Steve from Byron

Steve from Byron had a board that he had surfed for many years and liked the feel of it but wanted a wooden version. So he got the shaper to hand shape a blank in EPS for him minus the rails.

He had already added Paulownia blocks for the fin boxes and the first rail band. So we spread the glue and I bagged it for him.

 A few blocks of wood to hold the rocker and away we went.

2 hours later and it came out just fine.

All ready for Steve to add the rail bands and shape them. Fin boxes and oil it up.

Looking forward to the finished board Steve.

The African Alley Slider

Jaco from South Africa can across my blog and liked the look of my Alley Slider design and having shaped a few boards decided he would like to do one for himself. I sent him files and screen grabs to check out the design. But he wanted to hand shape it. Here are his words.
"I did finish the Alley Slider and am pretty stoked with it ! As you can see I did a bit of 2 WWar theme ! People love the board but the design is not everyone's cup of tea !"

" Ok some stats on the board : 10 ft x 23,5 x 3 1/4 - I did try to stick to your file as close as possible. It was a huge help ! The board took me 10 1/2 hours to shape. That is spread over 2 weeks . Was a big challenge for me but also very rewarding ! I did have input from my shaper friend on all the different steps etc."

"As you can see the leash plug idea of yours came out great. The board was glassed 3x 6 ounce top and 2x 6 ounce bottom. Wanted to have a heavy glass job , old school ! Got a Rainbow Nomad fin , friend of mine bought it in USA but it does not work for him , I love it ! "

"Needles to say I am pretty stoked and love this board. For a first time I am happy. Your advice to take it step by step was key and walking away to come back with fresh eyes also helped."

"Thanks Grant for your support and valuable input."

Kind Regards
Jaco
I would like to say , he has done a great job and I am sure he will enjoy the fun and forgiving nature of this board design.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you all that have supported me through the year.

Tonys new board for Bali

 Tony had a board that he had surfed for many seasons and wanted another pretty similar. So after some discussion I decided to flattened out the rocker a little in the nose and leave the rear as it was.

It is 9ft 2" x 22 1/4"  x 3"  for 71.5 Litres. It was glassed at DMS by master glasser and artist Frenchman, Paul Lefevre from Lucky Bastards who is on the coast doing a large run of amazing Lost surfboards.

Randall's new 9ft 6"

 Surfing mate from the Alley, Randall Vincent from Brisbane wanted a new board to replace his

 Mc Tavish Redline that he has had for quite some time.

 Custom fin by Wizz

 9ft 6" x 231/4 x 3 1/4" @ 81 litres , 12mm Cedar stringer

 Nice clean lines

 He liked the Redline tail bevel so that was retained

Byron Bay Surf Festival 2013

BBSF 2013 Surf Culture oozing from every facet from Byron Bay Surf Festival on Vimeo.

Coolum Eco Challenge

Jackie and I took 9 wooden boards up to Coolum on the weekend for the Eco Challenge. We had 7 demo boards from 4ft 4" to 5ft 4" simmons. It was great to see all these young Groms who had never ridden a simmons let alone a wooden board so keen to try them and then get out there and have so much fun.

It was a fun day and great weather.

It was on shore Northerlies all day and pretty sloppy.

 But the guys managed to find a few fun ones out there.

 Dave Rastovich and Tom Wegener were the judges on the day as to who had the most fun.

Ended up we got 1st and second place on one of our wooden boards.I must admit I had a lot of enquiring questions as they picked a board to head out , but came back very happy with the experience and quite surprised with how the boards performed it such bad conditions.

Harley's 5ft simmons

 EPS blank with 3mm rail band on and profiled by the AKU machine

 Cutting out the 4mm deck skin and 3mm bottom skin

 Polyurethane glue comes out of the bottle looking like honey , but as it takes in the moisture from the air it goes a more creamy look as the reaction takes place

 It is spread thinly as it expands quite a lot

 

Fresh out of the vacuum bag ready to laminate the rails on

 Rails on , nose and tail block on, excess timber removed and ready to shape the rails and give it some shape.The 15kg weight is great for holding the board in place and get stuck into the planing

 The lights in the shaping bay help by casting shadows that show the flow of the curves.

 Once I have taken the bulk off with the plane and faired it out I use a wide strip of emery cloth to blend the curves. This has been a great find. The fabric backing is tough and flexible allowing you to get some weight behind it with out tearing like sand paper. It comes in a good range of grits and I just use 1/2 a sheet. The grit is strong and won't clog up and seems to last for a long time as it was designed to be used on metal.

 Final sanded to 240 grit all over, ready for logo's

 First coats of lanolin oil soaking in in the sun.

Soaking it up

Innovation

This is What Innovation Looks Like

Sunday, February 17th, 2013 I wrote a blog post a few months back about glassing a surfboard in the middle of a party (to drive home a message of sustainability). What I didn’t share in that post was a board that captured the attention of, literally, everyone who saw it. It was a Paulownia-encased Firewire.
It looked like one of the boards to the left and I’m not exaggerating when I say that it stopped everyone in their tracks.
Let me set this up a bit… we’ve all seen our fair share of plastic and foam floating in the ocean. I’ve written a few blogs on the simple idea that EPS blanks can be made from recycled tv-packing trash and the fact that the use of non-toxic Super Sap resin for surfboard glassing is “ready for prime time.”

Still, the Pawlonia-encased board I saw that evening seemed to nod to all of those concepts and take the dialog a few steps further. It seemed to be a logical extension of what my blogs have been saying… surfers should seek ways to minimize their impact on the environment that that includes the equipment under their feet.
It was heartening to see another entrant in this space, complementing Danny Hess’s boards and the hands-on aesthetic connected to Grain surfboards.

Rather than try and encapsulate this innovation I thought I’d reach out to Firewire‘s CEO Mark Price and have him explain this innovation via a quick interview.

Jim: Your new boards look and feel radically different than pretty much anything I’ve seen. My experience is that literally every person that sees them stops and walks over to check them out. In a few words can you tell us about the construction?

Mark: Perhaps the biggest difference aside from the overall wood-look, is the fact that, except for very narrow strips of cloth to cover the seams on the rails, there is NO external lamination, just a hotcoat to seal the wood. In addition, by using Entropy Super Sap bio resin for the hot coats and in the sandwich, we’ve dramatically reduced the toxicity of the small amount of resin we actually use.

J: The second question I found myself asking (after being drawn in visually) is how do they ride? Firewire is known for being perhaps the first company with an alternative/modern construction board used by pros on Tour. Are these wood boards a niche Firewire product or will we see pros on these?

M: That is the best part. They still incorporate sandwich construction and parabolic rail technology so the flex is there, and by removing the external lamination cloth and resin, they are even lighter than our regular boards. Chuy Reyna believes Timber Tech performance is on par with any tech we offer, and Timmy Reyes just re-ordered his entire quiver in Timber Tech after riding one. We’ve also built Filipe Toledo and Michel Bourez boards as well which they’ll receive shortly, so we’ll see how they like them.

J: Nice. Tell us more about the construction, I found myself wondering how thick that wood is. Also, are these a part of the Sustainable Surf’s Ecoboard Project?


M: Yes, they are and we’re big fans of what Sustainable Surf is doing. The wood deck skin is actually 3mm thick, so it’s is not a thin veneer. As a result it has tremendous structural integrity, and you also do away with all those minor dings and shatters because there is no cloth. Repairing them is a breeze as you can use any epoxy resin and cloth if needed, or even wood putty if its a small ding.

J: Ok, let me ask you a question about the eco-side of this equation. Everything I’ve heard is wild… from the foam to the paulownia wood deck to the distinctly different approach to glassing. Tell us how that all works together? Was it your goal to have such an emphasis on environmental footprint or did you arrive at that endpoint via another path?

M: We’re always trying to make as green a surfboard as possible and still maintain a commercially viable product that also does not sacrifice performance, and costs the same at retail. We believe that for an Eco surfboard to succeeded beyond a cool niche, those parameters must to be met. We actually exceeded our expectations with Timber Tech and these are only the Version 1.0 recipes. The Paulownia wood is sustainably grown and we’re reviewed the suppliers certificates to verify that.  And by removing the exterior cloth and lamination resin while using bio resin hot coats, the toxicity is a fraction of a traditional surfboard. Version 2.0 will have recycled EPS cores, but we’re not quite there yet.

J: Great, any last comments or thoughts?

M: I do want to mention Grant Newby, a talented Australian craftsman who first turned us on to the potential of this construction, and our internal R&D and production crew who worked tirelessly to make this tech possible in a production setting. Building one-offs or small quantities is one thing (and not to be discounted), but it also took a tremendous effort to overcome all the issues that arose as we tweaked the original recipe to increase performance and build reasonable quantities. Of course having our own vertical factory was a huge help.

J: Thanks Mark. For more info check out their site here.

" I am very greatful to Firewire for that way thay have acknowledged me for my part in this project."   Grant Newby

Thanks to Mark Price and the team.

The same DNA

 6' 6" x 23" Quad and 6' 6" x 22" twin

 7' x 30" Twinnie SUP 104 Litres , 6' 6" x 23" , 6' 6" x 22 and 8' x 28" Quad SUP 104 Litres

 6' 6" x 23" 55 Litres    and 5' 6" x 22 1/2" 37 Litres

They all share the same DNA and yet are quite different. 

Just one funky family

The happy customer

Dale with is 5ft 2 " x 21" simmons. And the custom board bag that Jackie ran up the night before.
Here is his board report...
"Hi Grant
I am in Nias. Managed to get a leave pass from Tanya.  It was large here last week!

Been riding the board last few days. It exceeds expectations! Holds rail so well, yet right mix of skatey fun, good in the barrel and even no probs on steep to late drops. It is super fast down the line. Still working on snaps on the re-entry. The keel fins fit too but happy with the quad for now. Had in 2 to 5 feet. I think you nailed the design for what I was after. Thinking of whats next!"

 Dale having fun

Wooden Surfboard Day 2013

 

I got great coverage from the guys at Smorgasboarder Magazine once again in their latest issue.