Wood Surfboard Art
My hollow wood surfboards are built over a wood frame. Think of how wooden boat hulls were handcrafted in the past with a center spar and ribs.
Next, I use the ‘strip-build’ technique and my own system of steam, clamps, straps, glue, hand tools, power tools, and sandpaper to achieve the desired shape. The shapes range from classic longboard guns to combinations of my favorite boards to ride such as Stings and Bonzers, to completely off-the-wall pieces like The Real BoardWorks, Looking for Alice, The Rat Board, and The Wave Machine.
Each surfboard is comprised of several hundred very thin strips of wood from a variety of species such as koa, teak, poplar, pine, cedar, redwood, padauk, wenge, walnut, butternut, mango, ash, balsa, and paulownia.
Most of the wood I use for my surfboard art is considered reclaimed, reused, or salvaged as I regularly find trimmings from local cabinet shops or gnarly twisted sticks of lumber in the cull bin at lumber yards.
I never use paint or tinted stain because the colors occur naturally from within each carefully selected strip of wood, sea shell, or stone. Instead, my surfboards are completed with either a clear satin finish or are ‘glassed’ and then polished to a high-gloss shine.
Many of my pieces depict a scene, while others reveal the beauty of the natural grain in the wood.
Some surfboards are functional, some are pure fantasy, and all are considered fine art; one-of-a-kind works which will remain original in the world marketplace.
