Building Directional Kiteboard for High-school Project

Mason · Since 15 Oct 2013 16 Posts

Hello NWKite,
My name is Mason, I am currently a junior at Hood River Valley High School, and picked up kiting last summer. There is a required class that I am taking at the high school called "Pathways to Career Success." In the class you have to choose a project that is related to a career you have interest in, and learn a new skill in the process. I am potentially interested in an engineering profession, and decided to design/build a directional kite surfboard. I have had trouble finding a mentor among local board designers/makers, and am turning to the internet to get the information I need. Online resources specific to kiteboards are fairly limited, so I am using surfboard guides to make basic templates. This is the guide I have mainly been using to get the idea on what materials I will need: http://www.ehow.com/how_2125483_build-surfboard.html.

If anyone has any knowledge on building boards, I would greatly appreciate information. I would like my board to end up being 5'8'' long, how much bigger should I go to account for what I will take off when planing, and and specific things I should look for in a blank? Beyond length, I am pretty open to how it turns out. Also, changes should I look to make so that the surfboard guide will work for a kiteboard? Are there any local shapers that would be willing to sell blanks so I do not have to pay astronomical amounts for shipping?

Finally, if anyone would like to help out in person, or knows anyone who would, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

-Mason

dangler · Since 26 Feb 2006 1769 Posts WINDY SPOTS XTreme Poster

CALLING JOHNNIE B.- OR HEIN- OR JIMMY LEWIS!!! PLEASE RESPOND!!!

Sounds pretty cool. In high school I made an ashtray.

Hein · Since 08 Mar 2005 1314 Posts Possessed

Mason,

Fire up your favorite engineering CAD program and start designing some shapes. There is no doubt that you will need 3D CAD skills to succeed in an engineering career. If you have trouble figuring out how model complex shapes like surfboards, please feel free to contact me.

With some diligence, you will design a shape you like. Then we can look at CNCing a blank on my machine. Once that's done, you can decide if you want to laminate it yourself or have that outsourced to a professional.

Happy shaping,
Hein

dwaynej · Since 09 Sep 2013 207 Posts Stoked **CGKA Member**

Theres a nice discussion going on here - http://pskite.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10025

The whole industry is your source of information and even the reviews showing features of various boards is great information...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5NNDktWgn4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zu7dAc6ymg

nickdward · Since 11 Aug 2008 130 Posts Seattle Stoked

www.swaylocks.com

hilton · Since 15 Aug 2008 798 Posts Opinionated

I'm sure Art Colyer could help you out with materials and knowledge.

http://northpacificsurf.com/kiteboards/

Mason · Since 15 Oct 2013 16 Posts

Inept_Fun · Since 14 Apr 2005 1417 Posts Hood River XTreme Poster

Mason definitely hit up Hein he is pretty much the man when it comes to this stuff and a very helpful/kind person at that.

Anthony · Since 07 Oct 2008 362 Posts Salem Obsessed **CGKA Member**

Hi Mason

I have made 2 surfboards and 6 windsurf boards over the years. I was the original webmaster for Fiberglass Supply (it was in Bingen, now Bellingham). To make it easy, I would stick to a blank built for kiteboarding. There are specialty blanks that work better than surfboard blanks. You can check my old web site at http://surfboardbuilding.com/. I have not updated it for years; I lost the itch to build. The book references are good. You should be able to find some of books locally. Check the Oregon state library system too. I really doubt if any of the local builders will help you. They are quite busy making SUP boards. The only other two are Gary Swanson (Husem, WA-Cascade Fiberglass) and Brian Hines (Lyle, WA - OpenOcean) that I know of. There is a cad shaping machine in the area. If you are still interested, I can talk you though a few of the points. I am engineer. Board building is more art than science and building a board will really make you appreciate the finer nuances of board building. Wishing you the best.

Anthony

Ryan · Since 14 Jul 2005 537 Posts Oregon Addicted

Don't forget John Doyle. Not sure if he has time but he and Gary Swanson are neighbors and have a nice collection of equipment and tools with more coming as I understand. John is an engineer as well.

Gary runs off to Mexico every winter.

nickdward · Since 11 Aug 2008 130 Posts Seattle Stoked

If you have a place at home to make a mess, just go buy the blank and have at it. The blank is only 60$, and if the shape turns out like junk, just don't glass it...but there's nothing like riding your quirky first board.

Learn how to make a board the old fashioned way before jumping on a CNC machine or messing with fancy materials. If you want a free program to mess around with drawing designs, try shape 3D lite.

There's probably somewhere closer to Hood River, but fiberglass Supply in WA is where I get blanks and supplies. http://www.fiberglasssupply.com/

I build my boards (to withstand kiting and surfing) with Poly blanks (go with the most dense option) and epoxy resin. This makes a board with nice feel but more rugged than a traditional poly board. On my boards I usually do 2 layers of 6oz glass on the deck + a patch where my feet go on, and 1-2 layers of 4oz on the bottom plus a patch over the fin boxes.

The supplies you'll need:
6'0 blank
1 gallon of Resin Research epoxy
1 thruster or quad set of FCS Fusion boxes or ProBoxes
1 leash plug
~6 yards of 6oz E glass (calculate how many layers you want to do)
~4yards of 4oz E glass...You'll end up with extra glass and resin for the next board
Foot strap inserts if you want

total cost: ~200$

General stuff for glassing:
Several squeegees
Blue tape
Dixie cups for resin
popsicle sticks
old magazines to use for masking
board stand (can be made out of a bucket, PVC pipe, and cement)

Tools
Orbital sander
Sandpaper: 40/80/120/220/400
Drywall sanding screen for sanding the blank 80/120
Sanding block (can make out of a chunk of foam or wood)
Microplaner to trim stringer
Surform
Laminate router (or dremel in a pinch) to route the fin boxes/leash plug
Hand planer (electric planer helps big time, but I've built boards manually with just the tools above)
Plenty of other useful stuff that you won't need for your first board.

For specific details on the process search swaylocks and youtube or send me a PM.

Also don't get too caught up in it being "a kiteboard"....you are just building a surfboard with extra glass. It's easy to add footstraps if you want (same process as fin boxes), just add extra glass over the strap area.

This can all be done in ~one week if you spend everyday working on it.

Dan k · Since 31 Mar 2013 87 Posts

Stay away from hein unless you want a load of right wing teabagger propaganda while you make a board.

airon^ · Since 07 Aug 2013 290 Posts Durango Obsessed

my love of nwkite forum

dangler, nick, hein, you guys are awesome

hilton · Since 15 Aug 2008 798 Posts Opinionated

Procktor · Since 11 Apr 2013 46 Posts Hood River

airon^ · Since 07 Aug 2013 290 Posts Durango Obsessed

Lord knows these 2 don't need more attention, they already thrive on it

I mean, we can all agree to disagree, but lets do so civilly, logically. When these basic social norms are not observed, it would be nice to be able to keep the offending person out of the conversation.

Attacks ad hominen have no place here, nor do politics. Hein could be a neonazi for all I know, but what relevance does that have to the topic at hand? If he has offensive political views, Mason is probably smart enough to have his own opinion.

Too bad we can't boot belligerent folks from the forum.

Cigar Box Strings · Since 29 Jun 2013 22 Posts Lyle, WA

I am almost done with my first board build and I would agree that a solid wood core is a good place to start.

I am also a designer and use SolidWorks for a living. If you need pointers or have questions I would be willing to help.