Homemade wakesurfer?

i was just wondering if any of you guys have ever made a homemade wakesurfer.. i'm sort of a cheap guy and dont want to buy something that i could make... so if you have any ideas it would be greatly appreciated...

I've seen a couple made out of Skim Boards.

You can shape your own surfboard and use it behind the boat. You can probably order foam, glass, resin, catylist, tools, instructional videos...online I've actually shaped and glassed my own surfboard. However, you need your board for behind the boat to be thin and have no rocker except for the nose to make it fast. It would be extreamly hard to shap a board yourself like that, and it'd have a good chance of breaking. It'll also end up costing you $200-400 in suplies plus 20-50hrs of labor for your first board. It ends up being a lot cheaper to buy one. Plus, if you go with inland surfer 5'6 or 6' their shapes are already proven to work, plus they're strong.

Mike Schwenne
www.westcoastcamps.com
www.thewakeboardcamp.com
www.wakeboardcamp.tripod.com
www.wakeboardcamp.bravehost.com

well, i already have the shape for the wakesurfer(i traced it from a friend who had bought an obrien surfer) and i was sort of throwing around the idea of using 1/8" plywood for a skin and having a 1/2" foam core and using marine epoxy to glue it all together.. i'm not sure if that description makes any sense, but i'm not sure if i will even build it yet... thanks for the input
-alex-

well if you do that make sure you bend the wood first, if you don't its gonna run flat, had a bad experiment with a homemade wakeskate

Alex,
Find out where yoou can get diviny cell foam in your area. Once you get it. Make a template of the shape of board you want. Draw it out on the board and cut it out with a skill saw or jig saw.
If you can't vacuum seal your board, the most primitive way to do this is: heat the tip of your board w/ a tourch but becarefull not to burn the foam, then bend-up the tip of the board, for some rocker. Than you can glass and sand the board. You can go on-line and find sites that teach you how to glass a surfboard. The principals are the same with this type of foam. Of course these are all primitive methods of making a garage board - but you should be able to pull it off.
Hope this helps.
www.akakesurf.com

thanks alot for all the info.. it really helps
-alex-

hey alex I made one from an old surfboard. I chopped it up and reshaped it and glassed it with a really strong fiberglass. The whole thing costs me 50.00 in parts. and a couple hours of labor.

Todd, what did you change about the old surfboard, I was wondering what differentiates a Wakesurf board from a regular board. I know that size is one of the issues. I was thinking of just buying a convential surfboard off of ebay

I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to rebut some of Mike’s comments. First off, Mike Schweene is an incredibly talented athlete and instructor. However, I feel you are being misleading. While the intial investment is a bit steep, most garage shapers will never have to buy a second router or planer. Plus many folks who consider this activity, probably already have these tools, so there is no additional sunk cost for them. I agree with Mike that the first board requires an INCREDIBLE amount of time, but…after the first few, you can crank one out in about 6 hours, spread out over several days, of course. In my own experience it breaks down like this:

Shaping 3.0 hours
Fin box 0.5 hours
Glassing 1.0 hours
Hot Coat 1.0 hours
Finish 0.5 hours

As for the estimate of cost in the 200-400 range, that simply isn’t accurate on a single board cost. Make no mistake, there are some significant initial upfront costs, but unless you intend to only make one board EVER, never modifying the design, the cost per board drops to under $100.

A realistic breakdown of variable costs per board is:

Clark Blank $50
Fin Boxes 15
Glass Cloth 10
Resin and MEK 10
Supplies 10

I appreciate Mike’s position. Mike is sponsored by Inland Surfer and I'm sure we all remember their ad's with Mike from the 2003 WWSC. However, I feel that there are a TON of ideas that can create some much needed innovation in this sport. Alan, I’m sure, remembers our discussion of an asymmetrical board. I’ve seen rotating fins and many other ideas that quite frankly won’t make it into mass production in the near future, unless some “garage shaper” tinkers with it.

I like the Inland Surfer boards, I own an old Red Chubby…but if you want something different than the 4 flavors Jeff Paige offers, you’re pretty much out of luck with Inland Surfer products.

I hope that anyone considering some radical idea, or even just a simple, “How would it feel if the fins were moved ½ inch forward” will give serious consideration to “rolling their own”, so to speak. Just to show you it can be done, here is a scan of my son James on one we built specifically for him. He routinely busts 1 foot airs and spins 360’s with ease.

Jeff - How old is your son? I have seen several great shots of him on wakeworld now.

James just turned 13 in September. He's been snowboarding since he was 6, wakeboarding since 7 and he took up wakesurfing in April of '03. I am VERY proud of him (in case you couldn't tell ).

Have you looked at making a skim style board?, I've seen a few posts for making your own wakeskate. Same principles should work, just a little thiner.....It's near to winter now, I may just play around and see if I can't make one out of plywood.

Though I have a feeling that I'll probably just end up buying one in the end..

That being said are there any links that could help me with my winter project?

Blast from the past! James was so young back then. Most of the decent skim style boards are made using a vacuum table these days. Back in '04 I wasn't looking to invest in that sort of technology. So, I never really persued making a skimstyle board.

Strictly out of wood, these folks sell a kit and instructions. Can't be beat IMO.

http://www.rcskim.com/makeaboard/How%20to%20build%20a%20skimboard.html

"I hope that anyone considering some radical idea, or even just a simple, “How would it feel if the fins were moved ½ inch forward” will give serious consideration to “rolling their own”, so to speak"-Jeff Walker, Oct.20, 2004

C'mon Jeff did you really believe some small rinky-dink operation was going pop up out of nowhere with something new and innovative?

That was a rather prohetic statement, huh? Thanks for turning that into a reality!

So what core material are you using? It's 2 pound per of something, I'm certain of that. Which reminds me, can you folks at Walzer vacuum with a single layer say of Carbon or S-glass?

Think 'glassed light' version for competitive use? Doesn't have to be pretty and can be disposable after a contest or two, just looking for the lightest version you can make.

sure can, I'm actually making one of those for myself in the next week or so.

Well, I got bored last night and after reading about the wakeskate process I raided the shed and made a mold for the rocker on the board.

Time for a confession. I'm basing my ideas loosly off of trickboardz concave bottom. I had a surf skate but it was too small for me so I sent it back. I only had it a couple of weeks but it seemed like a solid, top rate product. I'm 6'4", 215. Unfortunately it was just too small or I would have kept it.

Shortly after I decided to go back to school so I sold my boat and moved back to Utah. My money is currently going towards that so that's why I'm not just buying another one. -Great product, I just don't have the cash for a new one right now. -I can't get out as much as I used to, my bro has a boat that I may get to use occasionally when it warms up. So- is it wrong of me to use their product as my inspiration? Please note that I'm not going to try to sell these, just one for my own use.

Ok, whew, I feel much better getting that out in the open.

So, anyone have information on the vacuum process?
Thanks

Confession is good for the soul! I'm not sure that there is any board out there that hasn't been inspired by someone else's product. With that said, I also hope that the VAST majority of folks support the manufacturers that keep our sport thriving.

Rob I saw an article on building a homemade vacuum table using one of those kitchen appliance vacuum bagging machines...but I can't find it now, you might try doing a google on it. I would suspect though, that you won't really need this unless you are laminating a divinyl core.

Sean, are you sure the Walzer's aren't built on divinyl, the H-80 space ship stuff?

(Message edited by surfdad on October 14, 2006)

Also vacuum bagging can be expensive to learn - expect to throw away the 1st 4 or 5 boards.

Sean? Can you read? You KEEP blowing off my questions! Why is that? LOL.

Rob the concept of vacuum bagging has it's origins in aerospace construction. It's used extensively in Radio Control airplane model building. Here is a link to an article that gives some details for those that are interested...and as the "selective reader" Sean points out, it's pricey and probably not necessary for a wood skimmer.

http://www.pilotsguide.com/rc/vacbag.shtml

Thanks for the help guys, I found a couple of articles on it. Looks very interesting. My main curiosity would be how to shape the board and use the vacuum bag. Since when you put multiple layers together you would use fiberglass resin (for me probably, unless there is another you would reccommed) to hold the sheets together. Then you put them in the press to get the rocker and push them down.

Maybe vacum first then put the whole bag in th press?

I'd like to help you out more but specific techniques can take up to years to perfect and most manufacturers treat their processes as intellectual property.(everybody does it a little different)

Alright, made a trip to homedepot today...side note, yes they have everything in the warehouse, but that don't mean they actually sell their stuff cheap.....

Got my plywood and 2x4s to complete my press. Also got the fiberglass resin and a couple sheets of 1/4" plywood for the actual board. I'll try to throw a pic of my press on here tommorrow.

Anyway, how about top deck foam? Where could I get some? How much should I expect? Thanks. --It's a cold fall here in Utah, almost snowmobiling season but maybe a trip back to Vegas and Lake Mead would be in order.

wat up - caskimmer
Im down in sd (actually in Thijuana), twice a month riding the wave pool (wave house) and doing business with my wake surfing bus.company let's hook-up some time and ride!!

alan... what are the details of your superfly board ? looks like a hybrid fish ? (this is what i have looking for..)

give a holler when your down this way..

btw, regular or goofy ?

(Message edited by clubmyke on October 18, 2006)

Alan, I've actually been meaning to get in touch with you. When are you coming down next?

So...making anything for the Wave? I actually just started riding it and don't really like the loaner boards.

Sean,
Hook -up with Grape up in San Clemente. He'll set you up witha board. way sicker than the stuff they loan you at wave house. I'll shoot you his number later this evening.

Here are just a couple of pics. I made the board press, got a couple of 1/4" 24x48" sheets from HomeDepot. I carefully designed my edge for all 4 corners then cut out just the top deck. Then I painted the inside edges with fiberglass resin and sandwiched them together in the press overnight. I did cheat and put a screw through into the press where the fin will likely go. In the morning it came out with a real nice rocker. Here are some pics.




Today I went and cut the bottom deck to match and sanded the edges nice and round so nobody gets hurt. I then played around with some spray paint and also mounted a center fin..... Still trying to decide if I want a couple of side ones also.

Anyway.... Where can I get some foam for the top deck? Anybody....Anybody?

Here's a pic of the bottom side with fresh paint on it. I still need to coat the top and bottom w/ resin.

Anybody in Utah want to hit the lake?

I like the wave graphic. You're looking for EVA foam for the deck. A few options. Most online crafts stores will sell EVA with an adhesive backing. Larry Mann at Trick Boardz also was willing to sell the EVA foam for awhile, you might try and hit him up.

I tend to like the traction sets available thru X-Trak.

http://www.xtrak.com/

A final option, if you're just testing the prototype is to use surf wax - Shark Bait Surf Wax (James' sponsor) is GREAT!

I'm in Orem, but I just winterized my boat two weeks ago. If you haven't put yours up I'm game for one last ride. I actually told my wife that I wanted to make my own board just to mess around for the winter. She thought I was crazy but I'd like to see what you've done.

Kenny, My brother owns the boat and he's already winterized it. I had my boat set up with enough weight but I don't think his could handle it. His is a tristar 220 that has the low step on the transom. With not much weight it would be pretty easy to sink.

Jeff, thanks for the link. Exactly what I'm looking for. Yah, it's just a prototype right now, I gotta test this first. Maybe I'll drop a little sand in the resin for the top and just wear some shoes. With the way I made it the board would at least be easy to chop down if I want to.
I'm hoping its big enough for me. I was able to ride the trickboardz surfskate which was 42x19.5" and this one is 48x23.5". I'm hoping it will do the job.

Kenny, if it works we could make you one real easy. Just a couple sheets of plywood, a 32 ounce can of resin, a jig saw and some sand paper.

Total cost
Wood $8
Resin $20
So the board is $28

Optional
Paint $5
Foam top deck Front $30
Foam Tail pad $38
$72 for the rest

Now that I'm looking at it you could probably just use grip tape like for a skateboard on the top. That would be pretty cheap.
Also, I had some old wakeboard fins laying around so if you wanted those that would add to the price.

For anyone watching. I'm not selling, just laying out costs. I'm offering to help for free.

It was snowing outside today, I may have to wait until spring to give it a try.....
At least I got wakeworld to get me by the winter months.... Of course it is about snowmobile season.

I learned a little more. For anyone doing a search the topdeck foam is really called a "surf traction pad" They can be found cheaply on Ebay for about $13 + $5 shipping, around $35 for two of them.

So that brings the total to about $63 a board w/ traction pads. Not a bad way to go if you want to build your own.