Wally's 9'1" Longboard

Namaste readers. My mate Wally has been spending time during his holidays working on his latest woody, a nine-one longboard. Wally is an industrial design teacher and spends his days showing his students how to build wooden surfboards (what a job!) but he had been neglecting his own wooden board project until recently. So here are a few snaps and some words about his latest passion. Take it away Wally.

It's been more than 12 months since I got the templates for a 6'2" Fish and a 9'1" Mal. Finally I have something to show for it. I worked with my son Peter on and off over the last 3 days. He is a pretty sharp guy and I appreciated his input. We learnt so much and have ideas to improve the next one.

Some Notes:-

The holes in the centre stringer and ribs were too large (straight from AKU and HBTM). While making the board lighter, the frame is much weaker so I will probably use circles next time and cut the drainage grooves on the laser or CNC Router. Pete will give the board a good workout to test it out and see how strong it is.

We glued the bottom skin on before the deck making it difficult to make and line up the drainage channels.

After watching Zac and Toby struggle with putting the rails on their boards I was determined to come up with a better clamping method that was quick and foolproof for the students, minimising gaps. It worked really well. Next time I will use an additional 5 clamps to ensure no gaps. We put 3 rail strips on both sides of the board in the first clamping and 2 on each side in the second.

I chose not to do any steam bending to speed things up, hence the decorative nose and tail.

I have got to say its a real buzz to see the top skins and rails go on.

We didn't glass the inside of the board because we missed this step when we glued on the first skin.

I will pay more attention to positioning and supporting the drainage system and the pressure release areas on my next board.

Pete has taken the board home to finish off will have final pics soon.

The comment repeated continually by Pete during the whole process "this is awesome".

Well Wally and I can't wait to see the photos of the finished product. There's nothing like a wooden board project to bring a father and son together. Keep up the great work.