: For his birthday my 13 year old has asked for plan to a
: paddleboard. While I've built several kayaks and canoes, this is
: a new area for me. Does anyone have suggestions for a pattern?

: Jason is 5'9 and 150 lbs and will rarely if ever use the board for
: surfing as the areas we go rarely have much waves. He would like
: to do a strip built board. He's already 'borrowed' lots of Dad's
: boat builting materials.

: Thanks,

: Jim

Hello Jim,

I designed a SUP for Wood Surfboard Supply called the "Malco." It is very buoyant and would be a great board for his size. They sell it in kit form with the forms CNC cut. I am not pushing my board here- they also sell other SUP's with less rocker than the Malco for flat water. The kit makes it easy to build. www.woodsurfboardsupply.com and click on the SUP link.

If you want to do your own plan, you can google "Aku shaper" which is a surfboard design program. There is an add-on file you can download for it to print forms for wood boards. I hope that helps, but I say with great caution that you may want to start with a proven design first unless you have experience in surfboard design. Also Aku Shaper is only going to support a planing hull design. If you want to do a displacement hull you would need to use kayak foundry and manipulate it a lot, or use one of the many boat design programs. I am in no way trying to sell the kit here, but as a note, I actually use the kits to build boards myself because the CNC routed kit is perfect and saves a whole lot of time.

Oh, by the way, the Malco has a slight concave to the bottom of the nose for getting it on plane when surfing. If you are not going to surf and just want to paddle you can glue a strip across the four front forms and make them flat instead of concave before you start the build, OR you can look at the Orca and the Lake Superior which are two boards with flat bottoms. (same link above) It sounds like maybe the Lake Superior is the one for your son since you say there won't be any use in waves. It is just like the Orca but flatter for flatter waters.

Cheers,

Malcolm