: I'm a cheap miser when it comes to paddling, so I wondered if
: anyone had tackled building a SOF SUP. I found a link for an
: article that talks about getting one started, but it didn't see
: it through or talk about how it went.

: Anyway, ideas? thoughts? witty commentary?

: Rumrum article..
:
: http://rumbum.com/199-using-old-techniques-to-build-a-new-stand-up-paddle-board

This discussion is a bit old but I thought I'd revive it. I took a crack at this last year. The board shape is based on Tom Blake's Hollow Wooden surfboard design from 1939 in Popular Science. Tom Blake modernized surfing by taking Hawaiian shapes and making them hollow, one of the first to attach a fin, and a sail. He is a legend among watermen. Anyway, I always loved the old school teardrop shape. I've also had a thing for skin on frame since I built a greenland style for my wife. I had some nice long Doug-fir left over from that so I built me an experiment. I initially intended her as a SUP but she's much more squirrely than her 14' would lead you to believe. The design (Blake's shape not my woodwork) is quite elegant.

She's not light buts she's not a tank either. Probably in the 30's. Stringers, rails and I think decks are Doug-fir. Ribs are yellow cedar. I kind of used a Cape Falcon quick and dirty screw and lash type method. I originally tried to steam bend the ribs but the curves were tight and there was too much grain runout in my wood. So I did a kind of right angle lash to the stringer with a wood pin and then slop it with 5200 (aka marine duct tape) kind of thing. So she's built like a beast. I paddle her prone on Lake Washington. She absorbs chop and glides nicely (she can wag her tail a bit). I'll probably build another, probably lighter and more designed for SUP. Maybe yost style. Maybe a folder. It can be done and it works.

Some people said a SOF couldn't be a planing hull. The OP was talking flat water so that doesn't really matter. Planing hulls are slugs at sub planing speeds. To counter that though, I've seen pictures of surf kayaks (with planing like bottoms) on spiritlline's site.

As for weight, well. Mine is not light but it's over built with heavy wood. And why build a SOF paddleboard... to see if I could of course.

Here's a link to more pic http://s1107.photobucket.com/albums/h382/mingmangmao/