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Nice session at Combe Cellars. We measured the wind at 25-30 mph as we rigged up and had second thoughts about going in. I was over powered on 5.5m. Easterlies were raw!!!!! Temperature measured at around 4 degrees when we finished at 1230. Felt like zero. Lee pulled off a nice Duck Gybe and heli tacks. Here's a few pics which I took from some film I shot from the water. I got to say Lee... nailed every hmmm Heli Tack.

 

got bigbury quite good yesturday about chest to head high well powered on a 5.4 first time riding dtl even had the sun out what more can you ask for apart form being warmer

thanks to mcattack a nice wakeboard sesh with some 3's and some serious air time snow on the hills and switches on the lip nice ,,,,,,,,...............pic taken from elberry platform ignor the date

I've been a bit quiet recently. Apologies! Hoping to get some kind of update before then end of the month, be it new gallery pics or video.

(WARNING THE BELOW CONTENT MAY BE EXTREMEEEELYYY BORING FOR THOSE NOT INTERESTED IN THE SITE WORKINGS!!)

I have been looking into a new gallery/video system to replace our current one which is getting really dusty now on the features front. First off, it's not good enough to provide the low resolution pics anymore.. Expect the new gallery to have most of the current images with their full resolution counterpart available to download. This we are expecting will require more hosting space. We currently use nearly 3GB of space on our package. This will need to be tripled/quadrupled at least!

All the WMV videos shall be converted to flash format to be friendly across all platforms, be it Windows, Mac and Linux. As well as most of the newer ones will be available in HD.

Once this is done. I plan to update the website with a complete new look! A large amount of the website is unnecessarily complicated and messy.

(END OF EXXTREEEMLYYY BORING BIT)

So hopefully that will give you guys and gals an idea of whats gonna happen over the next year - Hopefully sooner than later!

Crimbo was rounded off with some SUP boarding in the snow on Sunday 10th Jan 2010. It was fr.....freeeeezn -2C! First time I've crossed snow to get to the water. Here are some pics to motivate us to go out when it's a tropical 7 C. It was snowing whilst we were on the water.

 

found an old skateboard/removed trucks/add couple of footstraps/found some snow/added a hyped up 12 year old and hey presto fun facto 9.........(project time errrr 10mins)(tools err a screwdriver)

 

got the hang of it towards the end of sesh/it worked well toe side 180s/360s arrrrr... de icer helped on the grip tape a bit ....just attached a long thin P.T.F.E strip to the underside just to give a bit of bite..so up to 20mins and 8 screws o and that screwdriver again yes dear i'm coming in for my tea now.......................................

All I wanted for christmas was some wood and waterproof glue...... and vuola!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've wanted to make a Wood SUP paddle for some time so I've been slowely gathering the tools and materials. This is my first attempt so I've used mostly pine, hardwood shaft and stringers in the paddle for strength and not wanting to spend out too much if it didn't work. After the success of Mk 1,  I now plan to start a balsa and fibre glass version ASAP for greater lightness as I've had so much fun with this one.

 

The paddle has 13 different sections of wood and the blade is set at 10 degrees.

 

I used it in perfect waves on New Years day and for me I had the best SUP session so far, bagging plenty of sweeeeeeeet rides as Preston.

 

I followed Dave Kalama's and Starboards hints for correct paddle length i.e 'one should be able to stand the paddle straight next to you and comfortably reach up and grab the handle' with your arm straight. Method two -  stand the paddle on it's handle top and the end of the shaft / beginning of the paddle is directly in line with your eyes.

 

How did it perform?  Well...  because of my choice of wood and not wanting to thin out the paddle blade and shaft too much prefering strength for my first attempt it is on the heavy side. But the mark two will use balsa with a laminated shaft and fibre glass covered paddle and this will really result in a carbon challenging light paddle. But I must say Ill definetly use it again as I found it really easy in the waves and stable because of the good length.

I tried a carbon paddle on the day and I definetly want one of those too as it will be difficult to match the power and weight. But saying that this wood paddle easily got me out back and into waves and for me delivered great stability.

 

WHAT YOU WILL NEED!

 

'Immediately tell your employer you are sick and cannot come in for 2 days... better make it three days and then start gathering tools, materials, tea bags and milk'

 

Tools: Hand Plan, Spoke Shave, Saw, Electric Jigsaw, Electric Sander, Sandpaper, Wood Rasp, at least 3 clamps ( these are expensive £20 plus at B&Q ... or £3.60 Newton Market!), water proof wood glue, waterproof/weather proof wood varnish/Yacht varnish).

 

Which Woods: I've researched wood paddles online - In Hawaii they use 'KOA'. In general for wood paddles.... Cherry, White Oak, Ash, Ceder are used. For my first I used hardwood 'type unknown' for the shaft and blade stringers, and pine. It turned out great ( if a bit heavy ) but I will be trying balsa and fibre glass next. 

 

1.

Use an existing paddle as a shape template.

2.

Decide  your shaft length and add a 3-4 inches... you can always cut it down.

3.

The shaft is best purchased unshaped and should have a cross section of 2" by 4". The reason for this is that you want to set you paddle blade at an angle of at least 10 degrees and you need a flat surface to glue the paddle sections of wood either side of the blade.

4.

Cut the length of the shaft  length ways down roughly to above the area of the shaft.. leaving the shaft area as it was when you purchased it so you can set the blade angle.

 

 

5.

Cut lengths of wood for each side of the blade and lay it all out on the floor ready to start glueing. I used thin hardwood stringers in with the pine for strength and artistic appearance. Don't worry if bits of wood stick out here and there as you will trim them off or plane them down as needed.

6.

You can clamp and glue in one go or I preferred to do it separately either side so as to better set the blade angle.

 

 

7.

Once dry I used my existing paddle as a template, traced the outline and jigsawed it out.

8.

For the handle I placed, glued and clamped x2 blocks of wood.

 

 

9.

The rest is just planing, sanding and rasping to get the shape you want. I left the shaft oval for better grip and strength and the blade on the thicker side as I didn't want to mess up my first attempt.

10.

Varnish with 3 coats of waterproof/weather proof varnish. But... leave the paddle handle as is to prevent blisters.  I got a tip from Ray Mears and sealed the top of the handle with vegetable oil. The wood soaked it up and it worked well.

 

 

Nick.

a little ref for directions etc for you guys when sailing at coombe cellars will have a look in the morning cheers

went meadfoot today with rod it was full on went out on a 4m and still struggled to sheet in on them gusts out the back some of the swell was chest hight had to try to slow my self down it was quite intence i was in survival mode. not quite sure what tomorrow is going to bring but it said southerly gales on the tv not quite sure if its good or scary just got to give it a go to find out

spent the afternoon dodging trees at comb cellars went down about 2 still very windy no one there so waited around for ten minites then someone came down and went out on my 5.4 well powerd up /over powerd.as flying across the river all branches and deadburry floating down was quite airy then seen a massive tree very skeachy but not a bad session wind dropped about 4 thought there would be more people out being west