Here's my first kite board build. Not my best work. i stuffed a few things up. L




earnt hell of a lot in the process. now i need wind to try it

Weight is heavy!. i stuffed up the resin ratio and put too much in.

ps its not ply but verticaly laminated bamboo.

pss I am yet to ride. it may infact be too flexi. but we will find that out in due course.

psss total thickness 5.87mm.

Looks good mate might have to get you to build me one i wouldnt worry too much about the weight Cardboards Wave is a heavy board but still rides awesome,cant wait for the test ride review

nice one plummet. can you tell us the specs-length/width? also how much did it cost you?
looks awesome for your first effort, maybe you found your calling!

its 142 x43.5.
2cm wider at the TT end for extra upwindability going out.
rocker is about 35mm on the back and a maybe 40mm at the front. amusingly i had the press set at 55mm back 85mm front rocker. so quite a bit of spring back. Thats because i used one solide piece of vertically laminated bamboo. At i used 2 x 2.5m plys spring back would have been alot less.

There a concave is about 6mm in the center waisting to flat about 20cm before the edge.

Toe in on the surf end? i copied my surfboard thruster set up. But backed the toe in off a little. we will see what happens.

Foot pads have adjustment 4cm to 8cm offset.

cost? that is the difficult question I am making 3 kiteboards, 3 longbaord skateboards for the kids, one for me and another landboard. So i have bought enough materials to make all of this.

But if I total up just the materials used i get to around $250 (excluding bindings, fins, hardware). and another $75 for the press materials. but that will be used to press multiple boards.

neat looking board plummet !!! nice work
looking forward to the test !

Congrats. Good build.
Hope you don't mind a few suggestions since I've been riding a Shinn Wave for a few years. You can get away with smaller front fins if you wish - this will make it easier switching to toeside. Also, you might find that the deep central fin at the back could catch when riding backwards, if so cut off a few cm's and reshape.

I also use the Cabrinha surf straps which are narrower and softer and give more freedom of foot movement. I found them much better than the stiff Shinn straps.

Can't wait to hear how it goes - post photos!

Kit33. yes i'll take that suggestion. infact i want a thripple set up of thrusters at the back but alot smaller maybe 6cm. but i picked this one up cheap so its worth a try.

db. no not worried about squeasing too much resin out. Infact i ended up with too much resing.
I did a resin layer first on the mdf sheets and waited for it to half cure and then layed up. This finish is straight out of the mould. Thats what i was going for. pop it out of the mould trim and ride.

But i wont to it this way next time. i used way to much resin with this method and its probably 750gm heavier than it needs to be.

The next trial will be a press/vac combo.

Checked out the Decay Cutlass today looks good cant wait to ride it looks just like your build plummet
He picked it up new for 5 hundy "bargain" hope theres wind tomorrow

radman4 said...

Checked out the Decay Cutlass today looks good cant wait to ride it looks just like your build plummet
He picked it up new for 5 hundy "bargain" hope theres wind tomorrow

A bargain indeed - I built that one for myself almost exactly a year ago - the full gloss combined with Su's graphic made it a stunner.

I never did get to ride it, I got an offer from Cabrinha about the same time it was completed and by the end of July I was living in Hong Kong.

I always loved the Cutlass when I had one in my quiver - there is something about them in big waves and lots of wind.

Good to see it will finally get onto the water - and the Kapti Coast is its perfect home.

Cheers,

DK

PS - 1st of August and you get to see what I've been working on for the last year.

i almost board that cutlass myself.

but I wanted to build so i didn't. all my other boards, landboards, longboard skateboards i've built.

Theres something special about shredding on gear yourve made yourself. Plus you have the bonus of making what the hell you like. you don't have to limit yourself to what the market percieevs as best.

Quite often i've found that what weird style demands a different board to whats available.

usually its no cheaper in the short term. But alot easier once the supplies are purchased to crank out variations at minimal cost.

Hey plummet been looking closely at your design, and I reckon this board would really suite my style of riding, looked at the outline, rocker, fin placement, dude I think this board will rock.

Let's usnknow man.

no haven't ridden it yet. maybe tomorrow.

how to get the vac bag in there? haven't figured that logistical nightmare out yet.

its supposed to have more rocker on the nose. but it popped out of the press pretty even. next time i'll use 2 x 2.6mm bamboo plys rather than 1 x 5mm vlam. i'll get less springback with dual ply layers.

it does have about 6mm of concave running through the center.

So we will find out how it goes.

suface2air said...

where the hell do you buy bamboo ply from thanks

Obviously at NZ they can buy everything we can't, at least in WA:(

Well i snuck out for a quick session.

Wow!.... it did some things i wasn't expecting!....

anyway. it was dead onshore mush. started odd around 12 knots and built to 20 over the session.

I used my 15m speed 3.

I almost flagged the session away because my normal TT is useless in 12 knots. Not this thing i was up and cranking upwind like 20 knots. WTF? its a light wind weapon!.I had not expect that from a very flexible wave style board. fowards cranked upwind like a maniac and held rediculous amounts of power with the wind spiked to 18-20. (18-20 on the speed is seriously powered).

Backwards was a little squirelly. i put this down to the monster center fin. My first thought is that i want to downside the middle fin to 6cm for less weird backwards action. But i'll ride the 10cm fin for a while in better surf condtions first. Going backwards i had to lean back a bit more as i was more foward on the board.

Slapping through the chop is buttery smooth. and i mean buttery!. Probably due to the shape and the flex of the board. Lnding jumps equally as smooth.

I didn't really get a chance to surf any waves properly as it was onshore and the speed 3 does not do down wind at all.

All in all it went way better than i expected. Hopefully tomorrow will be more cross on and we will get some wave action.


I suspect for steep wave riding i'll need more rocker in the front. The less rocker than expected probably accounts for better light wind performance?

It does have a strange undulating feel rolling over small white wash? maybe the flex?... i don't know.

Plummet said...

Well i snuck out for a quick session.
Slapping through the chop is buttery smooth. and i mean buttery!. Probably due to the shape and the flex of the board. Lnding jumps equally as smooth.


I suspect for steep wave riding i'll need more rocker in the front. The less rocker than expected probably accounts for better light wind performance?

It does have a strange undulating feel rolling over small white wash? maybe the flex?... i don't know.

Yes, that is the same experience with a flex what I'm after! I think it's not less rocker but more this flex for light wind. Duno, will try soon.