REPLICA BOARD

I've been working on various replica shapes from the original ‘81 quiver, primarily the 6'6 big Bells board but also the 7'6 Pipe winning board and also the Coke board a 6'2  20 1/8  2 ¾ single flyer rounded square tail.

 I've been developing these boards on the APS 3000 machine and software. This has been enjoyable for me and really is a great exercise to develop your skills as a designer on this type of program. The latest board is the Coke board.

The difference with this one is it is being sprayed by Martyn Worthington probably the most famous practitioner of spray art in the history of the Australian board making industry. In this case he is basically copying the original boards’ panel spray, pretty simple for Martyn. It is then to be finished by Steve Zoeller, glassed and sanded. Steve is the original sander of the first Thrusters in the old Energy factory founded in 1976.

 This board is a charity board to be auctioned on 3rd June, Saturday night, see accompanying photos. The thing about this board is it came out pretty good and close to the original, you can never get it exact. I like the deep vee bottom and the outline shape is pretty spot on. The rails are the element I like the most. The original board has pretty horrid rails, a flat deck going to low rails that don’t feel that good in the hand. This replica board has very similar rails to the original, not quite as chunky but just fit the hand in a nice way and feel more functional.

                            6'2 Single Flyer Rounded Square tail, Filler Coated ready to be sanded.

Original Thruster fin templates from the 80's.

 I'm inspired by this board to look at producing another run 810 model series of boards with a similar rail and plan shape but more modern rockering with concave bottom contours mixed in with the vee.

                              Steve Zoeller and the charity 6'2 at the Mona Vale Energy factory.