The Lineup

There are many choices that must be made in order to get your hollow wood board project started. Choosing which wood to use can be a challenging part of the process and one that should be considered early. There are a wide range of woods in the marketplace and some are better than others for the purpose of building hollow boards. We build with paulownia wood and have found that this is the wood that builds the lightest weight, strongest hollow wood board structures possible.

The tools needed to build a hollow wood SUP of surfboard are basic. If you are working from our full scale patterns the shapes can be cut out with a jig saw. The simplest method/tool for milling your own strips would be a table saw and a good thin kerf blade. The option of purchasing milled strips ready to install is another option if you don’t want to mill your own. A table saw is also necessary for varying the width of the strips which is how the strips are made to conform to the radius sections of the frames. Strips are best installed on the framework without surfacing due to the aggressive level of sanding needed after all strips are installed.

• Table saw
• Hand saw
• Jig saw
• Block plane
• Utility knife
• Electric drill
• Wood chisels
• Sharpening gear
• Assortment of clamps
• Shop vacuum

If you are working from our full size patterns you will need to choose the plywood for the frames. We use a high quality 4mm marine ply that is void free (Joubert 4mm BS 1088 marine ply). Other plywood can be used but it’s helpful to avoid plywood with voids in the layup. Another consideration for the plywood used for the framework is to limit the thickness to 1/4″ or less with 4mm being ideal. The structure of hollow boards is not based solely on the framework, therefore it’s important to limit the thickness/weight of the framing.