Merry Christmas everyone

I hope you all have a wonderful family Christmas and a great New Year.

Eco Challenge 2014

4ft 2" x 21" Mini Simmons / and body board for Glenn deep in Victoria.

A bit of a challenge hand shaping this little puppy , but it turned out to be lots of fun. Glenn wants to be able to ride it finless as a body board or drop knee. Or put a set of keel fins in and ride it as a Mini Simmons.It has a full length concave that sneaks out through the nose between the rolled shoulders and a full width one out the back. Fast and full of lift.Also a slight concave deck to lay into.

 3mm rail band going on

 4mm and 3mm skins cut and ready for bagging

 Setting up the rocker table , as simple as it can be and all that is needed to hold the rocker

 Sucking it down onto the foam so that the foam is encapsulated in wood now

Simple and 2 hours later it will be all done.

All trimmed up and ready for the rail bands to be laminated

3 laminates of 5mm thick rail bands put on one at a time

 You will be amazed at the hold you can get with good quality masking tape

 

Cleaned up and trimmed up once again

 

Then nose and tail blocks laminated aon all at once

 Cleaning up with the hand plane once again

All ready to go off and have the fin boxes routed in and set in epoxy. Plus Glenn wants to be able to use it as a body board as well as a stand up Mini Simmons, so it will have a leash plug each end.

I like to use Futures boxes and fins as I have faith in the method I use to install them is strong and reliable. Because the board is so small and most fins too big I have taken a pair of these solid glass K2's and have the guys at Alkali Fins in Ballina re shape and foil them to a simmons inspired design I gave them. It will bring the area and size of the fin down a lot to suit the board.Plus the rounded profile will be way more fun and forgiving , as this is a powerful design as it currently is.

They did a great job and suit the board very well.

Oiled up with 4 coats of lanolin brings out the colour

A great little project that should give Glenn heaps fo fun.

Demo boards from Byron Bay Surf Festival

We had a great weekend down in Byron Bay. Yes it was windy the whole time but the vibe was great and we met so many interesting people and our boards were well received.

6ft 6" Tri Plane Hull for Byron Bay Surf Festival

 Hull entry , slight planing concane through the middle and slight V through the tail.

 Thin foiled out rails.

Light 4oz glass job with sanded finish

 Sweet little board

Finishing a couple of boards in the comnfort of the AC shaping bay.

 7ft Hydro Simmons

 Nice and fine railed tri plane hull 6ft 6"

 Tail on

Nose on

Getting ready to head to the shaping bay

 6ft 6" tri plane hull

 After laminating the rail bands on it is a matter of planing down the excess Paulownia before heading to the comfort of the air conditioned shaping bay. Lights, AC and it saves all that dust at home.

7ft Hydro Simmons getting a nose job before heading off as well.