Thread: Balsa SUP

Talk to Riley surfboards. They do it for a living and Mark's a pretty friendly bloke.

Surfinkid

If you don't get a practical solution from Riley Surfboards consider using Paulownia. It is just over double the weight but a hell of a lot stronger for a SUP. I think the actual Paulownia planks are cheaper and you would need less timber because they are stronger. If you use Balsa then you'll need a lot of glass and this will tend to offset some of the weight advantage. . Balsa will be easier to work with but then so is Paulownia.

Whitewood

Thanks guys,

Its a big board and i think your right about using Paulownia instead of balsa. Im also pretty stuck on the glassing process. I have been told that i don't need to glass it, and several coats of a polyurethane type gloss would be sufficient, but i am doubtful that this will do the trick...

Surfinkid

Surfinkid

I sell Paulownia to a lot of guys and the a few gals, to build their own HWS some have been SUP's. I believe that most of them cover the board with fibre glass. They do this as much to protect the timber as to give the board strength. However if you you get the balance between the spacing of the frames and the thickness of the outer strips right i don't think the absence of fibre glass would compromise the function of the board.

Whitewood

As a SUP it would need to be a really solid build to avoid glassing it and not totally sure it would be possible anyway. As far as material is concerned it would probably need to be paulownia. If you're glassing it then you can use what you want. If it's a hollow timber board then 6-8mm thickness for the frames(ideally marine grade ply for cost and durability), 4-6mm thickness for the 'skin' and then glass.

Some links that are a must for your research include:

Mark Riley, for balsa boards of any type.
Tom Wegener, for paulownia boards.

Check out Tree to Sea Wooden Surfboard Builders Forum - Index page for everything you want to know about board building

Also Swaylocks.

BUT........ Beware!!!!!!!!!!!!! Board building is soooooo hopelessly addictive you may NEVER see daylight again............... ooohhhhhhh,.................