David from Paulownia Paradise in Melbourne just sent these pics and the following story to share.
" We were often asked how a solid Paulownia surf board would perform so we used 3 lengths of 2”Paulownia timber that were quite bowed and just glued them together then shaped a 9’10” long board from solid timber with no holes drilled not chambered at all and weighed in at 12.5 KG and just a linseed oil finish."
" We laminated a D fin out of 6mm Paulownia and gave the end result to Ken Reimers of KR surf to test it with an honest result ."
The result - "Not enough rocker , not enough buoyancy and the fin buzzed so we have proved that this is not the way to go."So if you were thinking this would be the way to go. Don't. Not solid anyway, chambered works e all know. Solid Balsa works , but not solid Paulownia. So thanks David for the exercise.
David will be up from Melbourne on Sunday 8th of August ( next weekend )with samples of his timber and Paulownia Alaia blanks to check out.
www.paulowniasurfboardsupplies.com
