Thread: Hollow Wooden Surfboards

awesome is it hollow torsion construction??
how will the channels go?? will it reduce speed??

regards Chowcini

Good work there Justin!!

looks beaut is she balsa

I find it too hard to get Balsa over a meter long, so Paulownia is the go, plus it has much better qualities than Balsa.

Justo

Looks bewydiful, does she get fin or just the chanels?

It's going to have three fins, it's for my girl and we have a couple of cool graphics to go on that will accentuate that it is her board.

I'll post next week when the boards get back from Daniel MacDonald Shapes for glassing. The guy is a legend and does the best job, I'm a bit apprehensive of glassing my own creations, might spend some time in the glassing room soon with a reputable glasser to learn the finer points and maybe give it a go myself.

Justo

Looks excellent Justo Any details and pics of construction

Follow this link my friends...

The Tree to Sea Wooden Surfboard Builders Forum - View topic - The Bonzer Prototype Project

Justo

Hi Justin,

Have been following your posts in T2Sea. Great work, mate. Congratulations.

Thought you might be interested to know, I have enrolled for the HWS making course run by Paul Jensen when he is out here in October. Should be a fun week.

Anthony

You should dig Paul's course Anthony. He's a pretty top bloke, and has some excellent tips and tricks to share.

hi guys,
I met a guy the other day who makes the old awesome white wooden boards and his name is Parish Watts.

You can check out his website at www.vintagepacificsurfcraft.blogspot.com

There is a serious shortage of good wooden boards out there in the surf and I've never seen anyone else running one...such as shame becuase the boards I have are so fun and have given me another dimension to surfing.

And it is amazing the feedback I get when I'm out there.

Justo

Guys, I dont know if its been covered, but would it be possible to use jarrah or other similar aussie hardwoods?

I've literally only just found this area on the forum and am about to read more but thought I'd ask first!!

Thanks

Originally Posted by Crackerboy

Guys, I don't know if its been covered, but would it be possible to use jarrah or other similar Aussie hardwoods?

I've literally only just found this area on the forum and am about to read more but thought I'd ask first!!

Thanks

I'm not a builder but a supplier of lightweight timber - Paulownia. The evolution of the modern surfboard from the original long coconut timber planks was to get a board that was as buoyant as possible and as manoeuvrable as possible. Most wooden board builders aim for the modern goal. I think you could build one out of jarrah etc. and it would look good but I doubt if it would ride as well as a lightweight board. With Paulownia it is possible to build a hollow wooden board that has the same dimensions and weight as a 'glass' board. Balsa is used by some builders but though it is very light it is not as strong and I believe the additional epoxy/glass to strengthen it would offset much of the weight advantage. Western red Cedar is another timber used but it is heavier than paulownia. It is common to add contrasting strips of WRC to a board to enhance its appearance. In rough terms the density of the above timbers is
Balsa 130 kg per CM
Paulownia 290 kg per CM
WRC 390 kg per CM
Jarrah 600+ kg per CM
Hope this helps.
John

Well put Whitewood.

I'll echo that, and add that depending on your build method, I'm sure you could still make a <10kg board from Jarrah, which would still be plenty rideable and carryable. to simplify the issue, a lighter board will be more manoeuvrable (flips, snap turns, etc), a heavier board will have more momentum down the line (longer arcing carve turns, sail through flatter sections of a wave, etc). Neither is good or bad, just different. Weight is a bit of a bug-bear for wooden board builders, because it's an easy characteristic to put on the swing-tag of a product, whereas 'momentum' is not. Thus 'light' becomes a demanded characteristic from consumers without good reasons.

If you're particular about buoyancy, you would have to make a heavier-timbered board bigger in some dimension (thickness is usually the most discreet) to achieve the same buoyancy as a lighter-timbered board.

Another issue to consider with timber choice is how well epoxy and glass will take to it. I believe Jarrah would be fine, but some tropical hardwoods leach resins and oils that don't like bonding with epoxy. I think it's glue-holding characteristics are probably representative of how it would take to glassing.

In short—a jarrah board would look sensational, but do what you can to keep the weight down. In a self-governing cycle, the heavier (thus stronger) timber allows you to make planks thinner (thus lighter) for the same strength.