I've been mucking around with building a few boards in the shed since December - mostly poly blanks with stringers, mix of glass / carbon / innegra, epoxy resin and now vac bagging - great fun.

May other backyard builders out there? What have you been working on?

Five boards so far, from first in Jan'17 to latest in August '17;
4"11 Vader copy - too many materials to mention, hand layup, PU blank epoxy resin.


Botched shape, but great construction - 6' Wainman Magnum copy, Balsa Deck with carbon polyflex glass. First Vac Bagged board.

5'2" Vader copy - exposed cork deck with Carbon tail and rails. Cork goes really well (grippy, doesn't affect flex).


First surfboard and resin tints - 6'4" Hypto Krypto shape - 6/4 4/4 glass.




Latest board for a mate - 5'2" Vader with bat tail and flyers. inserts, detailed resin tints - best one so far. Dek layup is Cork, inegra and quad poly flex with reinforcement on the heels, bottom is carbon tapes in the middle, then quad polyflex and 2x 4oz glass (solid board). all Vac bagged.

Hi guys

I got a 10m2 Cabrinha Crossbow and a 128cm board and I weigh 170 pounds. But unfortunately the winds here are often under 15 knots. My small board size coupled with my lack of experience results in me needing winds of at least 18 knots to get planing properly and being able to ride upwind and jump higher than 1m.

I rode my gear in about 17-18 knots a few days ago and found that my technique was improving but I still need a board for sub-16 knot winds.

Therefore I am planning to build two boards of my own with 12mm plywood. I've read up a lot about board building so I got a good idea of what I want to do. But I'd also like to hear what you folks have to say.

Have any of you done something like this before? What worked, didn't work? What coating material did you use(I read that 3 coats of hardwood floor varnish should do the trick)?

Dimension-wise I was thinking along the lines of a 150cm-155cm x 50-ish cm board for light winds (little to no rocker) and another one of around 140cm x 44-46cm. Am I heading in the right direction?

I got my plywood already. Don't want to get the coating till I've heard the experts' opinion. Hehe. I don't want anything that needs to be super light just a nice old board that gets me on the water in less than 15 knots and cruises along nicely. The wind does blow above 20 knots every week or second week but a week off the water is too much.

Looking forward to seeing your comments, criticism, opinions, ideas and advice.

Hope you have stronger winds than I do!

Cheers guys.
Mozzie