The Boards of 2010

With the completion of the last two projects for the year, the shop has been cleaned and the project slate is clean. Here is a retrospective of the eight boards that were created this year.

Santa’s Workshop–Part 3

For the final project of the year, I went for a high performance pintail longboard for my surfing buddy. His boards were surfed out – yellowed with age, ding repairs all over and heavy with water. It was time for a new one, but I knew he’d never ask me, so I took the initiative.
He was over this morning to drop something off, and I asked him to help me photograph my latest project. I had him hold it up while I snapped, and he suddenly noticed this:

Nice.

Santa’s Workshop-Part 2

I made this nice little fun shape for a young lady who lost her dad to cancer – the same time as I was undergoing treatment. It was a hard time for all, but she remains a happy kid and a good friend to my oldest daughter. She was over one day and saw me working on Angelyne’s fish, and asked me: “uncle, can you make me a surfboard?”. It is impossible to say no to that.
If it looks familiar – that’s because it’s the same shape as the family board. It’s an all-around fun board, can be ridden by little kids like a longboard in mushy waves, by bigger kids a bit more aggressively, and really rips for big kids. It will allow her to either enjoy surfing once in a while as a fun thing, going to the beach and riding the foam straight in, or allow for progression towards more proficient surfing.

Santa’s Workshop, Part 1

First up for the Christmas season is this lovely tanker I built for my big brother Rod. After he and Becky’s wonderful visit to the islands last summer he asked me to build him a suitable board for his home break in the great state of Maine. So we have the “Big Brother” model: 9 feet long, full profile with plenty of thickness. Fabric inlays on both sides; spray fade on the deck with masked rays and pinlines. A real beaut. It’s on a slow boat to South Berwick and should arrive in January.

Finished

Came out nice, with the exception of a few air bubbles under the glass on the deck. Otherwise it's good to go. The wahine who received it was stoked!

Grad Present

This board is a "customer board" for a recent H.S. grad. It's going to be crazy. 8'6", single-to-double concave/slight vee, and a color job that is turning out insane.

 

  

Alaia Clock

Here's somehting different for retirement, change-of-command or promotion gifts. It's a clock/weather station made just like a full-sized alaia.

It's made of mahogany, fir and a redwood stringer - all scraps I had in the bin from previous projects. Here they are glued and clamped.


Once set, I cut the outline, did a bit of shaping on the rails, and cut the holes for the inserts (from the top down: tide clock, regular clock, thermometer, humidity meter, barometer). The clocks can be rotated so the board can be mounted at any angle, vertical or horizontal.

Although it's in an alaia shape, it can be done in just about any shape, out of a variety of wood, natural or dyed/stained in any shade. Definetely a nice, nautical/surf-themed gift idea.