The Rails

We then add the bead and cove strips of cedar, which are basically long strips of cedar placed on top of one another from the outside edge of the Chine Strip and going up and over the frames for about 12-14 strips on each side of the board. These will form our rails. This process took me forever, I didn't have enough clamps and you had to wait 2 hours for each strip to glue, which meant it took mainly a month to do all these given that I only had evenings to work on it for about an hour or less, plus put in the family time too and get away for surf. Every other strip gets shorter as you get through the board. A bit difficult to explain so hopefully these pics can give an idea. I think pictures speak louder than words.

Between now and Christmas I don't think I will get much more done, off now to San Fran for some work for a week or so, but I have a bit of forward thinking to do with regard to my fin box position and I need more glue which I have to source from the web. So although nothing constructive to be done on the surfboard, a bit of planning is still going ahead.

Delays due to enjoyment of summer

It’s been a while nearly 3 months since I got back to the attic to do anything on the board, really falling behind. With the heat in the attic in the summer its not a nice place to be, and then with holidays and lots of weekends west there wasn't much other time to devote to the board building as well. And sure Tyrone winning a third All-Ireland kept me off the tracks as well. But Autumn coming in now so I will be full at it I hope.

Adding the Chine Strip/Nose Block

The next step is to place a Chine strip around the board from the tail to the nose. This line for the Chine strip is very important as it is basically your real outline of the shape of the board so important to get it looking right.

The Chine Strip as in pic 1 you will see I am trying to bend it right around the nose to get a full solid piece around that part without having to make a joint on the nose.

To bend these strips the old iron and wet towel is called out and loads of patience, it will come right just takes time. In the end I don't feel comfortable with it so I decide I will put in a solid nose and so only need to run the chine strip up till that last frame.(pic 2)

Releasing the Clamps

So the clamps are all released and for the first time I get to see the start of an exciting build. It’s at this stage that you can really appreciate the effort when you can see a glimpse of a final shape coming together. The next few pics are taken after all the weight is lifted off and clamps all removed. I let the glue dry about 4 days. It does need at least 24 hours but I was in no rush and I wanted to be sure I had a good contact made.

Framework to Bottom Planks

Once the planks were given enough time to bond together, I repeated the same for the bottom planks. After a few days then I roughly cut out the outline of my board leaving a good couple of inches outside of the framework to still work with. Now I can add the framework to the bottom planks. Putting the framework together is fairly easy, it fits very snugly but do add some glue also to ensure no movement. This framework is going to come under a lot of pressure when being glued to the bottom planks. As you see in pic 1 I have already cut the bottom planks to a rough outline of the board. Starting to take shape!! I am now adding the 3m 5200 fast cure sealant to the bottom of the framework. You will need a spare of hands here, not just for the camera but when this glue goes down you don't have much time to work with. You also must ensure you have the centre keel in line with the exact middle of the board and it needs to be straight the whole way through the board. Any mistakes here could have your whole board off through the rest of the build. Looking at pics 2 and 3 this might look a mess but it had to be this way and it worked anyhow. From these pics you will see why a spare pair of hands were needed, a few dry runs were done first to ensure this clamping system would work, we used the rafters above us to push down onto each frame. A lot of weight used also, parts of slabs, bench weights, remember you have to try and force the planks to take to the shape to the Rocker Table and framework. Whew....now this is all done we can leave for at least a couple of days and hopefully when I come back to take of the clamps the planks will have formed to the framework and held its shape. A drink would be nice now!!

Gluing Top Planks together

The next stage was to arrange and glue the top planks together and then the bottom planks. The planks all are about 10’ in length and you arrange them into how you would like to see your finished board. Grain had given me some nice timbers so I think mine turned out the best I could get with the cut woods given. The finished article will probably turn out much better when all sanded and varnished etc but I just can’t see it myself at the moment. From these photos you can't really see the true grains due to lighting, wet glue and probably poor camera shots. As you will also notice, an important device is the clamp. I still never had enough but just had to make do or come up with ideas. The bar clamps can run pricey, I got 4 of them costing about €30 each, ouch! and I had over 20 spring clamps, still not enough for some later stages.

Starting out to build one of these

A few things needed to be done before assembling the kit. Getting the room to do this was a small problem, with no outside shed or garage to work in, I could only use the attic, which luckily was all floored anyhow and at least I was out of the way. I needed to build up a Rocker Table to run at least the length of the board and about a few inches wider than it. With the rocker table now built, and clearance now made in the attic this would be where I will be spending many mid week nights and odd weekends. Sure there's nothing on TV anyhow. I also had no tools so my new now favourite store is B&Q, without their help I would be lost, and it was quite close to me so if I needed something I could just pop down quickly and back to the attic again. In these 2 pics you will see the beginning of the rocker table and then the finished rocker table with the fishbone framework put together on top so that it gives me an idea where I needed each cross member to be so as to support the frame later when gluing the framework to the planks.

The Kit I took - Root 9' Long Board

The kit I went for is the Root 9' Long Board. As I figured I would be some time making this board and in no rush, it gave me the opportunity to look for something that I would like to still be doing in the later years ahead. I'm not likely to be still always on the shorter boards but this would be a board that will be well used for as long as I can live and be fit for. In the kit Grain has provided me with the planks of cedar timber, fin box, air vent, leash plug, cloth, resin, and a manual which is not all that explanatory.

What Grain says about it "Everyone needs one of these boards in their quiver. The Root features a moderate rocker, slight hollow in the nose and softer rails throughout. Perfect for those mushy knee to head high beach breaks. Smooth and fast."

Although not my own design this build will give me the confidence to possibly after this do something from scatch on my own, we all need a start somewhere. So the board kits arrived, it's late Feb 08. My daughter Caitríona is already checking it out, she sits well on it. Best start them young. Now the real fun begins, but looking forward to it.

The Decision

I decided I would like to give a go at trying to build one of these things because now I was going to be surfing less for the next forseeable future. We (my wife maggie and me) had a beautiful little daughter Caitríona, she was now nearly 1 years and we would both have to stop the every weekend trip west for the moment for a surf. This project would keep my mind of the waves that I would be missing every now and then, and I know that when completed I would have something to show for my time sacrificed on Dublins east coast. When it comes to surfing, really it's the west coast that gets its fair share of waves in Ireland. Though the south east and the north coast have some great days too, but being in Dublin is really like being landlocked. You may as well be in Offaly!