My Plywood Kiteboards

[RPatrick]

I finally finished my first set of plywood kiteboards !

The boards were made with 3/8" Baltic Birch plywood. I used epoxy to seal the wood and then used marine topside boat paint for a nice finish. I purchased the Liquid Force Luxury Interface kit for the handle, straps, and pads which are very comfortable and look great.

The dimensions are 140 x 46 and 136 x 40 .

The building process turned into a fairly big project and took longer than I thought, but I am happy with the results and have a new perspective on kiteboard pricing.

Now I've got all my gear together and it is time to focus on kiting !

[kitejumping]

looks real nice for ply, im in the process of making some ply boards from the exact same wood 3/8" baltic birch. How many coats of epoxy did you use?

[panchito]

Hi

Please give us some more details like flex, weight, rocker and overall handling

Since I started kiteboarding I have been working on wood boards and made a lot of them..... some did work great and some didn´t.

I found out that on my wood boards ( specially the lightwind one ) with such a strait rails it was hard to edge when overpowered, also cause of the weight hard to jump but great & funny to ride on flat water .

I guess all the paint ads a lot of weight to the boards.....

[BiteMe]

Nice. Any rocker on those? What do they weigh? What part took longer than you thought?

[dakz]

Fantastic job!
What about fins? Are you going to add them to your boards?
Could you please post more pictures?

[RPatrick]

Thanks for the comments ! I would like to add that this forum helped tremendously in the building of these boards.

I put two coats of west systems epoxy (boatbuilding type) on the boards. The first coat soaked in pretty well, and the second formed a top layer.

I did not add any rocker to the boards. There was a small amount naturally present in the plywood and I just went with that.

I am a long time stunt kiter who is very new to kitesurfing. I have had lessons through body dragging but have not yet ridden a board. Unfortunately I cannot comment on how well they ride, edge, handle, etc. At least not yet ! I am going to become a body dragging expert, then give the big board a workout.

I have no idea about the weight. I did not make any special effort to build them light, so they are probably heavier than average.

At this point I am leaving fins off with the option to possibly add them later on. For learning how to get up on a plane, how to edge, and eventually go upwind, finless should be fine from what I have read. Once I know enough about riding to notice the difference, I will try a board with fins and see if I like it. I may just leave these finless and buy a board with fins to have both.

As far as what took longer than I thought, it was definitely the coating and painting process. To do it right you are supposed to let each coat dry 24 hours before adding the next. You are also supposed to sand between the epoxy and the paint primer, and then again between the primer and the topcoat. It was very messy and dealing with the toxic fumes was no fun. Also, after drilling the holes and adding T nuts I had to reseal with more epoxy. It would have been better to drill all the holes before the very first coat of epoxy. I used a cartridge type respirator that helped a lot, painted outdoors, but I still got dizzy. That is the worst part in my opinion. It is worth paying for a board to avoid the toxicity.

[abowman]

Just out of curiosity, what would you say it cost you to make the boards? Including epoxy, straps, etc?

[RPatrick]

The materials cost :

1 sheet of Baltic Birch plywood: $25
West Systems Epoxy (Size A(about 1/3 gallon)): $70
Marine topside paint and primer: $40
Liquid Force Interface Kit: $120 each kit


To make 1 board the cost was about $ 255 . To make two boards the cost was about $ 375 .

The pads and straps were the most expensive materials !

[Toby]

looks good! Now add some stickers to make it look excellent!

I think in the board builders group this post is more than welcome and stay visisble much longer, so I moved it over, keeping a shadow in here.

Good work!

Greets
Toby

[RPatrick]

Thanks Toby !

As I mentioned, this forum community was essential in helping me pick the right materials for this job. Even as a new kitesurfer with no riding skills, I had enough confidence to go forward with the project due to the shared experience of others.

Cheers !