It's alive. Oh, it's alive, it's alive! IT'S ALIVE! Dr. Frankensteins Surfboard Lab..

So anybody who knows me, I always have surfboard projects in various stages of completion. This year is no different. So I thought I would post some photo's of this years projects. All of these boards I glued, hand-shaped, airbrushed, and glassed. Many started as one thing and became an other.

Dissect Series

A couple of years ago, I began a new project. I started to cut up some perfectly good surfboard blanks. Cutting and re-gluing them into an entirely different shape than they were intended to be. I began to call these boards "Dissects". As in dissecting them into pieces. Just like that frog you cut up in Biology class. Only I put them back together. For example, some started out as a long-board blank, and became a gun instead. Others were a gun blank and became a fish.

Missing from this thread are, Race Paddleboard, Asymmetrical s, Agave boards. Maybe another thread. When I find time, I'll add more photo's. Way more at my website.
Barry Snyder
http://barrysnyderdesigns.com

 

One of my newest passions is the use of Agave cactus. By far the most difficult material I've ever shaped. However, it is the most beautiful and rewarding. My wood shop teacher from High School would be so proud. I have spent the last 8-9 years perfecting my wood working skills to produce the most beautiful wood boards I can build. It is the same plant used for making Tequila. I utilize the stalk which grows at the end of the plants life. Agave has many varieties. The "Blue" Agave produces the biggest stalk. Many of the boards I've built from this wood actually grows on my property. Homegrown surfboards. In my shop, I have a small wood shop for cutting and gluing this wood. I utilize Agave as solid Wood boards, Stringers, Rails, Fins and nose & tail blocks.
http://barrysnyderdesigns.com
More coming soon.

 

Thanks for all the cool comments.
Agave is very difficult to work with however, it is also the most rewarding.
It is definitely not as buoyant as a foam board.
I have not ridden the gun. It is for sale in my little showroom at the shop.
Agave plants have been given the common name "Century Plant" because of their blooming habit. The idea is that the plants live for 100 years, bloom and die. While it is true that Agave are monocarpic, meaning they bloom once and then die, few species, if any, take a full 100 years to do this. When an Agave does bloom, it sends up a large flower stalk out of the center of the plant that grows very quickly. The height of the bloom stalk is often many times higher than the plant. This often catches people by surprise when the Agave they were growing in their garden for years, suddenly and rapidly goes through this transformation. This is often when they try to identify and learn more about their plant.
I harvest this wood directly from my yard.
It is that stalk that I craft my boards from.
I have ridden this fish for several years.

Barry Snyder
http://barrysnyderdesigns.com

 

No. Most are solid.
Wood is so light, chambers are not needed.
The fish has some chambering done. Sunk my heel through the deck once.
Definitely the most difficult wood I have worked with.
[video=youtube;jDDIFiipIyE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDDIFiipIyE[/video]
http://barrysnyderdesigns.com

 

Chiefly Mexican, agaves are also native to the southern and western United States and central and tropical South America. They are succulents with a large rosette of thick, fleshy leaves, each ending generally in a sharp point and with a spiny margin; the stout stem is usually short, the leaves apparently springing from the root. Along with plants from the related genus Yucca, various Agave species are popular ornamental plants.

Because this plant is an succulent.(Meaning it is mostly comprised of water) it has to dry out before woodworking can begin. This can take a year or more. Because of all this moisture, mold forms inside the stalk. That is what causes the Grey colors in the grains.

This wood also has MANY hard and soft spots. Making the shaping process that much harder.
http://barrysnyderdesigns.com

 

Prone paddleboard. 11' x 21.0"