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Has anyone else made their own wakesurf?


jaciche

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I keep seeing the threads asking for the best wakesurf, so I thought I'd ask this question. For my synthetic and composite materials class, we had to choose a project to make out of composite materials. I decided to make a wakesurf. I always struggle with how expensive they are, so this was a cheaper alternative. I acknowledge that it may not work very well, but it's a learning experience either way. I'll have to wait til next spring to test it out, but the total cost was about $80 and it took about 30 hours to complete. Here's some pictures from the end of the project.

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Cool project. Where did you get the design/shape ideas from? What's it weigh?

I drew some different shapes on autocad and picked the shape that I wanted. The board weighs about 10-12 pounds.

Wakesurf.jpg

Edited by jaciche
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Very cool. I hope it works for you. I took you 30 hours. So my question is: for surf board companies, when you consider research and development, design experience, manufacturing processes, professional fit and finish, do you have a better feeling for why the cost between 300 and 800 dollars? I think the prices are high also, but maybe it's justified??

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I drew some different shapes on autocad and picked the shape that I wanted. The board weighs about 10-12 pounds.

Wakesurf.jpg

It weighs 10-12 lbs, really? If it works good are you going to start on a gen 2 and start shaving some weight?

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I looked heavily into buying some surf board blanks and trying to make my own. Tons of places selling just the blanks, poly, shaping tools, etc. Let me know how she surfs.

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I surfed a lot in my previous life. There is A LOT of research, trial, and error in shaping boards. There is a science with the rails, rocker, width, concavity, deck, weight, nose, tail, fin design, # of fins, fin placement...etc. The better you get at something the more you understand what they do and how they work. This looks like a project....but hell some people surf on plywood. I'm thinking it will be a fun day trying out the board...but I think in spring you will find out why boards are $$.

Check out tigeowners website, there was a guy Walker something who started out making boards in his garage for his son, I think he got bought out...but there may be some insight on what he did and how he started out.

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Thanks. My plan is to see how this surfs, and make adjustments for the next board. I was happy to work on this project. What i'm considering for the second board is changing up the core material. If I go with a wood core, I'm positive that the fiberglass or carbon fiber will lay more smoothly and evenly. I know for sure that the next board will be at least 2" less at the widest point. For weight savings, there's lost off opportunity to cut some fat. I was generous with how much resin I used to ensure this board would be strong enough. The hardest part was glassing the corners and fins of the board.

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Next time buy some fin boxes and then just buy the fins that will slip into the finbox. Wakeworld actually had a few great threads about home built surfboards. There was even one made from an old ironing board.

Jeff Walker was the main guy that was doing this as far as I remember.

Here are a couple of threads for an idea.

http://www.wakeworld.com/forum/showthread.php?t=780792&highlight=home+surf

http://www.wakeworld.com/forum/showthread.php?t=496167&highlight=home+surf

http://www.wakeworld.com/forum/showthread.php?t=781599&highlight=home+surf

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Have fun with it, super cool project!! Don't mean to be a buzz kill but I wouldn't expect much from it this spring. I have anchors that weigh less than 12 lbs, I'd guess my XXX board weighs about 2-3lbs. But if you stare too hard at it it will dent, don't think you'll have that problem.

Edited by Ndawg12
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Certainly a fun process, but it takes time and practice for sure. If you have a neat idea, you should certainly try it. I would say the market is now appropriately priced with a range of products. 3 years ago there wasn't 1/2 the product that is out there today. If you could make awesome composite wakesurf shapes for $200. you would see them alot more than you do.

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  • 1 month later...

I built two using hardware store foam. I learned a lot, first one was heavy and kind of cumbersome. But you couldn't pearl it and was a good cruiser. The second broke on the second rider. I would suggest starting with a blank and If I do it again will use a vacuum bag to hold the laps down as it's drying.

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Edited by cowwboy
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