the alaia project

Is it swimming or is it paddling? I can't decide but i know it's surfing, a whole new yet ancient world...
I've been shaping these up for a while now and always carry one around in the car just in case I see a nice little bank. Finless sliding, the possibilities...

foam circa 1960ish

5'8 1/8" x 19 5/8" x 2 11/16" Recycled polyurethane foam board circa 1960ish, 4x4x4oz glass, Resin Research E-poxy resin, pigment, quad setup.

mystic laboratories

The mystic lab under construction and complete. shapes flowing thick and fast...

hessian & epoxy..?

I spent a few hours building a purely experimental board in order to test a number of ideas I had regarding the use of alternative recycled/reused materials and techniques. The use of hessian rather than fibreglass with epoxy resin being just one. Mixed results with a catastrophic failure on the maiden voyage but some extremely valuable data was pried from the wreckage...

compsand fish

5'11 3/4" x 21 1/2" x 2 3/8" Composite sandwich, paulownia deck, balsa hull, agave rails, recycled EPS foam, 4x4x4oz glass, polyester resin, red pigment, Polyglass canard quads custom.

My workhorse since August '10, she's light, strong, durable and low impact. I've surfed it in half a foot mush at The Point and head and a half at Boomer and its proven dependable every surf.

genesis

This is where it all began... Paul Joske's 7' thruster. Chambered paulownia with ebony fin plugs, linseed oil, gum turps. NO GLASS, NO RESIN, NO PLASTIC. The bloke who commissioned it lives and surfs it in Victoria. Now tell me your not inspired to surf a little greener...

Agave Fish

5'11 x 21 1/2" x 2 3/4" Solid Agave, paulownia stringers, glass-on canard quads with agave core.

Better glassed with E-poxy. A great fat day fish.

the centinal

6'4 3/8" x 19" x 2 11/16" Composite sandwich, paulowna, agave, recycled polyurethane foam, 4x4x4oz glass, polyester resin.

Stiff and on the heavy side, Composite Sandwich #1.
Its a good feeling to be able to recycle an old broken board into a new, harder wearing unit.

board three "Donald Takayama 'Stephen Slater' model replica"

9"1 1/8" x 22 1/8" x 2 3/4" Heavily chambered paulownia with salvaged western red cedar stringers, 6x6x6oz glass, polyester resin & MEKT catalyst.

I first made an unsuccessful attempt at a plywood frame for an HWS version of this board. For some reason I was being overly hasty and impatient in every aspect of construction and it bombed badly. The ply was also a bad choice and my construction method wasn't up to standard either. The unfinished frame went into the rafters and I set about chambering a third even though the waste was now a heavy weight on my conscience. I decided that this would be my last chambered board and that some hard work and even harder thinking was necessary to develop my own construction method to minimise waste & weight and optimise performance & strength.

Board no.3 was first glassed with two x 6oz on top and one x 6oz on bottom. This was my first foray into glassing and I must say that no amount of research and preparation could have prepared me. Not enough resin, too much MEKT cat., working too slow = Bad glass job. It has since been de-glassed and oiled then sunk due to a faulty join and now resides on the wall of the living room.

board two "Modern Fish"

5'11'' x 20.75'' x 2.5'' Single - double - extended vee, thruster/quad/twin option. Heavily chambered paulownia with red mystery wood stringers, stain, secret high gloss varnish, no glass (fatal error)...

This was the time when I realised that all my boards for some time to come were going to have some element of experimentation involved in either their construction or aesthetic and often both.

After the success of my wooden biscuit I wanted to push the boundaries of the construction method and felt confident in attempting my first shape design. I kept hearing about the weight of the biscuit so I wanted to see just how light I could go. The construction method was the same as board one with the exception of the thickness of the deck and hull. I went THIN.

Board no.2 was pushed to its limits and subsequently damaged beyond repair. Some valuable lessons were learned and it was during the chambering of no.2 that I became worried about the final product/waste ratio. Too much sawdust, not enough board...

Board one "Wooden Bicbic"

5'7 11/16" x 20 7/8" x 3 1/16". Heavily chambered paulownia, thruster setup, epoxy coat, no glass.

Man I hit this project hard! After seeing Paul Joske's board in that mag I was like a man posessed, searching out and eating up any and all information I could find not only on the subject of wooden boards and the various methods of construction but traditional board construction and design too.

I decided that if I was going to spent 40 hours building this thing then I would choose a board I knew I liked to ride so I went with my trusty Al Merrick Biscuit...

Board still goes great and has carried me through some great sessions!