Summertime in Colorado

     

It's hot! Not hot like "Texas Hot!" but hot none the less. When it has been over 90 degrees for weeks and you are a mile closer to the sun it makes a difference. Well, this is my blog that will attempt to chronicle my journey through the pages and construction process of building a surfboard. A "Grain" surfboard to be exact. If you aren't familiar with them than you should check them out at http://www.grainsurfboards.com/. I know people who aren't even into surfing who have found this company as an inspiration. I guess right about now you are asking yourself what the heck is a guy in Colorado doing building a surfboard? Well, I lived in Southern California for a while and started surfing while living there. Right about the time I started to get the hang of surfing I decided to move to Colorado. I still have family in the hills above Malibu so I still get to California about once a year if I am lucky. Anyway, enough about that. For my 40th Birthday my wife bought me a 10' waterlog kit from Grain and I am finally, (11 months later), getting around to getting started.

After spending a little time reading the manual and collecting some tools and supplies, I finally was able to start making a little sawdust (sordust). I started by milling up some walnut for the stringer details that I wanted to ad. Then the laminating table was built so that I could glue up my bottom planks.

The process of building this table is a bit of a zen practice when you are ready to start working on your board. Taking the time to get everything square and taped so that glue will not stick to the wood is half of the work. Now it is time to get a visual. Pulling out the bottom planks and laying them out to find the best configuration before glue up is really exciting.

The moment is finally here to take action on this quest to build this beautiful wood salt sled. After about what seemed like an hours worth of taping the seams for gluing I was able to finally pull the cork out of the old glue bottle. Lets get messy!

Now that all of that fun has been had the bottom blank is glued and clamped and left to sit for the night. I will check in on it tomorrow and think about glueing the top blank.