After waiting all winter for this class its hard to sit here writing this blog. Even though my board is drying from the coating I just applied and I cant do anything with it right now I wish I was out riding one Wayne's sweet boards. To make my long-board, I went with bamboo, because I was looking for some bounce in the board. Since we are not working with fiberglass or laminated wood I didn't quite get the bounce I was looking for, but the board is looking very nice at this point. I wanted a board that would be symmetrical so I wouldn't have to worry about a front or back, I used the end of one of Andrew's templates as the starting point for my design. I traced out both ends and then played with the middle for a while trying to find a comfortable width and style. The cutting and sanding went smoothly as well as the drilling of holes for the trucks, but at that point I wanted to do a drop-through style. Unfortunately, the trucks we got for the class (Originals) do not work very well with the drop-through method. I would have had to make a cut that wouldn't work for any other brand of trucks and I didn't want to limit myself like that. Against recommendation, I went forward with my plan to make the drop-through style board and hoped for the best. This was the hard part, I had to make a template for the cut and drill it out with precision so I didn't crack the bamboo. After the drill hole I could use a miter saw to cut the rest of it out. That took quite a while and I was in the shop a couple hours after everyone else had left, but if I was going make a long-board I was going to do the best I possibly could. Andrew and Wayne helped me a tremendous amount with everything including making the template and giving me pointers on best way to make the cuts. Wayne said he might be able to help me find some trucks other than the Originals that will work with my board, hopefully I can use his trucks as they are amazing. I am a little behind everyone else because of the different style I went with, but the finished product will be more than worth it. I hope to start putting on graphics later today. I want to give a shoutout to Mr. Halloway for the being the shop master and helping everyone so much.
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