A Board For Myself

Hybrid Nose Rider is done. Now just need some waves to test drive her. Click on images to enlarge them.

Well my last 'personal stick' is gone and riding a Surftec 10'6" glider just doesn't cut it. Charlie got my personal stick, so time to make one for myself. It's a nose rider, 4" rear rocker and 2.5-3" front rocker. Concave under nose that tapers to a shallow V towards tail. Rails are pinched up from bottom deck and tapered quickly down on top. Since there is no way to put a 1/4" sq chine around the ribs, it is replaced with two 1/4" upper rib braces near center spar. PITA to get it all lined up to avoid frame warping. Also, try to get 3/16" decking to bend into concave - not easy. Ended up using a chair seat plane I made years ago for set of Windsor Chairs.

Our regular wood boards use 3/4" rail (3 of them) that start at bottom deck and go up along the ribs. This one, because of how pinched the rails are, takes 4 rails to make the same bend. Some make large fat noses, I'm staying with our traditional round that is slightly smaller. I think it makes for easier wave catching in hard off-shore windy days. Bottom deck is book matched spruce and top is western cedar and spruce. I've been saving a really sweet set of spruce that has red fungus/mineral stains in it. Looks very interesting. Hope to glass next week.