Showhull

This is a new 6′4″ hull I took up to Sacred Craft in Ventura. It’s made with the R.T. Openface construction for extra flex and spring, same as the Lil Macho board I posted.  Sam George took a liking to this at the show and commented on how it combined the old with the new. That pretty much summed up what I try to do with my boards. Striving to build a better board using common materials, instead of expensive and unsustainable man made exotics. Thanks to my good friend Church for picking this board up. Enjoy!

Fat and Finless

This is my newest alaia. It’s made using the openface method, with a 1lb. EPS core, 1/2″ thick 2lb. EPS bottom sheet, and 1/16″ handmilled poplar deck. It’s glassed with 4 oz. cloth and epoxy. Dimensions are 7′0″x 18″x 2 1/4″.  I’ve been having people ask if I could build an alaia that was more bouyant and would paddle easier, so this board has been running through my mind for a while now. I knew the straight outline and thin rails of alaias help with setting an edge and trimming, so I had to encorporate that into the shape. I ended up going with a peanut type outline similar to the ones Jon Wegener is making, as that template seems to be magic. I made it a little wider and added about an inch of rocker to compensate for the boards added stiffness. It had the same single concave and 1/4″ roll off the rail as the regular alaias and a hard edge almost the full length of the board. The ride at first was a little more slipery then a traditional alaia because it skimmed more on top of the water instead of settling in. I had to stay centered and on top of the board so it didn’t get away from me. Once I figured that out it felt pretty natural. It was really fast and smooth and still had a similar feel to a traditional alaia. My friend Graham, who hadn’t had a lot of experience on alaias, even caught a wave on it and went backside all the way to the sand. And that was on probably the fourth wave he tried it on. Also, this was on a day when the waves were small and pretty bad, but the board was just flying.  Basically this board was super fun and I’m pretty excited about it’s possibilities.

Alaia Round Tail Coming Full Circle

I made a Alaia recently for a customer who wanted a round tail. I wasn’t sure how it was going to work , but he wanted to try it. As I was making it, I was reminded of an article in The Surfers Journal, vol.15 issue 5 called Aloha Washington. The article describes the formation of a logging camp spearheaded by Ralph Emerson and Wilfred Dole (of the pineapple family).  Dole, being raised in Hawaii  was an avid surfer and knew how to build boards. So he built some, similar to the one’s he was using in the islands and he and Ralph surfed them in Washington. All of this happened around 1902, before George Freeth and it got me thinking, maybe this shape is a lost branch of alaia design.

fish slaps

Could be a handplane for bodysurfing, could be footwear. This handplane is made out of the scraps of paulownia left over from making alaias. Erin at Shelter Surf Shop prompted me to make these. I thought it was a pretty good idea, as the wood is so light and corky it feels like you hardly have anything strapped onto your hand. I’ll have one of these along with some other boards at the Thalia Surf/ Insight demo day this friday May 8th.

Water Shoe for a Lead Foot

This quad was recently made for a local surfer named Andrew, who had brought several of his boards to me in the past for repair. He had caved in the decks of all of them. He’s a pretty heavy footed surfer and so he wanted something more durable. He figured the extra money spent on a wood board would be offset by not having to shell out cash for repeated repairs. The poplar deck should help keep this board in the water and not back in the shop. The shape is a copy of one of his favorite boards, made by Erik Olson.

Don’t leave it in the sun!

This is the latest openface model made for Ryan Thomas, aka R.T., aka the surfer formerly known as Bearded Dolphin. It has the same dimensions as the last one, but the rail wood tapers from 4 layers to 1 for increased tail flex and the color has been changed to spontaneously combusting black. It weighs 5 1/2 lbs without the fins.

Lil Macho

This is the latest openface board. It’s a very short hull, at 5′11″ and meant to be ridden in beach break conditions rather than point surf. I thought the openface construction would lend itself well to hulls because of the flex and spring it generates. I built a redwood full compsand one about this long a while back and loved the pop I got out of it. I could feel the board load up coming off the bottom and spring out of turns. I wanted to reproduce that feeling even more with this board.

RT’s Openface Sandwich

surf gnome boogie

A little over a year ago RT asked if I could build a compsand board with more flex in it, since his smaller stature (140-45 lbs.) made ordinary wood and foam boards seem a little too ridged for his taste. We came up with the idea of using balsa only on the deck and letting the bottom ‘breathe’. The deck panel retains the liveliness that compsands have and the bottom is allowed to stretch and flex without as much weight and force being applied to it. This board is the third one and I think we finally got it. All the reports I’ve gotten back from him have been good. He said the board flexes and feels pretty much the same as a traditional poly board and he’s already had at least one potentially catastrophic run in with his knee to the deck, with no damage. The bottom should hold up just as well as any other epoxy board, since it has a 1/2″ layer of 2 lb. EPS there. The final weight of the board is in the sub 6 lb. range too, so I think we may have hit all the goals (lightweight, strong, and flexy).

Alaia’s

photo RT Thomas

"I want this one daddy!"

6'8" x 16 3/4" x 3/4"

This board's being ridden in the photo above. Dim's 6' x 15" x 3/4"

Ever since I was inspired by images of guys riding Wegener Alaia’s,  I’ve been wanting to make one out of the same wood that Tom Wegener is using over in Australia.  I got the chance this last October when I picked up a couple paulownia wood Alaia blanks from the Wegener booth at the Sacred Craft exposition in Del Mar. The first redwood Alaia I had made perviously rode completly different than the new one’s made from paulownia.  The new Alaia’s were much lighter, flexier, and more boyuant. Not to mention incredibly water resistant. I did a pretty crummy job of oiling the first one, because I was so excited to ride it, and it’s still doing fine with only two coats. I have become completly hooked on these boards since then. I literally didn’t ride anything else for about a month. I still basically just trim, but man it’s an amazing feeling. I never thought I could have so much fun just simply going down the line. It literally feels like you’re flying on a magic carpet because the board twists and bends under your feet as you keep going faster down the line connecting sections.  Building and riding these boards has probably been one of the most unexpected joys of my surfing life. Many thanks to Tom and Jon Wegener for bringing these boards back into the mainstream. Check out wegenersurfboards.com and tomwegenersurfboards.com

Hawaii Five Ten

This is a 5′10″ double wing quad made for someone in Hawaii. It’s basically the same template as some of the modern fish type shapes I’ve been making, but more foiled and rockered out and now with wings. It’s all balsa skinned w/ charcoal tinted birch ply fins. It’s finished with a sanded gloss that’s been further sprayed with acrylic (really slippery and fast).