Jabali Surfboards builds hollow wooden boards inspired by Paul Jensen and then developed onwards with plenty of inspiration by others.
But wooden boards go back much longer in surfing history with Polynesian craftsman making traditional solid wooden boards - as until today by Tom Pohaku - and Tom Blake creating the first hollow wooden boards in the 1920s.
Our vision is that wooden boards not only form the roots of surfing, but the craft holds essential knowledge to make better boards in future - building up instead of mowing down, and allowing dedicated materials to be placed there where they are needed.
In short: glue rails, a top and bottom deck onto a wooden frame. Add fibers to strengthen the board so you don't stomp it to pieces. Finally, treat it with a coating that can handle salty seawater.
Sounds easy? Building a wooden board is actually quite a challenge. At Jabalí we start our process with computer-aided design that allows us to play with shape and volume before actual production starts. Our hollow wooden boards come with a core frame and an outside layer of low-density wood, primarily balsa. We use other types of wood for decoration and additional strengthening.
Every element of the core frame, decks and rails, including double curved 3D shapes, are cut, bent and shaped by hand, assembled piece by piece and glued into a blank form, before actual board shaping, glassing and plug placement takes place. The result of this hard work, which takes 6-8 weeks, is a beautiful, durable and more ecofriendly board.
We build our boards completely by hand, from cutting the internal frame to applying a final protective coating. We also laminate our boards in-house using a hand layup method with fibreglass and ecofriendlier epoxy.
And while we appreciate computerised tools such as laser cutting and CNC shaping we opt to use our hands as we choose to stay close to the craft.
Utilising our engineering background and cooperating with fellow shapers, surfers and material researchers we constantly look to improve our surfboards to build to the best suited craft combining waves, rider, environmental friendlines, and durability.
When we noticed tiny creases in the balsa deck after a heavy barrel session in France we developed an innovative "bombproof" construction, which makes the surfboards surprisingly strong and helps prevent heel and knee dings so common on mainstream foam boards.
To meet requests for different board flex patterns we went ahead and came up with the supaflex construction, so now you may choose from the spectre starting with a stiffer classic to a bouncy supaflex construction to get the board responsiveness you prefer.
And if weight is your concern you will be glad to hear that our newest UltraLight construction allows us to build shortboards that weigh up to 20% less than their foam cousins while being stronger and more durable.
We use wood for our hollow boards - a natural product that is renewable and fully recyclable. Balsa wood is the base material for our boards, as it is light and has the highest tensile strength per kg. We use paulownia wood, cedar or ayous which are heavier and harder than balsa to create a bombproof deckarea which prevents knee and heel dents so common to foam boards. Wenge, ekki, olive, cherry, wallnut and oak are used to protect surfboard tips, and plywood for the internal frame that gives the boards its overall shape.
The boards are laminated with E-type fibreglass and epoxy glue both on the in- and outside. One reason for four layers of glassing is to waterproof the wood, particularly balsa wood which does not deal well with seawater. A second reason is to significantly strengthen the board - although the board would be strong enough without. Both waterproofing and additional strength increase the boards durability greatly. The epoxy used for lamination is an ecofriendlier type in the sense that it is made from raw materials with a high level of plantbased content.
As for finboxes we prefer to work with Futures as they are stronger due to their T-shape, but obviously we will install FCS if requested. On the note of wanting to stay away from plastics we typical install drill throughs and glass-on leashloops for you to attach a leash. We use some recycled, old packaging foam around the base of finboxes; the advantage for balance, i.e. surfability trumps ecofriendliness in this case.
Our boards come with a vent. Although the need for them is debatable, we opt to play it safe and install a simple screw in our boards. Nicely in the back of the tail so you won't worry about hurting your feet and you can drain the board easily if it leaks. Just remember to close the vent when entering the water, and open it when you get back out.
As with all boards the air trapped inside will increase or decrease in volume with changing temperatures. These volume changes may result in rupture or delamination, particularly when (air)travelling or having stark temperature contrasts between in- and outside the water.
