Sunday, March 10, 2013

Vinnies latest board in Ireland

Vinnies new board is -  6' 08" x 18 .5" x 2.5"
rails - standard shortboard , rocker - standard shortboard
single into double concave
bottom shape - pretty much flat with some slight vee
"Leyland Cypress deck and bottom skin
reclaimed Cedar - rails and internal structure Iroko - nose strengthers ( four small pieces of wood left overs )
fins - unknown hardwood from skip
leashplug - that yellow wood again Berberis I think
brass - air vent "
"Standard wood glue and it's finished with many layers of water based varnish inside and out - low voc's"

 " This board is by and large petrochemical free , a small bit of epoxy was used and rovings where the fins join the board . the fins are glued into the structure of the board so are strongly connected to the board yet they have flex themselves . I went for the quad setup because I love surfing this fin setup . Also a small bit of flexible tec7 type stuff is used to join the brass valve to the wooden skin ."
 " The Leyland Cypress was grown here where I live , I had a chunk of it put by and it dried out and I thought Id see could I get some timber out of it . "

" It turned out well , its a really strong wood yet light when fully dried , and easy enough to work with . It takes a bend along the grain easy but a bit fussier being bent across the grain .
So this board is super strong , it wont ever snap in my opinion , strong enough not to need glass and cloth . This is a true eco board yet because it is varnished its not going to take as much abuse as a harder fiberglass would in terms of scratching . A bit of care is needed in loading unloading , avoiding rocks when paddling out , etc etc "


The beauty of the varnish though is that it can be sanded back and given a couple of coats every few years . If cared for these boards will last a long time .
I wont go on about the air volume here as I have ranted on about it already in the past  -  suffice to say these boards are really good to surf , this board in particular feels really sweet and nicely balanced weight wise to me . If I was going somewhere like Indo this would be the board I'd bring with me ."


Check out what else  has been up to at :  ohalloranboards.blogspot.ie

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