Paddleboard Build

Hi! Thanks for dropping in. Below is a description of the first week of a paddleboard build - from scratch.

On Monday, February 6th 2023, I began the process of building a paddleboard from scratch. I did purchase plans for this first build so I understood how the boards are constructed before taking things in my own direction. My friend, a retired neighbor and boat builder in his own right - and an overall great guy, helped in the first week cutting out forms and by being a good sounding board.

Cutting out the forms from marine-grade plywood isn’t difficult, but it is time consuming and dusty. The plans had a bit of waste between forms on the full-size print-outs, so we cut them all apart and played real-life Tetris to get all 18 stations, side-rails and center spine onto one sheet of plywood. It worked! The grain pattern is off just slightly on a couple forms, but, to me, this isn’t an issue because everything will be covered in cedar strips and fiberglass.

For those of you who are not familiar with fiberglass, it looks like a white sheet when first layed-out on the craft, but when combined with the epoxy/hardener mixture a chemical reaction causes the epoxy to heat and essentially melt the white sheet to a clear covering. The wood gives the board it’s shape and the fiberglass/epoxy combo gives the board it’s strength.

But I get ahead of myself.

Chris and I are still in the construction phase of the build and have just ripped (cut length-wise) cedar boards into 5/8” strips and are planning an alternate pattern of thick and thin strips of 2 different colors to make the build into something really spectacular. The thick strips will be dyed with a mahogany dye after they have been run through a planer to remove any sawblade marks from the table saw. Those, with the natural color of the cedar will have a good contrast.

Stay tuned for more updates and build-progress images!