Its been a busy summer- studying for boards, then enjoying a relaxing vacation at the beach.  After boards, I spent my free time making these two handplanes to get them ready for vacation.  They weren’t too hard to make and ended up being super fun.  I’ve been following the blog from Brownfish Handplanes (http://www.brownfishhandplanes.com) for a few months now- his work has been the major inspiration for these designs.

What you’ll need:

Cardboard for creating design template

- A thruster design. [Its easier to draw half of it and flip it for perfect symmetry].

Transfer the design to your favorite hardwood.  I used maple (available at Home Depot), but Paulownia is regarded to be the best.

I then used a hand plane and sander to help shape it.  The nose had a rounded bottom and the rear 2/3rds also gently curves up.  I shaped two channels on the bottom to give it a keel.  The side rails are curved up, and smoothed out.

2nd design was a pintail:

After painting, I sealed the board with 5 coats of waterproof polyurethane (Spar-Urethane).  I made the strap using a used bicycle tube, industrial strength water resistant Velcro (purchased at Ace Hardware), stainless steel screws, neoprene washers, and a D-ring.  I used nylon suture (perks of being a Vet) to sew the bicycle tube flat and attach the Velcro to the tube.  A small section of tube is used to secure the D-ring to one side and a longer section of tube with the velcro attached was screwed to the other.  The strap secures by sending one end through the D-ring, then using the velcro to secure it to itself.

The result- they were super fun to body surf with! Great to get more people in the water to thrash some waves!  Build your own!

-JD