Hollow wooden surfboard construction

70percent.org posted a cool thread from Swaylock’s Surfboard Design Forum that documents the construction of a hollow wooden surfboard, so I thought I’d offer a little more on the history of hollow wooden boards.

Back in the 1930′s, when people were riding boards that were basically just solid planks of wood that weighed up to 100 lbs, an innovative waterman by the name of Tom Blake started producing hollow boards that were nearly half as heavy.  Back then this was a major technological leap by any measure, especially when you consider the fact that Polynesians had been riding solid wooden boards for about 2,000 years.

You can read more on the history of wooden boards at http://www.woodsurfboards.com and you can ogle pictures of some nice modern wooden boards at http://www.hollowsurfboards.com.

It’s nice to see people still making them like they used to.

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