Rodney's Finished his Board

Rodney's Retro Pig

Robert, Gary and Darren

My Pig is finally finished and today was waxed up and had her maiden surf in clean 4' Torquay Point.  It seems a long time since the April workshop but I have squeezed in a trip to Hawaii and a 9000 klm drive to the Kimberley region but good things come to those who wait. 

After a lot of shaping and sanding, two coats of epoxy, more sanding, 5 coats of marine varnish with more sanding she is done.  I changed the fin to one with more area that I got in Hawaii.  It has a silk fabric laid up in the resin and really suits the wooden board.  The design of the logo also took some time as I had to track down the right medium, heavy glossy Japanese rice paper tissue, to print onto.  I made a treetosea leaf to cover where we miss drilled the legrope plug and had to do a patch up. 

The board goes great you can really feel the energy and momentum in the board as you paddle into a wave.  I think I could have shaped the rails better in the middle they are a bit boxy but the tail is perfect and has a little hard edge and turns beautifully off the back foot. 

I had many stuff ups with the coating of the board, applying too thick and too quick after a previous coat resulting in crazing but I sanded out all the stuff ups, ironed out all the dints I put in the board and came out with something I am very proud of. 

Thanks for showing me the method I am so very prod of what I have achieved and everyone in the water and on the beach think I have the coolest board on the coast and I made it. 

Regards

Rodney 

Rodney and his board at Torquay

Stand Up Paddle

Over the past few weeks we have been working a some new models. The first one to come through is the Stand Up Paddle. Darren's designed and build this one and its come up a treat. 9' x 30'' x 4''

Darren and his SUP

Sanding the beast

July Workshop

A small class for the July Workshop with 5 boards being built.

July Workshop

Ready for Shaping

They're queuing up !

A batch of boards waiting to be shaped and finished off outside the Shaping bay.

Waiting to be Shaped

DACE Art Show in Frankston South

Local Art Show

We displayed three of our boards in the annual DACE, the Derinya Arts & Craft Exhibition, its a local Art Show run by the Derinya Primary school and these boards generated a lot of interest.

6' 4'' Sapling

8' Retro Pig

The Retro Pig is a new size, this one we did at 8 foot and it looks good!

The Tree to Sea Australia Short Film

Over the last few weeks we have been working on a short film. Dave Macintosh from Rye attended one of our Workshops early last year and offered to create the film for us. Dave operates the Media Company HM Creative he won first prise for his short film Toast, in the Mornington Peninsula Short Film Festival.  http://www.peninsulashortfilmfestival.com.au/ 

Below are a few still shots from filming so far.

On set filming the process of shaping a Wooden Surfboard

We had a good days filming on a cold but sunny winters afternoon. 

Some of our Boards 

Getting ready

Gary on a good sized wave.

Rob duck diving a Wooden Board.

Darren going for the cover up !

My New Board

I have finally got around to making myself a new board. Its a new model for our line up, so before we offer it up as a design for Workshop participants to build, we need to be 100% confident that we have all the bugs ironed and its a proven design.
It's a 7'2" Pintail single fin, with a Retro outline but with modern rails. Its always a challenge when your working on a new design, each board has its own complexities. 
Really happy how its turned out.

7' 2" Reto Pintail

Hand drawn T2S Logo by Morgan