and bottom.

Slow and steady always wins the race (when sanding boards).

I rinsed the board down, dried it back up and wiped the areas where the logo decals would be placed with alcohol.

Here are the bottom decals in place.

And here is the last epoxy fill coat on the bottom deck.  7.5 ounces of resin and 3.0 ounces of hardener (fast). 

And this is the top deck with its final clear fill coat - 5.5 ounces resin and 2.2 ounces hardener (fast).

In both instances I had placed extra epoxy over the decal areas to build up extra for sanding.

This is the angle where you can see the most difference from No.34 - more nose rocker (since this came from a blank from Fiberglass Hawaii), and more tail rocker.  Also I minimized the "v" in the nose - going more surfboard "flat".

If I skip out on beach time tomorrow, I may be able to finish the sanding and get the plugs installed.  That would leave plug sanding and clear coat for Tuesday, deck grip on Wednesday - and anointment on Thursday or Friday (if there is wind....)

I may actually fly out with No.34 without having done a direct back-to-back comparison between these two boards.

Edit - I figured I had an hour before I needed to go to sleep.  And If I got the plugs in today, that'll put me a day ahead and just maybe (if the wind cooperates) I'll get a session in to do a back-to-back test with No.34

Vent plug hole drilled out

Leash plug hole drilled out.

And I used 0.4 ounces of resin and 0.16 ounces of hardener to make the milled fiber slurry to set these two plugs in place.

Here's the vent plug set.

And the leash plug under epoxy.

I didn't see any air bubbles so these should be good to go.

So tomorrow is sanding and spraying the clear coat on.  Tuesday will be deck pads and drill the vent hole.  Wednesday is wait for wind.

Garage Works - 8/11/2026

La and Marlon were not home when I arrived.

So I got to work in the garage and got the fill coat on the top deck of No.44

First coat was 9 ounces resin and 3.6 ounces of hardener (fast).

Second coat was 10 ounces resin and 4 ounces of hardener (again fast).

Next up is sanding... I may just sand where the logo decals are gonna go, get those on and coat with clear epoxy.  Then save the bulk sanding for this weekend (when Hurricane "Lala" comes to town).

Garage Works - 8/6/2026

After an awesome dinner La made - I got some time in the garage.

I got two fill coats on to the bottom deck of No.44

This will harden overnight, and then I'll get the top deck done tomorrow.

This leaves sanding top and bottom on Saturday, placing the logo decals, then one last fill coat to even things out more and to protect the logo decals.

That leaves the opposing deck fill coat early Sunday, followed by drilling out the holes for any inserts.

I'm thinking about placing four leash plugs up front on the top deck so I can bungee some stuff up there - like maybe the spare parawing.

Anyways - lots more epoxy to be placed... and more sanding.

Garage Works - 8/5/2026

I skipped out on surfing again today.  I wanted to get further along on No.44.

I sanded the laps from the top deck lamination

And prepped the board for a fill coat.  But when I went looking for it, I didn't have any international orange pigment.  I stopped at this prep point.

I'll grab some pigment tomorrow and I'll try to get a fill coat on when I get home (then go foiling), and maybe a second coat before I go to sleep.

I'm not going to get this board to a point where I can get it wet this weekend - and the next wind window will likely be the following weekend - so I can slow down and focus on getting things perfect.

Garage Works - 8/4/2026

I got off work later than usual - so by the time I got to the beach the waves were pretty drowned out by the high tide.

I decided to cut my losses and head back home to work on No.44

I sanded the lap -

Then got the top deck reinforcement layers set up - two layers of innegra, and one layer of carbo

Then I got the top sheet of carbon placed and trimmed.

Break time - and cooked dinner.

Then 18.9 ounces of epoxy (split fast and slow hardener) to get the top deck wetted out, and another 2.8 + 4.2 ounces to get the laps and the rail wetted out.

There is a spot where the bottom deck rail wrap did not seem to adhere.  That is under the weight you see in the picture.  If it doesn't stay down, I'll cut that spot out and epoxy down a patch.

The rest of the laminate looks to have behaved nicely!

It is only Tuesday and I've gotten through the lamination.  I could do a fill coat tomorrow, the opposite deck fill coat Thursday, get a bunch of sanding done Friday while getting the labels situated and the final fill coat on one side.  Saturday would see the other final fill coat and the plugs.

So despite what I feel is faster accomplishment of activity to get No.44 in the water, I still won't have enough time to let the epoxy harden the way I prefer and 24 hours for the deck pads to set.

I think it'll be a week from now before the anointment -