As we wrote in a recent story, surfboards today come in many shapes and sizes, and can be made from various materials, including multiple types of wood as seen in the photos here. To better grasp where these multi-colored wooden boards are coming from, we’ll start with a short history of surfboard materials.
From ancient times Hawaiians rode (extremely heavy) wooden boards carved from single trees; with some 20th century improvements for lightness, for example using balsa instead of other, heavier woods, this wooden board era persisted until the 1950s or so, when the first foam boards appeared in California. These foam boards, much lighter and thus more maneuverable than the wooden boards of old, were constructed with one or more wooden stringers laid lengthwise to add strength, and layers of fiberglass and resin forming an outer protective shell. Foam boards with wooden stringers and fiberglass finishes served as the standard for a few decades, until the first epoxy boards began appearing, with hard shell plastic exteriors. Aside from the odd experiment here and there, various combinations of foam and fiberglass, or epoxy, with or without wooden stringers, have been the two most prevalent, if not the only, materials options for surfboard making for the past several decades.
Recently, however, that good old organic material, wood, the original surfboard stuff, has been making a major comeback. Alaias, those unfinned throwback Hawaiian boards, are one example. Boards with thin wood veneers or other decorative elements made from wood are another. Several companies are also offering solid and hollow core balsa boards as well as foam core boards with balsa veneers and cedar stringers.
We in Sayulita are fortunate enough to have one such wooden board company right here in town, at least part of the time. That would be Lambrecht Surfboards, run by Andy Lambrecht, a Canadian/American Sayulita part-timer who spends his time here (when he’s not out in the water chasing waves with the rest of us), making custom-designed surfboards from wood.
We caught up with Andy at his workshop, which he sublets from local board designer Rogelio Ramos, up in the Ninos Heroes end of town.
Andy, who learned his boarding first in the mountains of British Columbia, started making surfboards up in Canada a few years back. Up there, the wood of choice for making surfboards is recycled cedar, of which there is an abundance, in old houses, barns, sheds, and whatever other structures are out there, sitting empty and unused, making it easy to find remnants big enough to use in making boards. Andy is definitely into recycling. As he notes on his website, lambrechtsurfboards.com, he makes boards with wood taken from “old sheds, houses, barns, lift ramps, basically any source of wood that would be going to the dump or the burn pile. The wood has character and experience that shows in the designs and layups of the boards.”
In Mexico, Andy uses two types of wood: parota and pina, to create the alternating light/dark contrast that makes these boards so visually rich. He gets it from two sources, one up the road in Ursula Galvan, the other down the road in Mezcales.
The process begins with the client’s request: longboard, shortboard, fish, paddleboard, custom-designed or from an existing template. Once they’ve agreed on a basic shape, Andy makes a template if he hasn’t already got one, and from that generates a hollow frame in the shape of the board. Once the frame is constructed (and bent slightly to create some rocker in the board, if needed) the next stop is to make the “skin,” the exterior of the board. This is done by milling wood into 5/16 inch strips, and then gluing together the strips, alternating types of wood for color contrast. Once this is done, he fiberglass finishes the inside of the skin, then glues it to the frame and cuts it flush to the shape of the frame. Then rails are added, usually made of cork and plywood, in multiple layers which are then sanded from square to curved. After that, the finbox is installed.
A removable plug is also installed. This essential little item is removable to allow release of the air, and air pressure, which builds up with changes in temperature inside this essentially hollow wave vehicle. If you don’t remove the plug after a session in the water, your board might explode! Finally, the board is covered with fiberglass and resin, like a standard foam board, to seal and strengthen the board.
The process takes roughly 40 hours, more if Andy has to make a new template. Prices range from $1500 to $1800US, depending on the size and style of the board, the complexity of the design, and the time it takes.
If you’re interested in buying one of these beauties but don’t have the bucks, to save money you can take a workshop. Andy’s already run a couple of successful ones, and hopes to do more in future. You pay $1000, you spend a week in the workshop, designing and making your own wooden surfboard (with Andy’s guidance and assistance) and you walk away with a brand new custom-made wooden surfboard that you made yourself.
The finished boards are simple, beautiful handcrafted objects. When we visited his shop recently Andy was making a gorgeous big gun-shaped board for a guy to hang on a wall, not ride on a wave. Check it out, book a workshop, make a boardbuilding plan by contacting Andy through lambrechtsurfboards.com.
