Archive for June, 2006

We’re excited to announce that Grain Surfboards is featured in the newest issue of Wooden Boat Magazine, at newstands now. The story gives great insight into the early days of Grain (last year), working in our basement, building boards in less then ideal conditions, and loving every minute of it. Along with our story, the issue features a great story on surfings roots. Comparable to Surfers Journal, Wooden Boat is a unique magazine with stories for anyone interested in the water and the beautiful ways to get out on it.

Grain Surfboards is working on a custom order for a Paipo knee board. This unique Hawaiian design was built in 1969.

Using a select board of Western Red Cedar and complimentary Northern White, we put together matching top and bottom planks for this 4.5 footer.

The top planks are glued up and ready for final shaping today. Check back soon!

Progress Update: June 26th, 2006

The Single Fin is almost ready to be glassed! Progressing from rail strips to pressing on the top planks, the final rail shaping is complete and the fin box is setting up tonight. With some final hand sanding to be completed, we will have this board in the glassing room by mid-week.

The overall shape came out just as expected, with a flat bottom nose progressing in to a hollow midsection and double-v tail. The rails have been shaped to match the MSF from tip to tail with a shallow nose transition, slightly turned down waist and a hard tail.

Here are some more photos of Gavin working on the rails and fin box assembly using a laser to keep the router template lined up with the centerline of the board.

Keep an eye out for more progress on this Single Fin and Email Gavin with any questions or comments you have about this design. This board is not being built for a pre-existing order and will be available for purchase upon completion.

Original Post: June 20th, 2006:Inspired by the retro-style Channel Islands MSF, we started construction of a 6′5″ Single Fin.The complex curves on the bottom, including a Double-V Tail and hollowed nose required some ingenuity to recreate.With the help of some insight and a little brainstorming, Gavin constructed a new rocker table in the Grain workshop.

This allows us to glue up any bottom shape with ease and hold the rocker true to form.

Born in the Virgin Islands, High School in Maine, College in Florida, Ty Williams recently returned to York for a little summer fun. Here he is heading towards the nose of a 9 footer while enjoying some leftover ground swell that briefly hit our shores.

Ty’s a good surfer, but his real talent is on canvas. We recently recruited him to help us design our sign for the new shop.

We’re hoping to have some of Ty’s real artwork displayed in the Grain showroom. He’s also got an upcoming show at the Ceres Street Bakery in Portsmouth during August and Septemeber.

Check out this month’s issue of Eastern Surf Magazine. Nick has a great two page bio in the Behind the Glass section, and Grain’s been plugged in the Blah Blah’s. Check it all out at Eastern Surf Magazine

Here’s Nick in front of the camera for a change. A little cutback, then a quick bottom turn and a long stroll to the nose.

Zoo York surfer Ben McBrien just finished building two Steve Lis inspired fishes. Thanks to Saschi, over at 5 Star Surfboards, for all the help with glassing. Keep an eye on the blog for shots of these boards when they hit the water.

Here’s the latest board out of the new Grain shop. It’s a 9′ single fin with a fin box, and we’re pretty psyched on how it came out. The material we used is a blend of Northern White and Western Red Cedar, and we glassed the board with lightweight 4 ounce cloth and epoxy resin. It weighs 20 pounds which is the lightest 9′ we’ve made to date, mostly due to the increase of white cedar which is substantially lighter then red.

No matter how hard I try, it always seems to take longer to build a board then I thought it would. While designing and assembling the frame requires a lot of math and detail work, it is fairly starightforward. Milling plank and rail stock for one board is quick, but while your at it, you might as well do enough for a bunch of boards. Glueing up planks and rails is fun because it’s the first time you get to really see the shape come out, however, glue takes time to dry. Shaping the board with traditional hand tools is the best part of the job. There is no better feeling then running a sharp handplane down a long straight grain piece of cedar. Glassing, well, who really loves to glass, but it is a necassary part of the process (at least for now). What I’ve realized after all this time is that building a board takes time, and there is nothing I can do to speed that up.

With the new shop, I can be milling wood for one board the same time another board is drying in the glassing room… and man that’s being productive. I’d love to show you the new shop sometime, give me a call at 802-598-7194 and we can set-up a time to meet.

Grain Surfboards was just commisioned to build a replica 1969 Paipo Kneeboard. The original is a sweet board with a glassed-on fin, and was bought new by the owner the year it was built. We are systematically taking the lines off the board in order to create a set of plans similar to the way a boat is lofted. The new board will be built using Northern White Cedar. Other then having a fin box for ease of traveling, it will be identical to the original. Stay tuned for more on this piece of history.

Fresh off the shaping rack, Mike, with the help of Gavin and JT, just finished a new 9′ footer. It’s the first board we’ve built using mostly locally grown, sustainably harvested Northern White Cedar. And when I say northern, I mean Northern! This wood came from Portage Mills in Portage, Maine, and is really nice to work with. The board was built for and donated to the Maple Street School in Manchester Vermont for their Scholorship Auction. Hope the high bidder likes to nose ride.

So we’ve outgrown the confines of the basement in the old carriage house. We recently moved into a new shop just over the river in York ME. Plenty of space to keep many boards going at once. Check back as we’ll be updating this often.

Here are a couple shots of Mike and Gavin on their Grain longboards. Two different days, two different waves.