DIY Surfboard Project Day 2: Art and Glassing

(continued from Day 1: One Board Shaped)

After taking a day off to surf, we got back to work.

We used lightweight spackle to fill in the little holes and dents, and lightly sanded.

Ant: "We're gonna call it the Chicken Petter."  And so it was.

We had red, blue and green tints.  We decided to make the tail green and leave the front a swirl of unmixed red and blue.

We only had 4oz glass so we went with two layers on the deck and one on the belly.

Team glassing, so much fun!  I now see I should have pre-mixed the red and blue with resin before combining on the board.  As a result some of the tint got clotted up in some small concentrated spots where the resin didn't mix with it fully.  But it resulted in some pretty interesting patterns.

Solarez.  Catalyzed by our good friend Sol, peeking out from under the board.  This is my first time working with this resin, and it's a great way to go since it kicks super fast in the sun.  As you can see, we went free lap cause we all like that look, but also because it seems right that the board celebrate its own handmade origins.

Once the belly kicked, we sanded the rough patches and laid two layers on the deck.  We were a bit sloppy with the rails so we did the deck glass one at a time.

Max did a truly absurd deck art piece that had us hysterical with laughter.  He did a bunch of test patches with different papers lying around like vellum, paper towel and cotton paper, and found that none of them laid flat after glassing.  Then he hit on the idea of using a coffee filter.  It worked brilliantly.

Jamie glassing the deck.  We had a bit of uv leaking in so he worked with some pretty fierce speed.

The waves were waist high but punchy.  At some point we just couldn't stand it any longer, dropped everything and went for a surf.  I borrowed Micah's helmet camera mount and chased him down a wave to get this shot.

As the sun was dropping in the sky, I realized that with rain in the forecast, I'd better paddle in and get that hot coat on.  I should have started a bit earlier, since the sun was getting pretty low by the end.  It was still a tiny bit tacky when it got dark, but hopefully we'll be ok.

Next up: sanding, fins and leash plug.  We're debating whether to sand the hot coat or do it after we put the fins on.  I think we might go with the former to make sanding the tail a bit easier.  We want to ride this baby tomorrow so we may risk working on it today even though it's a bit damp and overcast out.