I made a surfboard a few years ago that turned out like shit. Over ambition, lack of skill, and no patients all pretty much doomed Surfboard#2 from the get-go.
The intent was to make a shortboard that was maneuverable but still had plenty of float for my fat ass. The board was born out of a Clarke 6-8″P blank, cut down to a 6-4″, and sustained nearly the full thickness out to the rail. The deck had zero crown, the rails were pretty hard. The board was freak-a-zoid thick, 20.5″ wide, super full nose/tail, and fugly.
I used 4oz glass on bottom and top, with one extra layer of glass on the deck. After the glass i put down one resin only coat to smooth things out. I messed up on the mixture of the resin and hardener…you could basically dig into the foam with your fingers with only a slight amount of pressure and it’d start cracking. This even after the board had been drying for over a week.
Here’s a few pics of the Surfboard #2 process.
With a brittle glass job i took the board out. After the session i noticed that my leash had mangled the top of the tail, where it’d been strew over the side after falling off waves. That and there was a ding or three on the rails from i don’t know what. Session one and already significant damage.
Over the course of the next few weeks, i kept surfing the board. The drill was: surf, assess damage, and repair. Over and over. I hung that up after about a month but have been lugging that beast around since summer 2005.
Until now. My friend PK from Greenline Boards had some downtime in his shop. I convinced him to see if he could help me “revive” my board. Luckily i’d made it so damn thick that there was plenty of foam to work with.
Although the shape of the board largely limited what was possible, PK’s skill, creativity, and vision are breathing some life into this thing. What started out at as a 6-5″ x 20.5″ x 2-5/8″ is now something like 6-4″ x 19.5″ x 2.5″. The board now has tighter rails, an actual crown, a set of wings, single to double concave, and waaaaay more stoke.
The board has been evolving on the fly. Thing is turning out rad…so fun to watch. Totally pumped.
Here’s a few shots of the progress so far.
Check back for more updates.
