Huck has just sent me these shots of his latest hollow wooden board project , which is an interesting twist on things. He builds his rails first with the deck and bottom rocker in them as can be seen above." To get the proper rocker, I used a temporary stringer and bracing to hold it in place as a visual guide while shaping the rocker into the rails - more pics attached"
" The dome in the deck was accomplished by angling the rails according to how much dome was desired. The steeper the angle, the greater the dome."
" When the plywood was clamped tightly to the perimeter of the rails at glueing, it caused the center to rise and form a dome in the deck. The final rounding of the rails was done after the glue dried."
" It is an attempt to use wood to dictate the design. Meaning the spring angle of the rails combined with the flex of the 5.2mm plywood dictates the deck dome and foil. No computer drawn cross-sections, no ribs, stringer, no cnc, etc. Rough-shape the rails, glue and clamp the plywood, finish shaping the rails, there's the surfboard, glass it and ride it."
" The idea met with some dire predictions of likely failure - it would be weak, it would flex in all the wrong places and wrong ways, it would be unresponsive because the deck wasn't attached to the bottom, it had been done before and was a failure, etc, etc, along with warnings to add bracing here or there by this method or that. "
" My intent was to see just how much interior structure is needed, no way to know unless you start with none, so that's what I did. I wanted to challenge some of the assumptions that dictate wood board "fishbones" structure."
" First ride report is in. Small beach break waves, 2-4' glassy. Conditions were pretty good despite being small, but it was definitely uncrowded, so I got a lot of waves. Duck dives easy, paddles easy enough (a bit more work than my 9' 6" I've been riding lately LOL), catches waves easy, stable for easy up, feels lively underfoot, turns and projects well, and mainly, doesn't feel any different than any of my other surfboards as regards being "completely hollow" - just feels like a surfboard! Once the board was glassed it became real sturdy, you can hardly tell its hollow."Huck
To check out what else Huck has been up to check him out at -http://alternativesurfboards.blogspot.com
