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Hollow wooden surfboards (also 'hollow wood surfboards' or HWS) are surfboards made of wood applied over an internal frame - usually webbed, latticed or drilled out for lightness. Modern versions are of composite construction, often employing a laminating cloth such as fiberglass or bamboo and a resin such as epoxy or polyester resin.

1 Other Wood Surfboard Construction
2 History
3 HWS Methods Today
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Other Wood Surfboard Construction

Other methods of constructing wood surfboards simply employ solid wood throughout, or use solid wood whose planks are disassembled and "chambered" or consist of applying thin wood veneers over solid cores of foam (a.k.a. compsands or veneer boards). None of these are considered "hollow wood surfboards" because the defining characteristics of an HWS are that a) the majority of the surfboard's volume consists of air and b) wood is laid over an internal frame.

[edit] History

Surfboards have been continuously constructed of wood for thousands of years right up to the present day.^[1] But in 1929 Tom Blake, a legendary waterman and surfing visionary, was inspired after his restoration of ancient surfboards housed in Hawaii's Bishop Museum to drill a series of holes entirely through a wooden surfboard to lighten it. The frame he created in this way was "skinned" top and bottom with wood veneers to make the first hollow wood surfboard.^[2] By 1934, he had developed a more sophisticated version which subsequently became common among surfers, paddleboarders and lifesavers on Californian beaches (see SurfResearch.com for more detail). In a limited way during the thirties and forties, surfboards - all of wood - became manufactured products in the U.S., but in most cases they were still built in garages and backyards by the surfers who would use them.^[3]

In 1949, surfboard design innovator and eccentric Bob Simmons (a.k.a. Robert Wilson Simmons) ushered in the current, relatively brief period in surfing history in which a vast quantity of surfboards have been manufactured using chemical foams and fiberglass reinforced resins.^[4] The speed at which such boards can be produced, and the explosion in popularity of surfing during the last fifty years have been key contributors in the rapid evolution of surfboard shapes and surfing styles. But lighter-weight "glass" boards are also more fragile and of a far more toxic construction which has inspired surfers to question the ecological impact of the trend. And yet, though some shapers continued to build with wood - usually solid or chambered balsa - throughout this period, the hollow wood surfboard was forgotten.

In 1995 Roy Stewart and Paul Jensen were among the first shapers, as reported in Pacific Longboard Magazine (??^[5]), to switch back to building hollow wood surfboards. Their main inspiration, apart from beauty, was to turn to a more environmentally friendly method which uses fast growing plantation wood such as Paulownia, although Cedar, Spruce, Redwood, and of course Balsa are also popular.(??^[6])

In 2006, Grain Surfboards was the first to conceive of a way to adapt their own custom hollow wood surfboards built of sustainable yield Maine-grown cedar into a compact kit that could be shipped to surfers that want to build their own ecologically responsible boards with a minimum of tools and equipment.

A relatively small resurgence back to the roots of the HWS has been spreading as more commercial builders like these develop new shapes and methods, promoting hollow wood surfboards for their environmental benefits, surfing characteristics, beauty and ease of construction. The availability of surfboard kits, plans and methods are also helping more "back yarders" to build their own hollow wood boards.

[edit] HWS Methods Today

Most hollow wood surfboards are direct descendants of Tom Blake's original idea of 1929. The majority of a hollow wood surfboard's shape is built into the frame, so to varying degrees, shaping is limited to forming the rails and blending them to the deck and bottom contours.

The Paul Jensen HWS (Hollow wooden Surfboard) Method is descended from the 1930's Tom Blake paddleboarding method and favours a central stringer, with individually shaped transverse ribs, covered with a skin and lastly, rails which are then shaped.

The Roy Stewart PPS (Parallel Profile System) is developed from cold molded (double diagonal) boat building and uses at least four layers laminated over a male mold into a curved blank, including enough wood for rails, which are then shaped.

The chambering method as used by "Empress Surfboards" follows a system whereby Planks of Paulownia are selected and the rocker of the board is cut into each. The planks are then chambered to reduce weight and then bonded together to form a hollow, or "chambered" blank which is then shaped.

The perimeter stringer method used by both "Grain Surfboards" and "Cedar Surfboards" utilises laminated rails as stringers, which are connected with a series of plywood ribs. This skeleton is subsequently sheathed with 5mm thick wood strips, forming a lightweight, fast, and eco-friendly hollow with good flex properties. This is a sophisticated, modern interpretation of Tom Blakes work.