I have been wanting to get something to cross train my surf muscles and balance when I'm not on the water and in the off season. I know a lot of people have used or have an indo board or similar for this purpose. I decided to build my own, here is my build thread. I'm a little light on pictures.
First off, I started with a piece of OSB because I had it on hand and wanted to make use of it. I know it is strong enough to support my weight as it's used as sub floor material and I built our prototype surf platform out of it.
I started off by deciding on the shape and size of my wakesurfer, which happens to be a 3'9" skimboard. I traced the board onto the OSB. I then cut the rough shape with a circular saw. I then refined the shape more with a sawzawl. This gave me a rough shape of my board but I wanted to smooth it out more. I took my belt sander with 80 grit sandpaper and used it to level out the edges so they were one smooth continuous curve. I then used the belt sander on both sides to smooth out the surfaces.
I know a jigsaw would have been quicker, but that is one tool I have yet to get. This method worked well though without too much hassle.
This is what I ended up with
This took me about 30 minutes start to finish.
I wasn't sure of the finish I wanted, rather it be paint or what, so I decided on staining it with some Minwax special walnut coloured stain. I started this by using the Minwax prestain on one side of the board and along one outside edge. I then stained it. I followed up by giving it 3 coats of oil based polyurethane over the next day.
It looked good, but when it dried it still had a bunch of little bumps on it and imperfections on the surface as will happen when you stain something.
I then took my orbital sander and sanded everything down with 220 grit sandpaper. This left a milky appearance all over, but it is now sanded as smooth as glass. I just now put on the 4th coat of polyurethane over this perfect surface. It is starting to look pretty
This is the last step for this side of the board. I will start the other side tomorrow when this side has dried.
For the roller I used a piece of 6" pvc pipe I had and cut it's length to the width of the board, 20". I tested it by stepping on it but I found it to be a little on the week side and I felt it wouldn't hold up to much abuse. To remedy this I took a can of expanding foam and filled the pipe up bout 3/4 of the way so it would expand fully. This gave it the strength it needed to take on it's workload. I then taped up the other side with the duct tape as well just so it isn't too slick
I plan on using this in my garage's concrete floors so I didn't want it to be too slippery.
Here is the completed roller
I will post more pictures and my progress as it comes along. I still have the other side and outside of the edge to treat. I also need to cut out some stops to put on the ends of the board so if you come off your balance, the pipe won't go shooting out and leave you on your butt.
I plan on making that out of more of the OSB treated the same way.
I am debating putting a pad on it. I don't want to do grip tape as I want to be able to use this without shoes and more closely replicating surfing as close I can. This is why I modeled the board after my own board.
If you have any questions on it, feel free to ask, if you have any input, I'm open to that as well. I will keep this updated until it's finished, which may very well be this weekend.
Overall it's not a ton of work or time, the longest part is waiting for the coats of polyurethane to dry. I know I could have painted it or even just used it as it after it got cut out, but I wanted something that would last and I really dig the wood look.
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