Wakesurf Boards 2017 - How to Build Your Own

[Bob27]

We are taking 2 boards out tomorrow in the smoke for the initial testing. Cam.

 

[buckbuck]

Place a strobe light on your tower!

 

[Bob27]

We surfed both new boards last friday. Had a nearly smokeless day 35C, dead calm. Took my engineering office out for our annual surf-fest. A good time. Cam.

 

[buckbuck]

can I come work for you?

 

[Bob27]

Just finished top glass on the ocean board. Should be able to hot coat tomorrow. Hot coat is brushed on epoxy coat that fills in the cloth weave and gets sanded smooth. This board will get a vent and a leash plug, both which will be new territory. Cam.

 

[Bob27]

Here is the final production display. Cam.

 

[Bob27]

This years project is a foil board, wakesurf with a hydo foil. Looks like fun. More to come. Cam.

 

[Bob27]

A little late but here are some preliminary pics. Goal is easy constructability. Fuselage is 1" alum square tubing and will have an square oak filler pounded in so that through bolts wont collapse the tubing when tightened. A belt sander with 24GR is used to shape the wings. I built the mast today. Cam.

 

[Bob27]

I am a bit slow in posting pics. Here is the completed foil. The design goal was to have the foil assembled as components so that any part can be changed or modified for better performance. To achieve this I used 1" square aluminum tubing for the body, rather than wood. To prevent crushing of the tubing, there is a square oak piece epoxied inside. By leaving a bit protruding at each end I was able to taper them and simplify the streamlining. Final step will some some flashy paint. The area of the main wing is 200 sq.in and it is 4X the area of the tail wing. Wings have 2 layers of 6ox cloth with epoxy. Mast to base joint has 8 layers for super strength. Will build the board this week. Board will be a simple 2 6mm plywood layers with some cloth in between the layers, curved on a form. I might put a couple of fin boxes in it so I can surf the board by itself. Not much boat time right now as we are smoked in from all the fires. The smoke cuts the temp by almost 50% and visibility is only a few hundred feet in town. Cam.

 

[Bob27]

One spot where I broke with foil tradition is wing placement. Almost all foils have the main wing "below" the body and the tail wing "above" the body. The relative position makes no difference to the performance but when assembling it is far easier to have a foil that the flat surfaces touch and match. My wing positions are reversed. Then no fancy contoured carving is required to accommodate the wing profile. Cam.

 

[Bob27]

Will be working on the board tomorrow. Smoke is gone and temp is back in the 30C range so anxious to get this thing flying. Cam.

 

[buckbuck]

Please post video. I can only admire from a distance because I lack water depth.

 

[Bob27]

Started the board last nite. It measures 48" x 20"x 1/2". Here are some prelim pics. Board is 2 layers of 6mm baltic birch plywood. BB plywood has a high ply count. 2 layers are laminated together with 2 layers of 6oz cloth between, then clamped to a form to give the nose a curve. Ran out of epoxy so will have to get some on Monday. Cam.

 

[Bob27]

Did a test day today. Water was very cold. These things are hard to ride. Probably need to make some adjustments. Very cool but weird feeling. I suspect that the main wing is too big. This thing flies at 5kmh and leaps out of the water like a porpose at surf speed. Very little pull is needed to get it up, about 1/4 of what you would do for a regular wakesurfer. Fun day. Cam.

 

[Bob27]

Boating season has ended for us so any mods I will do over the winter and test in the spring. With all the fire smoke in the area the air and water temps have plummeted. Water was 65F yesterday. That is what we normally get in early May. Since the foil is built as modules it will be easy to fab a couple different wing styles to test for enhanced stability and to reduce lift. Just playing behind the boat at no-wake speed, the unloaded board flies quite nicely. Cam.

 

[RightStuff]

Still love reading about you making these boards from scratch, looks like a fun project. Bummer to hear the temps have dropped that much up there, we are going to be loosing lake temps fast down here too.

So with the foil, how do you start to get up on one? I have seen videos of people on one, but not how to start... Do you lay on it till you get up to speed, then stand up?

 

[Bob27]

You start exactly like a wakesurf board. The only difference is that you turn the board to follow the boat right away. On this foil you are out of the water by the time the board has moved 3 or 4 feet. Bit like riding an elevator. The sensation of speed is much higher. Cam.