The Kala II: Electric Bugaloo

The same shape as this board; I used the template to design the frames for a one-off wood board. I went with a nice bookmatched redwood top and a lauan bottom (ripped and alternated at the stringer and glassed on both faces). All in all I still prefer a properly planked bottom but the lauan is quick and easy to work with, and looks good. I went with a bonzer fin setup with an FCS trailer rather than the regular large single fin – I intend to surf this one as a slippery twin as well as the bonzer setup.  The smaller side fins are glassed on and made of meranti marine plywood.
Artwork is a kala I shot a while back (hence the name) and printed up myself. I wanted to see how the heavy rice paper would glass, and it came out nice. The blue highlights cover the deck-rail joint, which due to the heavy dome of the deck came out uneven. The lizard on the bottom was heat-transferred directly on to the wood.
Rails are strip-planked with alternating white fir and mahogany. The leash plug is stacked ply, cut and worked by hand with a stainless bolt as the anchor.
Video of the gyotaku process after the pics.

Nohu

The nohu, or scorpionfish, is a real ugly fish. Thus I named  my newest design after it. It’s a 7’ twin fin fish with minimal rocker and a wiiiiiide tail. I made it for small days when it’s too mushy for an alaia, as an alternative to a longboard. We’ll see how it rides – the fins are real small, so it should slide quite a bit but still bite enough for control.
Here’s the inspiration (not one of my prints):

And my take on it. Meranti marine plywood interior frame, bookmatched redwood top, redwood rails, lauan ply bottom. I actually ripped the ply and alternated the light/dark faces for the bottom, using a layer of fiberglass to bind them into a single sheet prior to gluing to the frame. It’s not the prettiest but it’s easy and  inexpensive, and stucturally both light and strong (as it’s glassed on both sides). Fins are my own design; nose/tail blocks are redwood with paulownia on the nose and mahogany on the tail block. :

Kid's Boards

I build them just like my adult boards - hollow with an internal frame and solid wood planked decks - but with a 1/8" ply bottom, which I then paint white and let the kids decorate it (okay, I help with the paint job a little...).

Angelyne's swizzle stick:

Catherine's 60% 9'4". This one's a beauty - concave-to-vee bottom, nice rails, FCS fins...