I made this Alaia last summer shortly after The Stub. I tried it out once at San O and it didn’t work. I think it mainly didn’t work since I tried waterproofing it with parafin wax alone. Yesterday I got inspired to have another go with it. I shaved down the rails significantly and waterproofed the thing with Boiled Linseed Oil. If you plan on making yourself one, remember to throw the towel you used to waterproof your board into a container of water. As you can see from the picture, if you don’t, the towel will start burning and eventually combust.
Mitch grinding away the left over adhesive on his VDub.
The blog looks great. I was thinking of making my own board. What other tips do you have?
http://www.seasandsurf.com
Any other tips about shaping a board like this?
you should check out these two videos of Ryan Burch shaping and riding his Alaia:
http://www.korduroy.tv/2009/burch-sea-serpent-pt-1
http://www.korduroy.tv/2009/burch-sea-serpent-pt-2
hope it helps!
cheers matt! i think the most important thing to remember is that you can almost surf anything that floats. like no matter how ridiculous a design looks, chances are, it’ll work in good surf. anyways, just take your time to get everything right the first time. shaping is all about prep work. so make sure you get have everything set up before doing each stage of shaping. i’ve forgotten loads of things just because i was so eager to finish the board to ride it. you should be able to completely finish a surfboard from start to finish in under a week so just take your time.
hope that helps!
Thanks for the information. It is true about riding anything. I know this is a “kook” thing to say, but I love body surfing.
no worries mate! bodysurfing’s awesome, i’d like to try but i don’t own a pair of fins haha
Tool wise I suppose I am going to need a sander? Added you to my blog roll I like the site.
Will post about the progress…
yeahh you’ll need a planer, maybe a surform, and electric sanders definitely help!
thanks for the support! can’t wait to see what you come up with!
Hi James
This board looks great.
I’m also on the making of an alaia
http://blog.pauloribeiro.net/2010/07/10/alaia-experiment-2/ and I’m also thinking of using linseed oil.
Did it worked for you?
Is it pine, the wood you’re working on?
cheers paul!
yours is looking pretty mint! loving the swallow tail! sadly the board didn’t work in the water. i think the main reason is that i haven’t tried surfing it on a good day. i stood up in white water but that’s about it. and yeah it’s pine, i think if i had to have another go, i’d make it out of douglas fir wood.