An Impressive Performance...

We headed up to Casino Rama near Orillia on Friday evening to catch a live performance of "The Ventures". This band was formed in 1959, the surviving members have played together for 50 years, and they are the biggest selling instrumental band of all time. Their biggest, and most popular hit is probably the theme from "Hawaii Five-O". On March 10, 2008, The Ventures were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This was something I had been looking forward to since Christmas. Met up with Gary and Kelly, spent some time getting rid of our excess cash in the Casino, then really enjoyed an incredible show. Nokie Edwards is truly amazing. He is in his mid-seventies, and played guitar non-stop for two hours. Click here to see a YouTube video him playing "Surf Rider", a song he wrote that was featured in the movie "Pulp Fiction". We all thoroughly enjoyed the show and would recommend it to everyone. For more Ventures videos, visit this page...

A little more Progress...

It's coming along nicely, although a little slowly. Still a little cold to be working outside, sanding the deck and shaping the rails. Don't want to rush, cause once something has been removed, you can't put it back. I tried working on it in the basement, but it's rather messy, so I have given up on that idea. The next step, after I finish shaping and sanding will be to apply several coats of either linseed or tung oil to the wood to ensure that it wont absorb water and become waterlogged. After that, I will be able to try it out on a couple of waves in the Lake. I figure oiling the wood will be better than using Varathane to seal it, as it will allow me to tweak the shape to my liking after I have ridden the board a couple of times. And, if that's no good, there is still the option of mounting the Alaia to a wall in the house...

Smiles all around...

Although we did not get nearly the amount of snow predicted, we got waves. Gary and I surfed our usual break for 1 1/2 hours and scored some pretty decent waves. It was cold, -10˚C with a windchill that made it feel more like -20˚C, but worth it. Regan and Josh showed up just as we were leaving and although by then the swell had diminished considerably, they also got a couple of waves. All in all it was a pretty good day, especially getting into the hot tub after our session. Gary got to try out his new board, I got over my withdrawal symptoms and there was not even enough snow accumulation to bother shovelling the driveway. Now that that's out of the way, it's time for it to warm up so I can get some more shaping done to the Alaia...

A good looking Forecast...

Well, it's been 2 days since I've been in the Lake and already I'm having withdrawal symptoms, but tomorrow's forecast is looking good. The wind is supposed to blow at around 20 knots from the NE and Environment Canada has issued a severe weather bulletin for Southern Ontario. The waves on the Lake are expected to be around 2 metres in height. Toronto is expected to get at least 10 centimetres of snow, beginning Sunday evening and continuing overnight. There is also a winter storm watch in place for Burlington, Oakville and Mississauga. Blowing snow is also expected.
This all sounds very promising, and maybe Gary will eventually get a chance to try out his new 7' 9" Oxbow Surfboard. Here's hoping...

A Pleasant Surprise...

Yesterday, a Friday in the middle of February, really surprised me. A SW wind generated some small but clean waves on the Lake, and the temperature rose to 10˚C. Almost unheard of for a winter day in Canada. I surfed for a good 1 1/2 hours before the wind turned offshore and flattened out the swell. The wind then switched to the North and blew all last night and today, reaching speeds of 52 knots. The temperature dropped to -6˚C overnight and then it snowed all day today. Back to reality, it really is winter...

Walking on Water...

We spent last weekend at our friend's cottage on Lake Erie near Peacock Point. It was bitterly cold and he wind blew at around 20 knots from the SW on both Saturday and Sunday, so we sat in front of the fire drinking rum and had a great time. The bag of pine and red cedar shavings from the Alaia made for great kindling. The lake is iced up all the way out to the horizon, first time I have seen it like that. Lots of fun, taking the dogs for a walk, about 1/2 a mile out from the shoreline. As you can see, the swing is still hanging in the tree, but the scenery is a lot different, compared to this picture of us sailing in the summer.
The good news is that it's going to be warm and windy this week, so maybe I will be able to get some surfing in and continue working on the Alaia...

Shaping the Rails...

After the glue had dried, I took the Alaia out to the garage, and with a jigsaw carefully cut along the outline that I had drawn on the blank. I then drew pencil lines on both the top and bottom of the board 5/8" in from the outside edge. Next, I drew lines on the 1" edge, 3/8" from the top and bottom. When I remove the wood between the lines, that will leave a bevelled rail of 30˚ with a 1/4" flat section in between the lines. After sanding, I should end up with nice rounded rolled rails. After the rails are completed, I will work on sanding the deck smooth, and then sand a concave in the back 1/3 of the board. The Alaia is looking quite nice, the only problem being that it's really too cold to spend much time working outside. My hands were freezing after about 10 minutes of sanding. Looks like I will have to put everything on hold until next week when it's supposed to warm up to a balmy +4˚...

The GoPro LCD BacPac

The LCD BacPac I ordered for my GoPro HD camera was finally delivered today by Fedex. After unpacking it and quickly installing a firmware upgrade to the camera I tried it out by taking a couple of pics of the Alaia that I am building. It is now so much easier to take pictures and video, as instead of guessing what will be in the frame, I can now see exactly what I'm shooting. I really like the LCD BacPac and have no hesitation in recommending it to all GoPro HD owners.

Alaia Progress...

Moving right along, I borrowed a couple of large clamps and an electric planer from Gary and glued the remaining Cedar planks to the rest of the board. After waiting 4 hours for the glue to set, I removed the clamps. I then traced the outline of the Alaia from a template I had printed out from a BoardCAD program, onto the Cedar blank. I figure the board should end up being around 7'2" x 16 1/2" x 1" when completed. Hopefully it will float in fresh water. Tomorrow I will take the board out to the garage, cut out the shape with a jigsaw, sand the deck, and start shaping the rails. That is if it's not -12˚C outside again...

My Alaia Project...

After reading a little about the history of surfing, I decided to attempt to build an Alaia. These were the original wooden surfboards used in Hawaii and were made out of Paulownia wood. Of course, this wood is not readily available locally, so a trip to Home Depot resulted in the following: three 8' planks of 5/4 x 6" Red Cedar, two 8' x 1" x 2" strips of Pine and one bottle of Elmer's Ultimate High Performance Glue. This Alaia is going to end up being quite a bit heavier than planned, as Cedar is about twice the weight of Paulownia. I had to rip 1/8" off each side of the Cedar planks on a table saw, as the edges of the planks were slightly rounded. I then glued one pine strip to each side of a Cedar plank and left it to dry overnight. Next I planed the pine strips so that they were flush with the Cedar plank. The remaining Cedar Planks will be glued to the outside edges, resulting in a board which will be 16 1/2" wide. I will have to get hold of a couple of large clamps before proceeding with this step. Anyway, I will document the progress in upcoming entries. Even if I screw this project up completely, I figure the surfboard will still look good hanging on a wall...

The "Blizzard of Oz"...

Well, the much hyped "Blizzard of Oz" was in fact a bit of a let-down. I woke up this morning expecting to find around 30cm of snow on the driveway but barely had to shovel. Took a walk down to the Lake to check out the surf, but the shoreline is completely iced up and if you did manage to get into the water and paddle out past the floating snowballs, you would never be able to get back to the shore again. Check out the GoPro Video to see what I mean. Pity I had one of my gloved fingers in the foreground of the video, but in future I will try to avoid doing that. Also took a couple of pics which can be viewed here. A little more snow fell this afternoon, but nothing significant...