Thinking about my next board I figured I'd go a little wacky, a little different and something challenging.
When I spotted Elliot Johnson's hotcurl I was frothing, the board was a pure work of art. Feeling weak at the knees and rolling my tongue back in my mouth it was a no brainer, I had to make one, add it to my collection of woody quiver and complete my life!
After doing some research online it revealed little info and only a dozen or so pics. One thing led to another and I started to draw some inspiration from Roger Hall, Roy Stuart and the boards Hobie among others out there. Roger Hall's Hotcurl YouTube clip sealed the deal & gave me a fantastic insight to riding these sexy beasts.
Many thanks goes to Fran Heath, Wally Frosieth and John Kelly, a group of surfers from Hawaii, who in 1934, started messing about with the square tails of the board, cutting them down to a narrow V tail. This gave the surfboard more maneuverability. These new boards were called ‘hot curl ‘ boards, named because the boards allowed the surfer to maneuver into the ‘curl’ of the wave as apposed to sliding out on the steeper walled stuff.
A lot can be drawn from these early designs - it's very inspiring and the journey in making this board has been thoroughly enjoyable. Many thanks to those who have posted their boards online and shared information.
With no further ado here are some pics I captured in assembling this board:
If your keen to understand the build process check out Grant Newby's blog. It provides a very thorough run down. Go-on give it a whirl - you'll get hooked!
A short vid surfing the hotcurl at Burleigh Heads, Queensland. Small day but fun waves.
When I spotted Elliot Johnson's hotcurl I was frothing, the board was a pure work of art. Feeling weak at the knees and rolling my tongue back in my mouth it was a no brainer, I had to make one, add it to my collection of woody quiver and complete my life!
After doing some research online it revealed little info and only a dozen or so pics. One thing led to another and I started to draw some inspiration from Roger Hall, Roy Stuart and the boards Hobie among others out there. Roger Hall's Hotcurl YouTube clip sealed the deal & gave me a fantastic insight to riding these sexy beasts.
Many thanks goes to Fran Heath, Wally Frosieth and John Kelly, a group of surfers from Hawaii, who in 1934, started messing about with the square tails of the board, cutting them down to a narrow V tail. This gave the surfboard more maneuverability. These new boards were called ‘hot curl ‘ boards, named because the boards allowed the surfer to maneuver into the ‘curl’ of the wave as apposed to sliding out on the steeper walled stuff.
A lot can be drawn from these early designs - it's very inspiring and the journey in making this board has been thoroughly enjoyable. Many thanks to those who have posted their boards online and shared information.
With no further ado here are some pics I captured in assembling this board:
Plan shape sorted and wrapped in timber inner rails.
Bottom and top laminate skins good to go. I took them down to 4mm.
The bottom skin was made from recycled western red cedar I salvaged for a small fee.
Slipped it into the vac bag for 3hrs to glue down the skins to the foam.
Things got a little technical gluing on the V fin section. But after stuffing around for about 1hr I got it all clamped down.
Rail build out went smoothly and ended up with 1 inner and three outer rail strips.
Hand cut abalone to inlay - this was not easy using a Stanley knife. 3 hours later, a sore neck, & tennis elbow & I was good to go.
My wood burning skills is comparable to a 2 year olds crayon drawings - I keep it to a limit. Respect to those artists out there who can first of all draw with these cumbersome tools and secondly do shading and textures within the wood!
Being 'fiberglass application challenged' or FACed I was surprised how well things went ;-)
The end result. After final sanding, wet sanding and giving it the once over with polish - had a smile from ear to ear.
A short vid surfing the hotcurl at Burleigh Heads, Queensland. Small day but fun waves.
