The board was handmade by our good friend Seabass 2 months ago. It rides like nothing I've ever seen, and gets a lot of inquisitive looks at the beach. He wanted to share his experience with everybody here


top deck


nose - bottom deck


close up tail - bottom


side view, thin finless wood board


turns easily


nose ride


3 shot of long ride


(shot 2)


(shot 3)

Here's his story:
The whole board is pine.
Length 7'
Width - nose 17" - mid 17" - tail 12"
Thickness 1 1/2"
Weight 15 lbs
It has 4 inner stringers with two outer stringers I trimmed so a 1/8 plywood would sit into it flush.

Supplies needed = 2- 1X3 for the rails and 2- 1X3 for the inner stringers which are split to make 4 stringers and a 1/8 sheet plywood for the top and bottom.
I used ultimate wood glue titebond111, it's water proof and works really well. After u cut out the outer stringers to get the bend on the nose, glue the top 1/8 plywood on, the more clamps the better.
Then glue in the stringers. When that's all dry, lay in the bottom ply and clamp.
Sand down the rails and make them as stream-line as u can.
A few coats of polyurethane varnish and ur done.
Total cost = $30 dollars.
Total time building = 5 hours
Tools needed - table saw, hand saw, a ton of clamps and hands.


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Another new board he built for himself recently, a chambered cedar board.
"Made out of 1X4's, after glassing it's 19 lbs. It floats and rides very well and grabs a lot of attention."


top deck


bottom nose


bottom tail & glassed in fins


turns easy


rails nicely (3 shot wave)


glassy reflection (shot 2)


throwing spray (shot 3)

Any more questions, ask Seabass (user name THESURFER).

Seabass, there's a bunch more pics from both days 5/8 & 5/16 on our webshots.
Click here for more pics


Peace out - BHJIm


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Bored without my board...

BoardHeads2.com
FLSurfCams.com

Mikey D was riding something like that first board the last few times I surfed with him. Pretty interesting. Of course, he rips on anything!

100% pure talent

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The Wavecaster

That's so rad. Simplicity and clean lines.

It's so cool to see guys getting into this. It's like the antithesis to the growing commercialization of surfing. Build your own wood board and ride the hell out of it.

Tight work man, how about a first person perspective on the experience?

Check out Musica Surfica if you haven't already:

http://www.phoresia.org/?p=274

Fascinating stuff! My first thought when I saw the side view of that first board was "whoa! how could you ride that thing with no fins and no rocker!", but he's obviously got it going on from the pics!

Looks like some great craftsmanship and must be a lot of fun to try new designs like that. I always grew up with a one-board quiver and wondered what it would be like to try different shapes/styles.

  I built this board a week after i got the surfing mag with the alaia artical. I took the fins out of every board i had and tookem out studyed them. its amazing how much speed u loose by having rocker. with an alaia all u have to do is trim the rail into the wave and u take off. With fins ur board faces more twards shore and working the wave is how u get ur speed. ive surfed this board in all wave conditiond including thos over head glassy days at inlet, but found the best wave conditions are waist to chest and glassy. its really hard to stay away from this board i take with me every where  and chose it over my other boards constantly.  im building another out of roofing insluation haha well see how that turns out. 

   thanx Jim and D your shots are always sic.

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''dont take life to seriously you wont get out alive''
www.boardheads2.com
www.skimcity.com

Edited: 05/23/2008 at 10:02 AM by THESURFER

That second board is amazing! Does that one also have no rocker?

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407 to 808

the surfer please ck yo pm.

surftech, here's mikey d's new alaia.









actually mikey just met seabass last friday and they got to compare new boards (most pics here are from that day).

(oh, and mel, your board rides just like my modelT (may it RIP). thanks!!! i'll bring it back soon)


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Bored without my board...

BoardHeads2.com
FLSurfCams.com

the cedar board has about 2  1 half rocker in the nose and 2 in the tail really hard to surf on waves with fast take offs, but on glassy days with the 19 lbs of momentom and the sharp back rails the board flys .also put into consederation there is nothing like riding a wooden board.

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''dont take life to seriously you wont get out alive''
www.boardheads2.com
www.skimcity.com

Edited: 05/23/2008 at 02:23 PM by THESURFER

be cool if you surfed that in the real retro heat at the watermans challenge.

You guys forgot to put the doorknob on

In all seriousness they are pretty cool! It must take some serious talent to go up and hit the lip with a tail block that wide.
You should post some pictures of the construction process. Are they hollow? I am trying to visualize the process but am coming up short.

foam ball, mikey made a post on here when george was building his board
mikey's alaia

i doubt seabass had a camera on hand when he built his. but maybe.

i watched seabass pull full 360's on the waves, and 180 redirects with just his feet, his body never moved, it was the most unnatural thing i've ever witnessed. i saw him hit the lip and get air. he even skimmed the thing. mikey said seabass has real talent to ride that board the way he did. quite the compliment. cause it ain't easy being finless. (just ask a real skimmer)

now i want one.

-bhjim




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Bored without my board...

BoardHeads2.com
FLSurfCams.com

Never having attempted to ride one of these things I may very well be talking out my arse. But it seems to me the only folks who could even stand up on the things are the ones with pro level skills. In the '70's I watched Greg Mungal surf an old long board upside down. From paddle in to finish. I mean fin sticking up upside down. I was at the top of my humble skills at the time and tried it myself with a longboard I had. NO FREAKINN" WAY! Mungal was surfing, and surfing well, a board that not only had no fin but negative rocker, while I couldn't even paddle into a wave without pearling up to my kneecaps.

Hey, if there's any average surfers on here (and I know there are) who have any success with one of these boards lets hear it.

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The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness -
John Kenneth Galbraith

Great pics of both guys on their alaias. Glad you like the board. Keep it as long as you need.

I dont have pics of the process  sorry.  anyone is welcome to ride the board if u see me on the beach. the one im buildinng now it 5,8 at 18 inc wide  made from roofing insulation (dont recomend shaping with it its very very soft) hopefully the 4     6oz coats  and 9 oz 6 inch wide stip on the rails will help.    Anyone ever shaped with roofing insulation?

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''dont take life to seriously you wont get out alive''
www.boardheads2.com
www.skimcity.com

I forget this guys name but he gets his from Wegener in Aus. It is amazing to watch.

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"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace." J.H.

Interesting boards and pics. thanks.

If you mean the wall panel type stuff that is around .75 lb/cu. ft., yes. It is very soft stuff. I know that the big box stores sell this in 4' x 8' sheets, but I glued up the wall insulation type (3' x 16" x 0.75"). It helps to have a rocker table (plywood with some support) and/or you can bond on your bottom layer once you have the bottom contours done to set the rocker and give it stiffness.

I'm going to make a couple more boards that way this summer. It is inexpensive, and you learn so much.

That board looks like fun. I paddled out last weekend down south when you were taking your cedar fish out. My fish is a balsa skin with the light foam as a core.

the surfer
I have a few questions for you.
How do you put rocker into a solid piece of wood? Also is the tongue and groove fitting absoluteley necessary? If so how did you do it?