Hands up, I didn’t shape this. But when one of the best shapers in Cornwall is trying to clear out his factory, it would be silly not to get hold of a pre-shaped blank or four. Obviously these aren’t all for me. This project was shared with a couple of friends. As all three of us were all lacking in the longboard department, this stack of foam logs was the answer to our collective prayers.
After explaining to work the severity of my need to be two hours late on a Wednesday morning, I bundled the blanks into my van, and then into a neighbour’s garage kindly donated as he was skiing for the week.
Now I couldn’t very well sand and glass a whole longboard by just balancing it on the dining room table, we needed some real shaping stands. Unfortunately, there was a lesson to be learned here: when agreeing on a design for something, do it sober. These things were gopping, but they were what we had, so we made do. It’s only three boards anyway…
There’s plenty of literature across the internet on what to use and how to sand down polyurethane foam, and we found that 80 Grit “Mirka Abranet” is the rough stuff of choice.
Polyurethane blank means I need to use polyester resin. Decision made on that front. But we need to have a think about how much glass we slap on, these are big logs. They are meant to be heavy, and they aren’t meant to snap. So with that in mind, I’ll do two full layers of 8oz all round, with an extra 6oz patch on the deck for good measure. The tricky thing with laminating in Devon in January, is that it’s cold. To battle this, you sometimes have to get creative with space heaters.
Grinding down the laps can be done kackhandedly, and slowly (but easily) with a hand file. Or carefully (and quickly!) with an orbit sander. Time was pressing, so I chose the orbit sander. Somehow, I didn’t go through all the glass, and I moved on to fin boxes, leash plugs, and a deck pad.
This stick is lucky enough to have double stringers down the middle, and sure you can talk about responsiveness, flex, overall strength, or whatever. Right now it’s just going to make it so easy to route out the hole for the fin box. This is a log, so it only needs one. I used a standard 10” box.
Instead of a separate leash plug, (which can pull out) I just drilled a 12mm hole all the way through the board, from the back end of the box. A bit of tape over the hole stops resin pissing all over the floor. Drilling a hole through here, and following through with bit of leash string makes a sturdy little point for strapping a leg to.
The deck pad is the last bit to go on. I had a load of cork sheet left over from other projects, so I figured it would be good to try it here. After marking out the area it had to cover, and cutting out the sheet, the next step was to lay down a thick layer of resin. It needs a little extra viscosity to keep it in place, so a scoop of glass microbubbles is enough to get that working. The resin is going off at this point, so you have to work quickly here. Ideally you should plan ahead and cut peel ply, breather cloth, and vacuum bag in advance. I don’t always remember to do that, but I did here. Tack it all in place, and plug in the vacuum.
Once it’s all cured, it’s well worth giving the top a little once over with the sander. This will stop your chest or wetsuit from being ripped to shreds.
Callum McCullough 