The Show begins

When I was around 17-18, I got onto a surf board for the first time. Until this point I had thought of surfing as easy, whenever I saw it on the tv I imagined it didn't take much skill
  I couldn't have been more wrong if I'd tried!!
What came out of this first venture on a surfboard, was the "bug" which most surfers will tell you, gets you on the very first try, and is very hard to shake off. My first attempt to surf was at Matarangi, in the Coromandel, NZ . I still laugh at this, Matarangi, for the most part, barely gets any surf, its just not a surf beach at all. Needless to say though surfing and board shaping was something that I saw go hand in hand with my new job at the time, the world of boat building. I've always wanted to shape my own board, but practicing on repairing old boards seems more logical to me.

So, the first project that has tickled my fancy and, conveniently , just started, is an old Bruce Fitzgerald surfboard.

From this photo, which was the photo I saw when I was bidding on it, doesn't look too bad. Whoever had it at one point brought it upon themselves to turn it into a tow in board ( I assume) On the deck where the foot pads are, you can just make out holes on either side of them, these holes go straight through the board and have had bolts through them to hold ,what i can only guess at, straps or bindings for the feet to hook into. A Lesson in deception here too, what this photo doesn't show, is the serious amount of de-lamination from the tail to about halfway up the board. My heart sank a bit when I found this out, but it was just the start

Welcome to the underside of the board. A mess of repainted re done glassing that on this side, is totally de-laminated...
  Not much more to say about the bottom really. I was hoping it would be a glass up on the bottom and a simple case of filling the holes with some foam and patching them up too, but alas, The whole lot has to come off so I can see what is really going on under there.

Also to note about this, is that, someone has cut the fins off. As yet another assumption ( well really a very well educated guess, seeing as how a big part of my job is also Boat repairs   ) for the board to have been mounted at some point, weather as an artistic piece for a wall, an advertising sign, or table of some sort , is anyone's guess.

You may also be able to see at the end of the tail, what they call "channels". "Channels" are there to propel more water through the board and turn that flow into more momentum , ie, a quicker board. This was previously a tri fin board or "Thruster" that is, it had 3 fins, 2 on angles and 1 set a bit further back in the middle but in line with the stringer of the board.

A typical thruster set up

At this moment in time, I have opted to turn this into a Quad fin board. I have absolutely no idea if this is a good option, but I still think i'll do it, If not just have a board with 4 fins on it.
  Quad fin boards offer more speed. They way the fins are set means there is no middle fin to provide drag or resistance through the water. Of course, there are trade offs for having 4 fins, but to go into detail would bore some people. I've found a great site that covers all the terms I've mentioned here, and goes into way further details about all this related to surf board construction

http://www.surfscience.com/

This isn't the first board I've played around with, the first was and Al Merrick board ( Al Merrick can be regarded as the God Father of board shaping) Again like this board, it was in shoddy condition, but after a bit of T.L.C fibre glass, q-cell, and paint, She looked as good as new.......The Q-cell is a filler mixed with resin to form a bog, lighter in weight than a standard marine filler, and used in minor board repairs. The board came out a bit nose heavy, and overall, heavier than it should've been, but I double glassed it all with heavy Fibre glass ( 2 layers of 6oz mat on each side)

Here are some photos of that project

I later found out that this board had snapped twice. Once in the middle and once at the nose

Weather you know what you're looking at or not, I think we can agree, This is bad

Asylum Industries, the name I've had in my head head for years for a company, And now the name I use when Fix or modify stuff.

 The Name Asylum Industries, comes from and Korn DVD that I used to have in college called Asylum. I loved the band and the Dvd, the name stuck in my head and picked up the industries part when I day dreamed of owning my own Company that would make boards and do custom paint jobs, Something I would still like to do, but I'm certain I need more experience to do so

 The Graphics were provided for me by a guy Called Steve Roach who owns "Letter rip Ltd" a sinage company Rayglass boats use for their graphics

 A base coat of white then a coat of pearl and then a clear coat with pearl put in it, and this is what you get, A board that you no longer want to use in case you scratch it. This board also lights up like a lure in the water when the sun hits it, I sold this bad boy in the end

So with the first project under way, I guess I'll see you when I do the next step, Ciao for now

Nick