I'd Rather Be a Functioning Cog in Some Great Machinery Serving Something Beyond Me

    Started working on 009 last week. I had cut the blank out of the EPS block a while ago, and I finally got around to gluing the stringer in. Last time I glued up a blank, I tried to stack bricks on top of the two pieces to weigh them down, which, while working in the end, was a big hassle and ended with lots of Gorilla Glue on my hands. This time, I actually thought for a minute, and used the system above, which was very, very easy. 

     I went with a template that was very close to 008, except I pulled in the outline a bit, and filled in a diamond tail where the fish would have been cut out. It's 5'5", which is what I thought that 008 was, except when I measured said board, it turned out to be 5'3". Don't know how that happened, but I like knowing that I've been surfing (and having tons of fun) on a board that short. I just like short boards. 

     The board is close to being finished, just have to do some final shaping touches and it'll be ready for glassing. As much as I like surfing keels, I think I'm going to make this one a quad, maybe canard quad cutaway fins or just regular quad (most likely the latter at first, since I already have them). I'm pretty excited to try this one out.

Really great song off of Fleet Foxes 2011 release Helplessness Blues. Check the album out, it's pretty good.