Greg Wheeldon is an architect from Brisbane who did the Paul Jensen board building course last year. He and his son who is into kite boarding wanted a project to do together so set about building their own.
"As promised, attached are some photos, of the kiteboard in progress, and the completed board."
"Over all dimensions are, 140cm x 45cm widest, 35cm narrowest, 25mm at thickest point. Single concave full length, 6mm, including through the rocker. Rocker 65mm each end. The board is a double ended shape for multi-directional use, with a semi-swallow tail cut end."
"Construction is basically similar to the hollow surfboard concept, with internal bow frames from 6mm ply. I had the frames CNC laser cut by a friend for free, which made the over-all job much easier, and less time consuming. "
"The external skins are from 4mm paulownia and western red cedar. The detailed patterns are mostly 450 cuts, and so are easily achieved with a 220mm dia bench saw, with a fine tooth blade."
" The foot-binding and central handle fixing plugs are made from inset 6mm stainless steel acorn nuts, glued into a double thickness ABS fixing plate. Full stainless steel plates would be too heavy. The acorn back to the nut seals the back of the bolt thread and prevents water entry into the hollow board."
This is the rocker bed to set it all up on during the build.
"The deck is rolled and the concave to the hull needed to be accurately cut, to ensure overall shape. At the thickest point the bow frames are 12mm deep, shaped for the deck and concave hull."
"Rails are laminated from cork and plywood, similar to the surfboard construction. Rails are only rolled from the deck side, as the hull skin and tough-edge insert are full width."
"The detailed patterned strip inset in the deck, is purchased from a joinery shop by the metre. A vast range of patterns and colours are available. The strips are typically 1.5mm thick x 6mm wide. So a standard 6mm router set 1mm deep will cut the perfect groove for the inset."
"The black inset strip is made from ABS Side-wall plastic. A type of tough polycarbonate used in snow board and snow ski construction. The strip will protect the outer edge from sand scrapping when coming to shore in shallow water, as all kite boarders do."
"Fin fixings are holes through the solid ABS insets, again to prevent water entry into the hollow board. Fins are fixed by counter-sunk stainless steel Phillips head bolts, and are standard spacings to fit standard purchased fins. Fins on kiteboards cope a pounding from the sand in shallow water and need to be easily replaced. Hence, easy replacement is required."
A very detailed and technical build for sure. A lot of work on a very small board with a great result. Thanks Greg we look forward to seeing it at the next board day.
Greg Wheeldon has just finished another board for Christmas.
" 6’6” x 21 ¼” x 2 ½” fish I just finished over the wet weekend. Photos taken before rails attached and shaped."
Some pretty trick wood work here Greg. Nice job.
"Single nose concave, with double tail concave. I inserted foam blocks, as the glasser will fix in FCS plugs in a 5 fin set-up. I will probably use a quad fin setup, but the 5 fin plug set-up gives maximum flexibility."
" It is off to the glasser yesterday, for one layer 4oz glass, for finishing just in time for Xmas."
Fish are a great board to build first up as they are small and easy to manage at home in a smaller space. Not so expensive to build and get glassed.
