egg, Japanese flavored =)

Something different this go-around. I don't want to say too much, because really so much is vague in my mind - gonna have to make it up as I go along. But my tentative agenda is this: to try a new method I've never done before, and never seen done. Based on boards (and other related disciplines) I have seen, as an inspiration.

The idea is to make a lighter board, or more accurately, to find a lighter system / methodology of making boards - but since this one is experimental, I'm not going to worry too much about the weight of this particular board (if its successful, then I can always tweak the details to get the weight down on later iterations).

Also, this is intended to be a personal statement of sorts - dunno if I'm saying it right, but I'm not seeking to find a method that will catch on with other builders. Like most of what I do, its not likely to be very expedient, or practical, LOL.

This method will draw inspiration from varied sources, not all of which are surfboard related. I'm hoping to end up with something like a Japanese flavored egg!

discussion forum withdrawals?

Swaylock's discussion forum is not working! I thought anyone might like to know that I host a Web community that the Sway's crowd may enjoy. It's called alternative surfcraft - a place to discuss homebuilt, custom shaped, hollow, wooden, compsand, foam, or any other of various and sundry alternative surfboard building methods other than factory produced surfboards.

Everyone is welcome to join in on the alternative surfcraft message boards and I look forward to seeing you there!

To join our discussions, simply go to here

Its part of Delphi Forums. If you've never used Delphi Forums before, you'll need to go through a quick registration (so you can post messages). It only takes a minute and it's free!

Hope to see you there, Huck

what was I thinking?

This board was a result of several factors and influences

I wanted a board small enough to fit in the back seat of the car, but still offer the float / paddling of a longer board (like "trunk boards", but not quite as small)

I wanted to use the square tail / square nose to give it a straighter rail curve than most small wide boards, something I had also seen on the "trunk boards".

I had seen several step-decks on swaylocks, with good ride-report, and figured my rail system lent itself especially well to a step-deck.

I was curious about challenging certain assumptions, wanting to build a board with no ribs - and diverging from the common practise of running the planks lengthwise or diagonally.

Another factor was that I had read several forum posts of builders fighting to bend the deck into the compound curves that rocker / dome created on top. So I decided to design a board that has no bent pieces of wood in it, at all. This was a result of a discussion I started on tree-2-sea concerning my desire to build a wood board that capitalized on wood's strengths, without fighting to make it imitate foam in shape or structure.

I always build my decks piece by piece over the framework, so I seldom have to struggle to bend it the way others do. But in this case, the entire board was to be built of straight pieces of wood.