Case Study #1

I’ve been making hollow wooden surfboards for the last six years and over the last two. I’ve gotten much better at reducing the weight by using a thinner cloth and I’m now using the FCS II fin system. I use the AKU shaper program to design the layout rocker and where the ribs are going to be placed using the slices program.  After I design everything on the AKU program I then export it to the hollow wooden board, template maker, software program, and print out the pattern for the spine and ribs. The boards that I’m currently working on our typical small board shapes thrusters anywhere from 7’4” down as small as 5’10” .

Discovering and using your program has taken my board making skills to a whole different level. It is it going from a complete unknowing amateur to someone who knows what they’re doing as a serious hobby, and knows how to problem solve and make needed adjustments to issues that arise in the board making process.

The way I make boards are what’s known as the strip plank style where I put anywhere between 1/4 of an inch to a 1 inch wide board that is a quarter of an inch thick and I use a nose and Cove router bit to allow for a positive placement between the boards, as their bending, and curving over the spine and rib frame . The way I construct the board is a little time consuming but I really enjoy making surfboards. It is an incredibly rewarding experience to ride something that you’ve made especially when you’re taking off on a double overhead steep critical wave, and then getting barreled and paddling back out for more and knowing you’re the only one that you know that’s doing that.

These are some photos of the pattern I have glued onto quarter inch marine grade Akune plywood it’s a 5‘6“ wide thick quad made for small waves. It’s not what you would call a fish because I’m going to have a squash tail on it but it’s similar in the way that it would ride.