Clearwood Blog

Paulownia Tomentosa (Paulownia) We received our new load of paulownia lumber about a month ago and it’s beautiful material! This product is an upgrade from our previous stash and we’re stoked to be able to offer it to our frame kit customers and anyone building strip planked water craft.

Board Builder Story: Ken Marvel, Marvel Boards and Boats  Here’s a bit of Ken’s story in Ken’s words: “I began working with wood again in Sarasota first as a hobby to free my spirit of the stresses of a busy career in 2015.  Though I enjoyed immensely the process of restoring our 1957 Fleetform runabout, it w…

Board Builder Story: Rory Sheldon Here’s a bit of Rory’s story: Rory was born in Monterey California and came from a military family that moved often. His coming of age years were spent on Kauai Hi where he learned to surf.  Rory’s dad and granddad were both woodworkers and he feels it’s in his genes. Rory is…

New “All Around” SUP designs If you have been thinking about building a hollow wood SUP and like “All Around” shapes, our “all around” line up of SUP’s is ready to build! The Buddha “all around” comes in three sizes: 12’ 5” x 34” x 260 liters of volume, 11’ 5” x 32” x 226 liters of volume and 11’ x 0” x 32” x …

“Dropped Deck” VLZ 14’ x 23” Prototype The dropped deck VLZ 14’ x 23” is a race board for those paddlers wanting the very fasted shape available in strip planked hollow wood construction. This is a very cutting edge design with a highly refined bottom shape which will product a fast and stable board for it’s 2…

“Takeaway’s” for 2018-Foils! A major “takeaway” so far from 2018 is that much is changing quickly in both touring/racing shapes, and in the surf scene, with the influx of foils, where both prone paddle and standup paddle surfers are now flying foils. An upside to learning to foil surf is that some otherwise un…

Paulownia Wood We continue to promote the use of paulownia wood for building strip planked SUP’s and other hulls being built using strip planked construction. I sometimes feel a bit guilty about voicing the merits of paulownia wood for strip planking in that Clearwood sells paulownia to many of our customers. …

Surfboard Grade Paulownia Planks What is “surfboard grade” paulownia? Get a FREE sample of this product! Email your sample request and we’ll get it right out!! Surfboard grade paulownia is the currently available grade of clear, dry paulownia wood available from China. This is the grade I use for all of the …

Standup Paddleboard Building Tutorials We don’t want summer to end too soon but we do want to plan for the inevitable change of the seasons. The fall season here in the Northern Hemisphere is when many woodworking enthusiasts are planning winter projects, and building a hollow wood SUP (standup paddleboard) or…

Building a Lightweight Board Building a lightweight hollow wood board of any style can be a challenge but, in the end, not that hard if you choose the “right” materials. The very best wood for building hollow wood boards is a species of wood called paulownia tomentosa. Pauownia t. has the perfect blend of weig…