Cornwall style board
Posted: Sat Nov 28, 2020 6:11 pm
Somebody posted a video clip from the Original Surfboard Company I think, of a rider on the Cornwall style belly boards. Over the long summer I poked around a lot, looking at that whole style of equipment. The Dick Pearce and Friends business had a bunch of stuff on social media, and I really liked their whole vibe. But it was COVID-19 Summer, right? I'm not going to Cornwall any time soon and wisdom had me not going anywhere in contact with anybody much.
So I scoured the garage and came up with a goodish-sized chuck of plywood and some spray paint. It was nearly the worst quality ply, underlayment for flooring, and my usual .25" thickness. I've made other boards from quarter-inch ply. I gleaned that the full size Pearce boards are about 47" long and 12" wide. I had enough ply to do about 40" long and maybe 12.1" wide.
The wood was a challenge but ultimately I had something that wouldn't rip my hands apart, sanded, a little filler in some spots, and with two coats of Rustoleum spray paint. It was dumb fun with no expectations and didn't cost me a dime and didn't require me to go out among the festering masses. Good times!
Ride report: One and done! I'll consider it "proof of concept". It got one session in. The actual ride, the design, was goofy fun. Surf was nothing special, beachbreak. I wore flippers but didn't need them. The ugly bit though...the narrowness of this design made the whole board flex and undulate while on the wave. That was a catastrophe. Like I said, I've done other boards with .25" ply, and that was never something I had encountered. I can only think the narrow nature of this design allowed the undulating flex. The usual 22" - 24" width on my other paipos seemed to protect me. Another downer was the flippers, trying to stand up while holding the thing was a bear in shallow water. Hard to explain, maybe. The final "learning experience" was with the ply. I'm done with .25" ply for anything more than maybe handboards. Also, no more playing with this lowest end. The undulating led to layer separation and water intrusion which I have never had happen on the wider boards but always expected. The board is toast. Pleasing to my eye, but toast.
Within a week upwelling had knocked the water temp from 63 degrees down to the mid-50's, so I'm done with anything that doesn't float me a bit. But for next warm season though, I'm thinking there is some serious dumb fun to be had in something made with better material.
So I scoured the garage and came up with a goodish-sized chuck of plywood and some spray paint. It was nearly the worst quality ply, underlayment for flooring, and my usual .25" thickness. I've made other boards from quarter-inch ply. I gleaned that the full size Pearce boards are about 47" long and 12" wide. I had enough ply to do about 40" long and maybe 12.1" wide.
The wood was a challenge but ultimately I had something that wouldn't rip my hands apart, sanded, a little filler in some spots, and with two coats of Rustoleum spray paint. It was dumb fun with no expectations and didn't cost me a dime and didn't require me to go out among the festering masses. Good times!
Ride report: One and done! I'll consider it "proof of concept". It got one session in. The actual ride, the design, was goofy fun. Surf was nothing special, beachbreak. I wore flippers but didn't need them. The ugly bit though...the narrowness of this design made the whole board flex and undulate while on the wave. That was a catastrophe. Like I said, I've done other boards with .25" ply, and that was never something I had encountered. I can only think the narrow nature of this design allowed the undulating flex. The usual 22" - 24" width on my other paipos seemed to protect me. Another downer was the flippers, trying to stand up while holding the thing was a bear in shallow water. Hard to explain, maybe. The final "learning experience" was with the ply. I'm done with .25" ply for anything more than maybe handboards. Also, no more playing with this lowest end. The undulating led to layer separation and water intrusion which I have never had happen on the wider boards but always expected. The board is toast. Pleasing to my eye, but toast.
Within a week upwelling had knocked the water temp from 63 degrees down to the mid-50's, so I'm done with anything that doesn't float me a bit. But for next warm season though, I'm thinking there is some serious dumb fun to be had in something made with better material.