My new home made woodie

[mattv]

I finally decided to give a home made board a try. I used some of my existing skim boards to make the outline taking some of the features from each board to make a composite board.

The board is made of plywood with a lacquer finish. I put 4 coats on the bottom and 3 on the top. The pads came off of another board that I broke recently.

Today was my first ride on the new board. I was very concerned about how the board would ride as I kind of rushed through production as it was my first board. To my surprise the board rides great. It goes upwind better than any skim board I have ever rode and due to the thin rails I can hold down a lot of power without the board sliding out.

I am very happy with the board and hope to get lots of time on the water with it. I can not wait to make the next one.

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[biggins]

Matt,

That's awesome! What are the dimensions? How's the low end? Weight?

Pretty damn cool, especially since you don't have to worry anymore about running aground. I was thinking of trying somethign like that for a light wind cruiser for the under 14knot days. Maybe something really big like 160x70cm or something. Is the bottom dead flat or did you add concave?

Great job and cheap from what Dean said.

j

[mattv]

J,

The board is roughly 54" x 20". The board I copied had those dimensions but the woodie may be a tad smaller due to cutting and sanding. So far everyone that has ridden the board has liked it, 3 other rides other than myself.

I did add a little bit of rocker. We had 3 days of solid rain so I put the board outside to soak up the water then put cinder blocks on it when the sun came out and let it dry for a couple of days. I was trying to put more rocker in than I got but I think I like it just the way it is. I took it out in 25+ knots and some good chop and waves the other day and it worked great. The thin outline really holds an edge in higher winds. The flat bottom makes it go in light wind.

The only thing is the board does not turn on waves as well as I would like. I think this has to do with the tail and the wind profile. I made it a swallow tail to help with going upwind and holding an edge, which is does great, but this shape may take out some of the loose feeling I need for the waves. I am going to make version 2.0 with a round tail and a smaller shape for small wave riding. I am thinking 52" x 18".

I also want to try a bigger version, say 58" x 25" or 30" just for the fun of it and see how it does it light wind.

At roughly 3000 yen a board, not counting pads, I can make as many shapes as I want and just experiment to my hearts desire.

When you come down next time you have to take one of my creations out for a spin.

matt

[tungsten]

Looks good matt, I can imagine it's a sweet ride, by the shape and size you gave it! The way you put in rocker is true ghetto style. Kewl!

[biggins]

Matt,

That's cool, that's pretty close to the size of my board. I'd LOVE to try a BIG skim for light wind days only when you're not really jumping only. I keep thinking a 160cmx65-70cm would be awesome...it'd be really heavy though, but if you're not jumping anyway...

Yeah, when I go down there we'll have to do a board line up and comparison...if the woody is even close to as good, why pay full price right? Plus you get to experiment with the shapes/sizes you like most. you could probably try several sizes out to see which you like most and then maybe have a custom built so that it would be lighter?

I tried a ply twin once, it went upwind crazy good, but was way too heavy...worked though.

anyway, good job,

j