Dean Wickline's Wooden Surfboard Kit Project

Dean Wickline's
Wooden Surfboard Kit Project

Wells Ave Surfshop - June 11, 2008. Below are a few pix of the project as it progresses. The white rings that you see are PVC clamps that I made for squeezing the rail strips together while they're being glued.

This board won't be "perfect" especially where the railstrips are concerned but, Hey! it's my first attempt and now that I have the perspective of hindsight, my next board (hopefully) will turn out better. However, the bottom and the deck look pretty good!

Please forward or post the pics to our friends at ASC and if anyone wants to stop by to/from the beach I'd be happy to show them AND you!!! what's going on here.

Best,
Dean

(Click on pic for a larger image)

View from outside looking in

Frames glued to bottom

On the rocker table

Nose view

Tail view

Clamped rails in personal fortification

Clamping rail strips

Internal blocking for side fins

Before fairing the rails

Board on shaping stand, rocker table on the right

Another view shaping stand

Scraps from the drawknife

Tools of the trade: spokeshave, blockplane and drawknife

See the high point on rail

One of my shaping tools

Cutting off the tail for tailblock

Sawing with japanese saw

A final cut - note the bookend grain

Another final cut with the japanese saw

Two pictures of the deck after it got glued onto the frame.
The board was moved back onto the Rocker Table which has stations of perpendicular blocks that fit the nose & tail rocker of the board. The nose of the deck was steam-bent to fit the compound curves of the rails.

The frames inside the board were glued to the bottom of the deck with 5200 Underwater Adhesive; the nose was glued with MAS epoxy; and the blocking was glued to the deck with MAS epoxy thickened to the consistency of peanut butter.

The deck gets glued on

Arial view - deck gets glued

Upcoming pictures: When the glue dries and the board goes back onto the shaping stand for fairing the deck and rails.

Update of July 20, 2008

Deck on and ready to shape

This baby is ready for some glass

Tailblock with red & white cedar

Noseblock with red & white cedar

Leaning against the surf shop (deck)

Leaning against a tree (deck)

Bottom view

August 12, 2008 Update: Laminate Coat & Hot Coat

The OperatingRoom	The Patient
The Doctor	The Doctor and Patient
Glass On #1	Glass On #2
Glass On #3

Here’s how it started…

Last winter I was in the Caribbean and went surfing with a guy I met. He lives on top of a hill where from one side of his rooftop walkabout he can look down on one of the top 10 beaches voted in the world, and from the other side of the rooftop he can look down into the bay to see how the waves are breaking. He has been surfing the bay for years.

There was a big groundswell running and breaking on an outer reef about ¼ mile from the beach but the view from his roof was looking pretty much down on it.

“Let’s go surfing”, he said and proceeded to load a wood surfboard about 8’6” into the back of his Toyota pickup.

We paddled out, him on his wood board and me on my 7’ WRV. I had to constantly paddle harder than him just to keep up.

After getting my butt kicked in 8’ – 10’ swells with about a 13 second wave period, I asked him how he liked his wood board and he told me that he absolutely loved it.

When I got back to MD, I was surfing the Internet one night and Google'd "wooden surfboard" and came up with a hit from www.grainsurfboards.com. Check them out!!!!

I bought the 8’ board kit and here I am! The kit came in a box about 10’ long by 7” x 7”, definitely piece parts. There is a great instruction manual that comes with the kit and if you are handy with tools and have space to work in you can do it too!!!!!

If you want to stop by and check it out please do but call me first to make sure I’ll be home. The number is 443.822.4644.

I can’t wait to paddle out on it!!!!

Dean