Jan 28 - More pics of the completed board:

Jan 27

Completed the board at 8 pm, Sunday 27 Jan. I'll let the pics do the talking. Will take some better ones in the daytime and post them later.

Jan 16-

The deck is on. I had a bit of a problem with a plank that "sunk" and was lower than the adjacent planks. I had to glue in a thin section of planking over it, then sand it flush. Even after that, the end of the planks still weren't right. I filled/faired the plank ends withwood filler, which fixed the uneven surface, but looked like hell. I finally solved the problem by veneering the filler area with redwood shavings from one of my hand planes.

I sanded it all down and gave the rails a nice soft edge. I would have liked to give it 50-50 rails as I absolutely love the feel of those on a longboard, but the rail shape was already mostly set in by the frame, so I went as soft as I could - although it is still more of a modern rail.

The deck-rail joint sucks. I'm going to have to pinline it to hide the gaps which I had to fill in. Other than that, the top and bottom look good, and the nose and tail blocks came out great.

Here's the deck going on:

Below you can see the shape with the nose and tail blocks attached but not yet shaped. Also you can see the repaired plank sticking up higher than the rest of the deck:

Below- Roughed out with the nose and tail blocks blended into the shape, and the rails partially shaped.

Below: Shaping is done. Applying a coat of epoxy to seal the grain. Note the graphic and the woodburning.

The top is ready for glass; just a light sanding to smooth it out prior to glassing. The bottom still needs its graphics and a coat of epoxy, so one more day of prep work before the big glass job (one day for the bottom, one for the top, so really we have 3 days before we are done...4 if you include installing the fin box and leash plug).

Dec 18 -

After completingh the railing, I cut planks of fir and redwood for the deck and began laying them up in preparation for joining the deck to the board. Likewise I took the bottom half, with the rails, off the rocker table and built me a pair of shaping stands that sit on top of my sawhorses. I trimmed the bottom flush to the rails and planed down the rails at the top of the board. So it's looking more and more like a surfboard, and I can see it will be simply gorgeous when it is all done. The last of the deck planks were glued today, so tomorrow I can begin rough-fitting the deck and hopefully by the weekend have it glued on. Then, probably 6 or 7 hours of sanding, filling, and shaping the rails before it is ready for graphics and glass! Here are the recent pics. Below: Bottom half, with rails complete, on shaping stands:

Here's how the bottom looks. Kind of a natural racing stripe pattern:

Below are the older pics with the board still on the rocker table:

Here's the finished kiteboard I made; a quickie one-off using some leftover marine ply from the boat and epoxy/glass. Similar to a Naish Custom Wide. Funny, for '08 Naish is making all its kiteboards with a solid wood core...

July 7-

Trimmed the bottom and installed the chine log. When I released her from the rocker table, the stringer broke at about station 8 (8" from the nose) due to the board "straightening out". I re-clamped it to the rocker table and repaired the break, and reinforced the area with epoxy and glass. No problems after that.

It's beginning to look like a surfboard! Next up I need to cut lots of little strips and begin to build up the rails.

Jully 1 - Here we go: First off, we create a frame as this will be a hollow wood board. Joselynn actually got me a kit of pre-cut frames from Grain Surfboards up in Maine, but this is easily within my skill set to make on my own, what with all the surfboards I have around to make templates with.

Here are the pre-glued frames (9' longboard shape):

And here they are glued up (that's an iako for my outrigger canoe in the jig below the frame):

Next I ripped, scarphed and joined a set of planks (cedar, redwood and fir) to make a single large sheet which will comprise the bottom of the board:

Once those were joined into a single unit, I glued the frame onto the bottom. Note the rocker table I made using spacers to ensure the proper bottom curve (rocker) of the board:

...and that's where I'm at. Next up I'll begin making the rails using strips of fir and redwood. Then I'll make the top deck in the same fashion as the bottom,using planks to make a single sheet and then gluing it on to the frame/rails/bottom piece. Then we shape, sand and fill, install the fin and relief plug, and glass her with epoxy. Then we surf...sometime in the fall more than likely. Again I'm really enjoying doing this without a schedule and just taking time on each step vice having a self-imposed "deadline" like I did with the boat project. My expectations are pretty low; I know there will be a lot of filler as my scarph joints suck and there is a lot of knotty (naughty) wood. I just want a solid, tight single fin that I can take to the beach.