Final Steps towards the New Surfcraft

The weather is getting colder...

So there is more time to get these two new mini sleds dialed in. I'll be cutting the strap slots and drilling out the T nut holes tomorrow. After that, a little epoxy, some curing time and I'll be waiting for the Spring thaw.

Number Two Done

I got in the mood to continue carving out the kickboard.

The rails turned out sweet!!! 50-50 fading into a hard downturn edge.

I put a pretty significant (relative to the proportion of the board) concave in and it balanced out well with the rest of the volume distribution.

This thing turned out better than I had conceived. Now I have to go back to the handplane and fix it (a lot rougher compared to how I finished this kickboard - a sharp mini block plane, another couple of hours of elbow grease and it'll clean up nicely). Next will be strap placement and polyurethane coats. I've got time - the water temps are about as cold as they'll be this season... it would be nicer to test these when I'm not having to wear a 4/3 suit with all the additives (booties, hood, gloves) - but well see if I wait for Spring or not. Productive shaping day!

Number Two Underway

I did some bulk removal today trying to get the foil in place. Probably got 50% done today. In case you were wondering - just a block plane, a microplane and elbow grease are being used to shape this (and a jig saw). I already bought the hardware (1/4" x 20 bolts, 1/4" lock and plain washers and T nuts all in stainless steel or zinc) from Home Depot. I've got several old windsurfing straps that will get to see action pulling duty as hand holds on this. Carving the kickboard out, I could imagine taking a drop with this... should be AWESOME!!!!

Back to Work

Not "work" as in "bringing home the bacon", but work as in labor of love -

Here are the kickboard and the handplane templated out.

A bit on the unconventional side and not as aesthetically pleasing as they could be, but ultimately paying tribute to the ubiquitous lunch tray and the simmons plan shape.

Lindsay Lord Two-Handed Plane

As I am writing, the snow is coming down and we are enjoying a slow Saturday at home. I looked at the weather forecasts last night and started to recalibrate any plans for going flyfishing at Kent Narrows, bike riding or other temperature/weather dependent activities. Before settling in, I brought in the back half of the paulownia alaia from the garage. If you recall, I took the front half and made it into a blunt-nosed paipo earlier in the summer - now it's time to work the back half. The first 14-16" is going to be a contemporary hand plane - lots of surface area for guaranteed stoke in crappy East Coast surf. Right now I'm thinking 8" wide, but that will work itself out with the plan shape. The remaining 30" is going to be a 0.4 length to width ratio belly board (smaller than a paipo) equipped with handles. There has been a lot of buzz lately about Lindsay Lord's naval architecture book and the EPS foam boards that have come of it and this chunk of paulownia is going to pretty close to the final shape - blunt nose, fairly straight parallel rails and with a 12" width, plenty of surface area to get on a plane fairly quickly. I'm going with three handles (at least right now), one up front that would work for the right or left hand, and one on each side of the back half of the board for the trailing hand (determined by the direction of travel - turn right and the left hand is the trailer - we'll see when it's time to op test it).

Details Burnt In

The paipo was sanded (60-120-220), a couple of coats of polyurethane are on and the details have been burnt in. A few more coats of poly and a good wax jobs and this thing is ready for catching waves!!! This looks way easier to ride than the alaia (that this was once part of). The foiling is way better and without having to jump to a standing position, there are no reasons for not catching waves (which is why spongers have a bad rap with standing surfers - I think the people who just ride waves on whatever are the happiest ones around - but that is a secret, don't tell anyone...)

Getting the Itch...

I'm getting reacquainted with my surroundings again, and with that I'm also getting the itch to shape some surfcraft. First up (since it doesn't require making a lot of noise and pissing off the neighbors in an as of yet undetermined level of sensitivity neighborhood) is a Lindsey Lord proportioned paipo using the sawed up alaia (check the way older posts - this is more a tweaking exercise) and hopefully a few (but more likely only a couple) paulownia handplanes. I'll be focusing on the 0.4 length to width ratio. This stuff isn't by any stretch of the imagination 'new' or 'modern' - just look at a Boogie Board - looks like it already has that ratio in use, but it will be made and surfed by me with care and diligence.