Grain Surfboards - The Steamer day 4

Original photo by Clayton Plummer

This past weekend I spent Friday through Monday working with eight other surfers and the guys from Grain Surfboards building one of their Steamer Kits in the back parking lot of Patagonia Cardiff.

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Day 3 was a lot of work, but definitely not as much as the previous two days.  We did stay really late on Sunday getting everyone's boards set and ready for the final push on day 4.

We started our day with a fun little surf out at Cardiff Reef.  I was the only SUP guy which was really funny.  Everybody was really cool when we were in class and working together, but out in the line-up I got no love.

Original photo by Clayton Plummer

So, as I do when I SUP anyway, I went off on my own and found my own peak to have fun with.  In the midst of the morning session I saw a little baby shark, cool but scary, as well as a baby ray.  The ray was awesome to watch fly through water.  So graceful, so fluid, so majestic.  It was a good surf.

My new Billabong Xero 302 wetsuit worked like a charm.  I really like it a lot.  Plenty warm, plenty of movement, and nobody could see my one arm nor my one leg because of the camo!  HA

But enough of my silly surfing.

Day 4 we flipped the boards over and attacked the bottom deck which remained untouched up to this point.  We used our spokeshaves and block planes to bevel the edges until they really started falling in-line with the rails.

Then it was time to think about the rail shapes and how we wanted our boards to ride in the water.  Mine was somewhat easy in that most of my rails are what they call 50-50 or round rails.  The tail section was the only tricky part where I needed a "down-rail" type contour to help the board carve and surf well in general.

Original photo by Clayton Plummer
It's only two letters, but I had
to practice that signature!

The other tough part was shaving the tail block.  This was difficult because you had to draw the tool towards the board, not away from the board.  If you drew the blade away from the board the block would chip.  The other issue with the tail block is that the grain is perpendicular to the rest of the board.  So, I had to shave it as close to the board as possible without nicking the top or bottom deck.

We finished the day by sanding the living heck out of the entire board.  Making sure all of the tool marks and and blemishes were missing from the wood itself.

As the sun set, we finished up.  It was a lot of fun with all the new tools and new skills I learned.  I met some cool people.  The Grain guys, Nolan and Mike, were awesome.  Very down to earth and friendly (though not out in the surf as much).  I was also introduced to Keith Malloy who worked with us the first couple of days before he was called away on another one of his awesome adventures.  I was also introduced to Jon Wegner of Wegner Surfboards.  He is a really cool California native that has been shaping boards, a lot of them wood, for over twenty years.  He helped everybody in the class as much as he could all the while working between two different boards himself.

I'm totally stoked on my new board.  Now I just need to get it glassed.  I have a fin, leash, board bag, and all of the other goodies ready to go.

Clayton