1. Your Name: Dana Blocksage
2. Your Brand name: Dana Surfboards
3. How did you hear about us? Swaylocks
4. How was your initial experience at Foam E-Z? Everyone was very friendly and helpful and they had everything I needed in stock to build my board.
5. Why did you want to build your own board? This board was shaped for a customer who wanted a hollow Redwood surfboard. I have wanted to shape this style of board for a while, and this order gave me the perfect excuse to finally do it. My customer was totally stoked when I delivered his new board.
6. Shape of finished board? I would call it a traditional Longboard with a pulled in tail.
7. Size of finished board: Length9’6” Nose 16 1/2" Width 20” Tail 9” Thickness 2 3/4”
8. What blank did you use? I chambered and laminated 19 pieces of California Redwood and Oregon Sugar Pine to create a hollow 9’8” blank with a 3.5” rocker.
9. How was your board building experience? Other than taking longer than anticipated (because of all the extra labor), the board building experience was smooth. It was definitely a learning experience to say the least.
10. Did you use videos, books, web, other? My board building experience has come from scrolling through the pages of Swaylocks, trial and error, and then back to Swaylocks for answers.
11. What videos, books, web, other did you use? I have seen the JC Shaping 101 and Glassing 101 which are good for reference.
12. Do you recommend these resources? Absolutely! They make you want to go out and shape a board.
13. What do you wish you knew going into this project? I wish I knew that everything was going to work as planned. I had to create my own rocker templates and cut channels in only the right places. Because every aspect of this board was my own design from conception to construction I was worried throughout the whole build that it would turn it ok, which it did.
14. What would you recommend to someone else for their first time? Take your time, have fun, do lots of measuring, and where a mask!
15. What tools did you find most useful? My Clark foam planer was a must. The Milwaukee grinder with 8” Flexpad “Softie” was an absolute for shaping and sanding the hot coat, and a set of a dozen pipe clamps to laminate the different wood sections and a piece of dragon skin for blending the rails.
16. Where did you run into trouble? I underestimated how long it would take to channel each piece of redwood and shaping solid wood rails by hand. So, my customer got a killer deal on this labor intensive surfboard.
17. What kind of fin system did you use and why? Keeping with the wood theme I hand shaped a 9” vintage style fin made from African Paduak and Purple Heart, Honduran Mahogany, and American Walnut, glassed with a filet of fin rope and 4 layers of 6oz cloth on each side for plenty of strength.
18. Did you glass the board and what was that experience like? Because of the redwoods natural strength I glassed 4oz cloth on the deck and bottom along with tail and deck patches. I used the Flex Pad Softie 8” with 80 and 150 grits, hand sanded 220 and 300 and finally, hand wet sanded 400, 600, and 800. With my buffpad, I started with the Foam E-Z Surfboard Polish #2 and finished with the Meguiars Surfboard Finish Polish. The results are a deep mirror like shine.
19. Where did you shape and glass your board? I glassed this board outside on a calm warm day.
20. What type of board do you want to make next? My next board is going to be a 5’11” fish with glass on keel fins made from exotic African hardwoods, made in the same style as this board except I will be using Redwood and Cedar to create a hollow wave rider.
21. Extra Info... I created a leash loop using fin rope and 4oz fiberglass. I felt that a leash plug would have detracted from the woods natural beauty. The nose and tail blocks are made from African Paduak and Yellow Heart.
