First of all, thank you for all the info in this forum. It motivated me to build my first beginner/ light wind plywood board. Just took a picture of the Speene Door from the internet and blew it up to draw a similar outline onto 1/2 in sandewood plywood from HD.

I realized that the thing is going to be stiff and heavy so I decided to router away some material around the outside down to about 5/16" or 8mm. Now it seems to have decent flex.

I have used 3 coats of spar urethane to seal. T nuts, home made pads and old ws straps. I can't wait to try it out. I am a beginner just kind of learned water start my last session on my 132x38 RRD X5. I was told it might be a bit small to start out with. So now I want to try my new 142x43 (40.5 at the center as it has some side cut). No rocker no fins (makes me a bit nervous). We shall see...

Looks really nice. Your going to want fins tho... This will ride like a big skim board otherwise.

I always wondered about that! But almost all plywood building instructions claim you don't need them if you keep it no rocker. Especially if you build in side cut.

I am open for other opinions and experiences from other plywood builders. I shall listen...

Very cool!

I did the same thing for my first board. A nice big board is much easier to learn on.

Try it without fins and see how it feels. It may be OK. I put really small 1" keels on mine just to keep it from sliding out a bit. If you want to put fins in just mark the positions for the holes, then drill them out oversize and fill them with epoxy + chopped fiberglass. Then drill you screw holes through the epoxy, this keeps water from getting into your wood core.

Here's my version of a Slingshot Glide I did as my first board:
http://www.kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=107&t=2353837&p=568768

Removing material is the way to go. I kept mine the full thickness all the way to the rails and it's heavy and stiff.

lawless, I did see your board, love it. I was planing on building a second one with the same outline as yours. Were you happy with it? I would remove some material all around similar to the one I just did I guess. Should make it less stiff..

nice board! i made something similar for my first board and it worked great. my second board i put fins on but i didn't really notice a difference. I had a hard time keeping the board on my feet when i jumped due to the heavy weight but i was kiting without spending 600 bucks on a board.What did you make the foot pads out of? They look pro.

Interlocking rubber floor mats 4"x4" square tiles. I traced my liquid force pads that I have on my other board onto it and cut it out with a scissor. You can make two sets out of one tile. Very easy and cheap.

If anybody is interested, I got to try it out last weekend. Saturday it blew enough to give it a try. I guess it was blowing only 8-15 knots. I managed to water start right away. Much easier than my 132x38 RRD. Once I managed to edge I felt that it grips well too. As I mentioned, I am a beginner but it seems to me the board is just what I hoped it would be.

Unfortunately I got dragged by my kite when I was a bit out there and then I had not enough wind to get the kite up again for a while. By the time I had it up I was too far from my board, could not see it anymore, body dragged back and forth for some time and could not spot it anymore. I decided to get myself to safety and body dragged all the way back to shore (further down were only rocks). I made it to the beach fine but the board was gone!! I walked a bit down the beach and finally spotted it but it was too far out to just swim to it and it was drifted to the part oft the beach where there are only rocks and then a mile long causeway. Disappointed I walked back to my kite and gave it a try with my shorter board, still had some fun. By the end of the day, my wife and kids picked me up and we drove back over the causeway and I stopped by the end of the bay with a faint hope that one gets lucky some times. You are not going to believe this but my 9 year old daughter spotted my board within second just about a 100 yards from the beach. I jumped in and rescued my plywood baby.

How about that for Happy Fathers Day??

Hi.. I really like your board and am planning on building one similar to yours.
Just with other measurements - i'm going for 146 x 48 cm.

How much does your board weighs?

Did you put any rocker into the board?

Good to hear you got your board back

It is just about 10.6 lbs heavy with pads and straps installed. No rocker, just the flex of the board will create the rocker. As much as I can judge, it seems to work that I removed some material to give it more flex at the ends.