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Well, I joined this forum about 2 years ago to build a board.

I love what you guys do here with your vacuum tables, the kevlar and the rest of it and someday, maybe I’ll try that routine, someday.

But it was all so overwhelming.

I was into dozens and dozens of hours with materials into hundreds of dollars in my estimate, when I gave up, overwhelmed.

Paralysis of the analysis.

Do I use kevlar or regular fibreglass? Laminate or foam? How do I make a vacuum table? Poured rails!??!

It was just cheaper to buy one I figured.

So after punching a hole in my brand new used Spleene the very first @#$%ing time I went out, I thought #$%& it! I’ll start at the bottom and work up.

I sat down, studied hydrodynamics and water tunnel models, lots of software, and …

Nope. A few beers and the results were marvelous. I give you…

The Chubby Girl!

Fun to ride!

Puts up with a lot of abuse!

Doesn’t mind being ridden by others!

Doesn’t mind me riding others!

Doesn’t mind being ridden hard. And put away wet!

She’s always ready to go! I don’t worry about what she looks like!

And she’s cheap.

Very forgiving, too. Good on the knees, very flexible.




Notice those fins!



Under $100 of material, including $50 for the pads with a performance that easily was comparable to my Spleene 159 Door.

The fins cost me 8 bucks. For all 4! Nylon 1/2” cutting board.

I highly recommend EVERYONE buy or build an oversized board, as big as possible, when learning. It makes ALL the difference. They get you up and seat time, mowing lawns.

Anyone can build this board. I’m a carpenter (Not a good one--heavy construction.) but this can be done by anyone with a few simple tools: A jig-saw, files, ViseGrips C clamps and a screw gun is pretty much it. I used cheap, parkay tile wood glue. All stuff any guy should have around, or know a guy that does.

And an ability to follow basic instructions.

And beers.

What I liked about building my own board was the customization. Yeah…

Key to this was placing my pads in a position that maximized my weight on the board. I’ve got small feet, (But a big heart!) and tend to not be able to get an edge, so I moved my pads off center line. Worked like a charm. Easy to ride, too!

There will be those purists out there, that will notice the T-Nuts poking through the bottom. Now they do affect the waterflow over the board, such that velocity is lost at key…

Give yer ‘eadz a shake!

They don’t affect squat.

Weight is about 14lbs. If I want to trim it down, I lay off on the sandwiches before riding!

I’m up on my North Rebel 14 with this board as long as the wind can fly the kite, and I’m 225lbs.

I’ve got over 60 hours on her, and unfortunately the only reason I’ve got to trash her now, is because I took her out in heavy winds last year and the front edge bottomed in shallow water with big waves, pitch-poleing me, and separated the top and bottom hulls. But it didn’t stop me from a little plastic surgery, and just gluing her back together and riding her for the rest of the season. Never underestimate a bit of plastic surgery to fix up yer gal!

I can post some basic instructions to get you fellers going, if interested.

If there is more interest, I can do a top notch job and post precise instructions, with materials list (all available at your Home Hardware or HomeDepot) with pictures and such, including drawings of boards--Templates--done in Illustrator and converted to PDF’s, in order to be able to be printed out and transcribed onto the ply. That’ll take time though.

This board was just the simplest of the simple: A square 165x50 with rounded corners--A margarine tub seemed to be the right fit.--and a slightly small secondary hull.

I’m working on my next board.

Questions, comments?

SweetDoug

you need to pain a picture of a chubby girl on there.

Nice job, SD! ...even if your stance angles are totally weird.

How goes the ongoing saga about beach access up there?

Cool! But are my eyes playing tricks or do the pads have the toes pointing in, as in what we call in the US "pigeon toed"? I'm not drinking beer...were you when you mounted them? hahahahaha

Totally agree with the comment about learning on a big board - everyone had me trying to learn on a way-too-small board for me and the conditions. A dude came along and saw me struggling and let me borrow his door. I was going up-wind first time ever within minutes of getting on a big board. Now, I'm the guy who offers my door to beginners who are struggling to learn on a small board.

If I ever lose my door board, I'll make one of these...I think I'll always have a need for a monster board for light conditions.

Thanks for sharing

as a carpenter/joiner myself i would have to say 'A square 165x50'... would be a rectangle!:)

i was thinking about making a board for a laugh to see if it worked....after seeing your post i now have something to do over the weekend

1/2 ply and lots of boat varnish was my plan..but not sure if its too flexible... maybe a piece of 15mm

Nice job, SD! ...even if your stance angles are totally weird.

How goes the ongoing saga about beach access up there?[/quote]

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Yeah, I kind of like the pigeon-toe stance. When I ride and sit back on my rear leg, it's how my foot/leg wants to orient itself, in the pad. The front one I just pull my foot out a bit and well… It works. Well.

I started this position, after riding with my other board, with the pads straight, then tried this with the custom approach.

I've never seen anyone with the stance. Maybe somebody can try it and tell me what they think.

I'm gonna to work on pads that pivot underneath you, for a lark.

As for the Oli saga, I'm hoping it's over. The community hath spoken, many times, and loudly. It wasn't so much that I cleaned their clocks, I just let them do it to themselves.

Given that the beach was 500 meters from shore, last summer, well, we--Everyone, not just kiters--started going around the parking lot.

So the eco-freaks started trenching the access, putting in posts where somebody had removed one from the parking lot to allow us drive out, and stoning in the other access.

I started filling in the trenches, removing the posts and removing the stones. The trenching/filling-in went back and forth about half a dozen times. Somebody, aside from me, had an awful lot of energy. The council was pissed about the issue, especially the trenching and such.

Cops were called on me, and much hilarity ensued as it soon became obvious that I was the "Good Guy" so they started--Not too hard.--looking for who was doing the vandalism and the council of South Bruce, realizing the liability issues, the issue posting what is the lake bottom, blah-blah-blah, pulled'em out last September.

I didn't mind the corral, it just needed to be better thought out in it's application.

Oh, well. That's what happen when you get a bunch of liberal-progressive-nanny-statist-know-better'ers just bullying ahead, thinking that well… They know betterer.

SD

plummet wrote:you need to pain a picture of a chubby girl on there.

I'm thinking Betty Boop or Marilyn.

SD.

supachip1 wrote:as a carpenter/joiner myself i would have to say 'A square 165x50'... would be a rectangle!:)

i was thinking about making a board for a laugh to see if it worked....after seeing your post i now have something to do over the weekend

1/2 ply and lots of boat varnish was my plan..but not sure if its too flexible... maybe a piece of 15mm

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Like I said about being a carpainter… "Not a good one."

1/2 ply will be a little heavy, but it'll work. A little stiff, but certainly, all you need, to… Gonzo up a board, certainly if you're learning, to make a big door.

I present, much like the poor little bastard-retard family member, you keep locked in the small room, up in the attic…

My first creation, "The Gonzo"

√ Shameful
√ Hideous
√ Gonzo

Time to make, aside from drawing the outline and printing it out? About 2 hours.



It was a prototype that I actually used 16 gage angle for fins, but then thought better--Sobered up?--as I figured I might cut my lines having an accident, or sump'in.

But I rode'er finless and you know what? It worked just fine.

It was scrap ply from a job so the cost, breaking down the last gallon of oil-based varnish from HomeDespot that I got for $15, I'm figuring, about $8 in materials. The handle was probably $5 plus tax…

SweetDoug


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If you guys want a PDF of the Screene Door, much like a Spleene Door, I can up one. You'll need to get it printed out at Staplez for $15 or you can print it at home and tile it yourself. A little tricky but with patience and not too many beers, it canna be done, Captain!



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Really cool that you made these, im going to take kiteboarding lessons after i return from vacation and this would be a nice way to get a cheap board to start with. So i'd love to see a how-to on making one of these.

SweetDoug wrote:If you guys want a PDF of the Screene Door,...

Wouldn't mind having it