Despite the fact that it's tempting to, you can't really compare Grain boards to foam - they're really completely different types of surfboards. A challenge for Grain is to help surfers to see the choice to get a Grain board as beyond the choice of foam that requires a different mindset about the economics of your surfing habit.

Perhaps the key difference is that we don't intend them to be thrown away within a year or two. Unfortunately surfers have grown used to the idea that their $600 investment should only last them for a couple of years' worth of sessions. But we've done the math and when you look at what you're paying per session for a disposable board, versus what you'll pay for a board that could last for ten, twenty, thirty years or more, then Grain boards are far less expensive - per session - than disposable boards.

When they choose a Grain surfboard, we don't want people to think that they are getting the same board they bought time after time before. We want you to understand that you've chosen something hand-crafted, built to last, that surfs great and is worth keeping forever. That sort of quality is worth saving your pennies for. Besides... it'll save you from having to buy the same board again next year.

No. They are much less prone to damage from normal use than is a foam board. They don't pressure ding, or spiderweb nearly as easily because the wood skin provides a sturdy support under the fiberglass. You won't make heel dents on the deck even though no heavy deckpatches are applied to reinforce the single layer of four-ounce cloth that we use on the entire board. If the boards get hit by a hard, sharp object, you may see delamination the size of the impact area that appears as a white cross-weave of glass fibers where previously, the glass was transparent. Usually, these impact areas are small and due to the rigidity of the wood skin, they don't tend to spread. They are easily patched in a manner similar to that in which foam boards are patched, only without the need for fillers, excavating foam, or increases in weight. Fin boxes do not generate stress cracks in the fiberglass because they are supported by solid wood on five sides, as opposed to soft foam. (Get more detail on dings in item 12 of this FAQ.)

And Yes. Hollow wood surfboards are like pressure vessels. They are built to be watertight which means that in use, the air inside also cannot get out. Take a Grain surfboard into cold water, and the air inside will tend to contract. Theoretically, in extremes of heat the board would try to disassemble itself - though we've never seen this happen in reality. We think that unless the air inside has a way to escape as it expands in the warm sun, it will stress all the internal joints equally until one or more of them gives. This is the reason that all hollow boards are fitted with vent plugs. Builders of Home Grown Kits have to make sure to remove their vent plugs soon after leaving the water, keeping it loose or out all the time the board is traveling or stored. Boards built at the Grain shop have automatic vents that don't have to be removed.

Because the interiors are untreated raw wood, soaking them has a similar effect to leaving the vent plug in. Wet wood expands and in a board that is encased in a semi-rigid skin of glass fibers, there is nowhere for expanding wood to go. Accidentally leaving your vent plug loose or out when you get in the water will allow the cooling, contracting air inside the board to suck seawater in. The board expands, internal joints are stressed and the rest is sad and predictable - but repairable.

If measured in a lab you should be able to determine the fraction of an inch of difference a Grain board, floating at rest with no surfer on it, would be lower in the water. But when you do the math, board weight by itself is as significant as you would think - a board that weighs 15% more than another board, will weigh only 2% more when both boards have 160-pound surfers on them. Still, none of that is really relevant to the experience of surfing - which is all about how boards and surfers behave in a highly dynamic, propulsive environment. In the water, our boards do not have a noticeable heaviness to them until they are in trim when the glide kicks in - when "weight" turns to "drive". They never feel corky, but do have a different feeling of buoyancy when in motion than do foam boards - we think that the air space inside creates tension in the board's skin and frames that gives it a more lively feel than something that is of equal density throughout (like foam). The way weight is distributed in wood boards also helps them carry through turns better, which means it also requires slightly more energy to initiate those turns. Though they have a decidedly soft feel in some surf conditions, many surfers report a certain amount of chop dampening because, though the boards are more lively than foam, they do not rise clear of the water as easily as a light-weight foam board would. But once they are planing, their added weight generates more momentum down the line.

Sorry - we need to build a board before we can make it into a kit. Otherwise, how would we be confident that the kit was good enough to sell you?

One way is to stop by the shop. We usually have some boards there waiting for delivery or pick-up, and at the very least, we can pull some of the framesets, dry assemble them, and have a look. We are also planning to put cross sections and full board dimensions on the website. We don’t have a schedule for that yet, however.

Yes. We can add painted highlights, solids or patterns, apply your graphics, or laminate cloth onto the board if desired. What can't go on the board is another company's logo, or references to pros or "signature models" unless the board is actually a signature model designed by or with another shaper or pro.

Two important facts: wood boards ding less than foam, and depending on the extent of damage, ding repair on wood boards can be very similar to repairing foam.

One simple benefit of wood boards is that they’re more durable than a typical foam board. You won't get pressure dings, heel dings, stringer rise, death-grip rail-dents, etc.

Also, dings in wood boards are usually not as dangerous to the health of the board, because the wood does not seem to absorb water in the same way that foam does. For one thing, it is rare for the wood fibers to actually be broken - even with sharp objects as the glass seems to distribute the force across an area of wood (because the glass is supported by the wood) rather than just pop right through as happens with foam. We also believe that the epoxy that has penetrated the surface of the wood is still protecting it even though the glass may have pulled away in the damaged area.

We typically see only three types of surface damage:

1. when boards hit something sharp with considerable force (like they fall against something pointed, or they go up on the rocks); or
2. when a point on the board (like the nose or a tip of a swallow tail) is smashed against something hard like a concrete floor; or
3. when something traumatic happens like they are driven into the bottom with a 250 pound surfer coming down on the middle of them.

We consider the first two to be “minor damage”, which are actually easier to repair than the typical foam board. The last can be thought of as “major damage”, requiring some woodworking expertise, but is certainly within the abilities of any good board repair shop.

Minor damage on a Grain Surfboard requires less filling because of the structural nature of the wood. In other words, dings tend to be smaller in area, and there is usually no need for big, stiff cabosil plugs. Minor damage generally presents itself as a small area of glass that has "popped" which means that it has pulled away from the cedar underneath because the cedar has been dented slightly and the glass can't follow the gradient of the dent. In most cases, a board with this type of damage can just be sanded in the area, and painted over with a little epoxy. When it cures, you fair it in like you would with any ding repair. The epoxy needs to be able to work its way through the fractured glass to the wood below to make a decent bond, but you will still see the glass fibers in the area of contact.

For a more cosmetically appealing repair, you might grind out the impact area and replace the glass with a glass patch just as you would with a foam board. Rarely would there be a need for any filler other than a dollop of epoxy where the dent is. If it is very small, it may not even be necessary to patch it with glass - you can just sand, file or grind out the fractured fibers, and lay in a dollop of epoxy big enough to seal the gap in the glass. Keep an eye on it in the ensuing years and if you notice any stress cracks, then grind out the fill, and repair with a glass patch as you would any foam board. It is likely that you won't ever see stress cracks because the wood has much more inherent strength than foam does, so the glass is not as much of a structural element.

For more traumatic damage, we are slowly developing a bag of tricks, which is still fun, because we just don't see alot of that kind of damage and we are still learning about best methods. Though we damage our experimental models on occasion (we are testing out new ideas all the time) we have only had two customers with traumatic damage. One took it to his local shop which did a terrific repair, and the other is in our shop now. There were three options for repairing the board we have in the shop, and the easiest one could probably be done by any surfer or surf shop that has repaired a substantially damaged foam board. Our customer elected to get the full monty, though...the board will look like new when it is done.