Fin is IN!

I was up in Maine over the July 4th weekend and brought the board for some tinkering. Managed to get the vent plug and leash cup holes drilled out, and found that I needed to do some TLC as there were gaps inside. Once I fixed those up, it was time to work on the slot for the fin. I had no idea how to begin, so I brought the board down to York, ME to visit the Grain Surfboards HQ. Mike, Brad, and John were a huge help and got me back on the right track. Thanks, guys. If you're ever up in Maine, you should definitely stop by their barn/workshop/store.

Caught some long-distance fireworks from the dock at my folks place on the 4th. Full moon on the water was all the light we needed. Check em out:



Last night, I epoxied the fin box into place. FINALLY! All that's left is a coat of epoxy on each side, some varnish, and then it's time to get her wet. MAN I can't wait.

Home Stretch

Alright. Back at it for the final push.

Brought the board to my aunt and uncle's house last weekend to get ready for glassing. It was my grandfather's 86th b-day party so I didn't get too far along, but I did all the sanding necessary before the glass goes on.It was a trip working with a field of wheat directly behind where I was working. Gives a new meaning to waves of grain.

The Smith's have a great shed in their backyard that was a perfect space for the glassing. Warm, well-ventilated, and lots of room to move around the board and shaping stand. Thank you Cindi and Dennis! Crazy, this board has been helped so much by Smiths.

Nono helped out with taping up the perimeter of the board before each of the 2 lam coats this weekend. He makes an appearance in the video at 1:22. He battled throat cancer for the last year or so and has WON the battle! He's been my best friend for as long as I can remember, and this board was made for him. I'm thrilled that he was able to help me out this weekend.

Heading down again next week to put in the fin, vent, and leash plug, then 1 more coat of glass on each side. I'll be bringin it home next Sunday and all that will be left to do is a put on a few coats of varnish and head to the beach.

S T O K E D !

R.I.P. Mooie

We had to put our beautiful boxer down last weekend. One of the toughest things I've ever had to do. She was my best friend and companion for 12 years.

One of the first tricks we taught her was to balance a ball on her nose. She learned it as a very young pup, and would balance the ball until I counted to 3, when she would then toss it up in the air and catch it. This video was taken last Thursday while we had some friends over to say goodbye. I guess she knew her time was limited so she didn't wait til 3 this time. She was always very smart.

Coral Reef Regeneration

Awesome idea...

Happy Mother's Day

Thank you....

for all your lessons
for all your patience
for all your guidance
for all your support
for all your love
for all the laughter
for all the good times
for being you.

Love you and miss you.

But you're always by my side.

Underwater HD Slo Mo

Dope! Someday I'll be an underwater photographer. Beautiful.

Sweet Georgia Brown

I've always been a huge fan of this song. Check the idling trailer on the ones and twos. I love that the camera guy laughs at every drum solo.

QT Mashup

Love it.

Eclectic Method - The Tarantino Mixtape from Eclectic Method on Vimeo.

Sponge Bob Square Tail

Slowly but surely, this board is coming together.

I epoxied the tail block onto the board Saturday and sanded and shaped it yesterday. I have to do a lot more sanding as the epoxy stained the planks where it spilled over the edge. I taped it up to avoid this but it got through anyway. Most likely it will be covered up by paint, but I still need to sand it some more regardless.

More sanding and shaping evenings this week. Glassing postponed until after my trip to Italy.

Bout time for an update...

Too many vids of other people on here. Time to show you the status on the log. Way overdue.

A few more days of obsessing over tiny details should be enough to get this puppy ready for glass. I made the tailblock last night and cut off the tail so there's a nice flat surface to epoxy to. Tell you what, taking a saw to this board was terrifying. It turned out great though, and should look sweet and be super sturdy with a solid tail. I'll fill in the gaps tonight and hopefully get the tailblock on latenight.

I was up til 1am last night sanding in my spare bedroom. My closet is in that room so now all of my clothes smell like cedar. Nice.

More updates soon.

Good news!

This weekend, I got working again in a new workspace (my neighbor's backyard). Thanks, Guy! Beautiful day and great space for shaving and sanding. I was covered head to toe in sawdust when I got home last night. Smells so good, but man the wood boogers this morning were nasty!

The good news is...the devastating crack that I was so worried about is not a big deal at all! Hardly visible and definitely possible to work around. Stoked!

In other news, I believe I will be having a pro glass my board this time. I really think it will be worth the extra time and $$ to have it look absolutely perfect. I've already started talking with a couple local glassers and now I just need to decide who to go with. Details soon.

Old Growth

Whoa. Check this vid out. Doc Ball, LeRoy Grannis, Lorrin Harrison, and Greg Noll making a non-hollow wooden longboard. I dig the 80's style of the ski hat and those PVSC jackets are money. Can't imagine how heavy that board must have been.

CRACK!

So, I got a lot done last night. SO much, that I decided to just go for it and get the top planks on. Everything was looking pretty good as I got all the planks, clamps, glue, 5200, etc in the right places. Once everything was locked down, I went around the board checking for places that I could squeeze a little tighter for a better fit. I got all the way done with one side, then started the other side and heard a loud CRACK! The right edge of the board got a 10" crack down the outside edge. I started swearing like a sailor but got to work filling it with titebond and clamping it back in place. No sooner had I finished that when another CRACK...k....k..k.k..k..kkkkk.k. I actually watched the wood splitting down the side, a couple inches away from the original crack. Screamed and swore again (sorry, Mike and Jen) and did my best to fill it in with titebond. We'll see later tonight how it fared, and if there will be any other cracks to deal with.

Check the vids below for progress from last night. Cheesy looped music courtesy of Flip.

80 20

What is it about projects like these that makes the last 20% of the work take 80% of the time?

It's all good, though. Still having fun and plugging away with minor setbacks here and there. I was trimming the top planks last night to get to the rough outline of the board before putting them in place when I got 2 cracks. Luckily, the trusty manual had a quick fix involving tite bond and a razor. We'll see how it worked out once I'm back in the shop tonight.

As of now, all of the blocking (fin, leash, and vent) are in place and all of the knot holes have been plugged up with epoxy. Tonight I'll dryfit the top planks and add any final blocking for extra gluing surface. If all goes REALLY well, I'll get the top planks on tonight, but if not, tomorrow will have to do.

I wanted to have my board finished by this weekend

but it's just not workin' out.

Zoinks

We don't have this problem in NY. Water is never clear enough to see past 4" deep.

Indo

Man, it's been way too long since I've been in the water.

Saw this video today and got so stoked. Must take a warm water trip sooooooon!

1 more week

I moved most of the equipment out of the workshop this weekend and into my basement. I'm still looking for a well-ventilated place to do the glassing once the board is finished. I've got til the end of this week to get the top planks on and at that point I'll be able to take the board anywhere til I'm ready to glass it.
Thank you, Mike and Jen, for the extra week. It will make a world of difference.

Back at it

After a couple weeks of downtime, I got back in the shop last night. Downtime was due to work, travel, and sickness (not my own). Good to get my hands working again and great to smell the cedar while sanding and shaping last night.

Last night was mostly prep work for tonight and tomorrow:
I shaped and trimmed up the blocking for the fin box and got it dry fit.
I added strips to the keels and frames in the nose for strength and larger gluing surface.
I got a couple knots ready to fill in with epoxy.

Tonight I'll mix up some epoxy and put in the fin box blocking, the ventplug blocking, the leashcup blocking, and fill in the knot holes.

Friday night should be about time to put the top planks on! Sweet!

Happy St. Patty's Day

I wish I could celebrate by epoxying the bottom of the board in a rich kelly green, but I'm still a week or so away from that step.
Started planing down the landings last night and got them pretty much done. I have some more trimming and shaping in store tonight and I'll also put in the blocking for the fin and vent.
I got the fin in the mail yesterday. It is HUGE! Looks perfect with the scale of the board though.
I gave up beer, but here's a bunch of guys drinkin it and saying Irish stuff. Be safe on the roads tonight.

Ides rather be surfing

March 15th. For once I'm thankful that there's been no surf all week. I got so much done Friday and Saturday its not even funny. Finished the rails yesterday around 2pm (15 on each side). Last night I brought the shaping stand into the workshop and moved the board from the rocker table to the shaping stand. I used a rasp to even out the rails and get rid of excess glue. It now officially looks like a surfboard, or more accurately, a convertible surfboard.

Here's a vid of the status as of yesterday afternoon. You'll note that at the time, I thought yesterday was the 15th...so I guess I gained a build day. Sweet!



And here's one that shows the rough shape as of last night. Not so rough anymore actually. Tunes by Bobby Hebb. Finally seeing and feeling the rails on the board last night put me in such a good mood. The song always does the same.



Heading over to the shop soon to tape out the landings and start the inside strips to a feather-edge. This part is tricky so it may take all day. Sorry Gigi.

The Clamps

Alright, back in bizness. Got the both the chine logs in, the starter strip in on both sides, and the first rail strip on the right side. Now that the first couple passes are in, the rails should go on pretty quickly. Emphasis on should.

Video shows status as of last night at midnight, and also shows off a pretty impressive collection of a variety of clamps.

Glued and Trued

Got the frame joined to the bottom planks with 5200 last night. Not a job to tackle alone. Mikey helped out a lot and we got everything straight and solid. Forgot the camera at work last night so I'll take pics tonight before the chine strips go in. I aim to get the chine strip and maybe 1-2 more strips glued on tonight. After that, I should be back on schedule.

Weekend Update

SO, I made SOME progress this weekend, but also took a couple steps backwards. I built the rocker table on Friday night. Looks good. On Saturday, I went to the shop to join the skeleton to the bottom planks, but wound up snapping a frame piece in half. I was PISSED but was able to epoxy it back together. It's probably stronger now, but I wasted a day.
Had too much fun Saturday night so I was in no condition to work during the day on Sunday until later at night (I was hungover til 9pm ,a personal record). I trimmed off the excess plank material and marked off the lines around the keep to make everything easier when I 5200 the skeleton to the planks in about an hour. I'm off! Pics tomorrow.

The only water I see most days

is the East River on my way to/from work.

Skeleton

Lumber Load-In

Jarito helped me load in a couple 12ft long 2x6s on Sunday. I really thought I'd have to cut a foot or more off of them to get around the corner entrance of Mikey's place. They fit by about 1/2". This bodes well for getting the completed board out without having to lower it out the 4th story window.



Glued up the top planks tonight.

Sticky fingers

Last night after work I glued up the bottom planks and knocked down all the tabs and rough spots from the keel and frames. Tonight I'll glue up the top planks and epoxy the two halves of the keel together. I was kinda crunched for time so no photos, but here's a video of the planks after they were glued and clamped.

Fin

Just ordered this monster fin for the log. Should be great for drop-knee turns and noseridin. It will also look good with the green bottom.

On repeat

This song has been runnin in my head all day long.

And so it begins...

After a great 2.5 hr surf session this morning, I was able to set up shop in the new workspace. TONS of space and lots of great light. I am so lucky to have a friend like Mike.
I got all the tools ready and organized, the planks laid out ready for gluing up tomorrow, and ran through the inventory to figure out what else I need (a bit more than I thought).
I brought over my portable record player and a couple dozen records for essential build-tunes. Today's work started with Beach Boys and Jan and Dean. My aunt and uncle gave me the entire Beach Boys vinyl collection a few years back. Thanks Barry and Susan! Those old tunes always put me in a good mood.
The last thing I did tonight was I popped the frame pieces out and did a dry fit of the skeleton. I laid the frame out on top of the planks and it's already starting to come together.
Tomorrow I'll build the rocker table, glue up the bottom planks (top ones too if there's time), and clean up the frames as they're a bit rough around the edges. That should put me in a good place for the rest of the week.
STOKED to be starting this process finally! Stay tuned!
Happy Birthday, Dad! Crazily enough...he's working on a cedar canoe in his garage in Michigan. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. When he sends me pics, I'll put them up here so we can compare. Very similar build techniques and materials, but I wouldn't recommend hanging ten on a canoe...unless you're the Karate Kid.

Inspiration

Alright, I can almost taste the sawdust. Counting down the days til the build officially begins. This weekend, I'll be buying the sawhorses and other materials to build the rocker table.

I've got some new ideas and techniques in store for this build. I plan on using a green (both in color and in eco-friendliness) stain on the bottom, possibly black rails, and au naturel on top. I've toyed with the idea of finely grinding up some plantlife (grass, leaves, etc) and disolving the particles into the epoxy when I glass the bottom. Other options would be to mix a small amount of tinted woodstain into the epoxy. I still want to see the wood grain through the tint so I'll need to experiment with a bunch of options.

Here's the look I'm aiming for on the bottom:


The guys at Grain let me pick out the planks I wanted for the top and bottom decks when I picked up the kit (ahem, 5 MONTHS AGO). I've forgotten what they look like since they're still in the box, but I know this board is gonna be killer. Awesome book-matched grain patterns and a great variety of tones.

Progress!!!

It's been so long since I updated this, I didn't remember the url.
Got some great news last night! My good friend Mike informed me that his roommate is moving out in a couple weeks, and he'll have empty space in his apartment for the entire month of March. It will be a challenge to complete the board in a month, but it's one I'm confident I can meet. Shopping this weekend for final supplies. SOOOOO STOKED!!
Updates will be coming fast and furious for the entire build.
Thank you, Mike! I owe you big time.

D.R. Trip

So my wife and I went to Dominican Republic for my b-day a couple weeks ago. Great to get away from the cold hard city, and take a few days of surfing and not much else. We hiked down an 80' cliff to get to this break called La Barca. It's bigger than it looks in the pic, and the crystal clear water over the reefs made for an unforgettable session.

This was another spot, a mellow little beach break that we had to ourselves for 3 days. No one around for miles, just me and a couple friends.


I should have some news about the board-building program in the next couple of days. Stay tuned.

Goooood day on Sunday

So it was a bit smaller than expected, but near-perfect conditions. I brought my waterproof camera out there, got some great pics and videos, and then mistakenly erased my whole memory card when I got home. Oh well, now there's more room on my card for pics of the surfboard build that should be starting next week!

As promised though, here are some pics of the Sunday sesh. Big thanks to Jarito for taking (and not erasing) these sweet shots.

Epic surf on tap

RARELY do you see the words "Good-Epic" on a surf report for Rockaway Beach. Surfline is saying that this Sunday we will see some epic surf being driven up by Hannah. I can't wait. I'll post some pics on Monday. For now, here's a couple pics of the best conditions I've ever seen at this beach. This was taken on my birthday a few years ago. 8-10 ft in early November '05. Enjoy.

My first board

I picked up my first Grain Surfboards kit almost 2 years ago. It was the first kit they ever sold. I didn't have enough room to build it here in Brooklyn so I used my parents place up in Maine.

I'd go up maybe once a month and work on it all weekend. Due to this pace, it took me over a year to complete.

I was so pumped to get it in the water after waiting that long. I finished it just in time for a trip to Rincon (PR) and broke it in at Maria's, Domes, and Dogmans. The reward of riding a board built by my own two hands is impossible to describe. I still get looks and questions from folks at every beach I hit.

Here are some more pics of the process and the finished board. Much respect to my buddy Scott Smith who created the logo for me.

Noob

First time blogging. Bear with me.

This site will document the process of building my second wooden surfboard, and the creation of a wooden surfboard building pilot program for Stoked Mentoring.

Much more to come...stay tuned.