Paul’s Longboard

Fresh out of the shop, a sweet 8’ longboard for my high school buddy Paul. He designed the graphics and paint scheme on it, and I designed the template/shape for the board. A classic shape with concave to double concave on the bottom, soft-to-hard rails and a modern 2+1 fin setup. With the pintail and a nice continuous rocker it’ll work in just about anything from ankle slappers to overhead tubes, looking good the whole time.

Laminating/Pinlines and a Completed Board

For a board like this, laminating is a multi-stage process. I like to do the majority of art and color right on the foam. Once the art is good to go, I do a “skim coat” of thin epoxy resin over the raw foam. This fills in the many small gaps and spaces between the EPS foam beads, and will provide a solid base for the glass coat to lock on to. Once it starts to kick, I’ll lay out any logos or art that I’ve done up on translucent vellum and squegee them flat, ensuring all the air bubbles are out from underneath. Then the glass goes on – while the thin “skim coat” and wet decals are kicking. A nice tight lamination, pulling out from the center to the rails, usually gives a nice flat surface with the cloth well adhered to the blank.
On this board I’ve done a fabric inlay on the nose. Once the fabric is cut out, I pour on the resin, spread it around, give it a minute or two to soak, and squegee it flat. The edges will get covered with pinlines after the lamination.

If I’m doing pinlines, I’ll wait a day or so for the first lamination to cure. I clean the board with denatured alcohol and a tack cloth,  and then lightly sand down the area where the pinline will go. Then I mask it off and lay the line using an art brush and good-quality opaque acrylic. I’ll do a thin, quick coat which will seal the edge between the board and the tape, then lay it on thicker. Once complete I pull the tapes, clean up any goofs, and it’s off to the next lam.

Between lams is also a good time to look at the board up close and far away, and see if any changes to the art need to be done. This is the last chance I’ll have to put something under glass (and thus make it a permanent part of the board).

Overall I’m fairly pleased with the end result. There are numerous imperfections that are clear to me, as I’ve hand-crafted every square inch of it from blank to polish. Everyone who’s seen it so far has been impressed; hopefully the customer will be also.

Color

I like to make boards with a good bit of color. Not a big fan of clear/white boards. Anyhow, Paki’s 9’0 is coming along, almost ready for glass.

9’ 0” x 22” HP Longboard

Time lapse video of Paki’s 9’0 getting shaped. Thin, fast pintail longboard shape.

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 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.

Big Brother Time-Lapse Shaping

Big Brother Part 2: Shaping from rotorhead guy on Vimeo.

Brothers Board pt. 1

Rod's board pt. 1 from rotorhead guy on Vimeo.

Brothers

That’s what I’m calling these two boards.

“Big Brother” is a 9’0 longboard, full and thick, for my oldest brother.

“Little Brother” is a high-performance 6’5” shortboard which will be my winter board.

Since they both are new shapes I’m starting by cutting the templates out of 1/8” ply:

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.