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Classes

Building a Hollow Wood Surfboard is significantly more complex than building a foam board. It is more like building the wing of an airplane. The method I teach results in a hollow board that is stronger and more durable than a foam board, with a ride “feel” that is unique…resonant like a wood musical instrument.

The finished boards are museum quality gorgeous, but that is secondary to their ride quality. Wood boards typically feel heavier on land, but feel like a lighter board in the water. The slightly heavier weight of a hollow wood board results in a board with more drive and momentum that catches waves easily and rides well down the line, through flat spots. The design of the lightweight inner frame and the thin tensioned wood skins allow for an efficient energy transfer between the wave and the rider. These boards are not intended to be wall hangers unless the wall is six feet of moving water.

During a workshop, under my guidance, you will build a hollow wood board starting with the assembly of a supplied frame kit. After that, you will create the deck and bottom “skins” from very thin solid wood strips, fiberglass and epoxy. Next, the skins are attached and tensioned to the wood frame. You will then build the outer rails onto the board with bending plywood and cork. Finally the rails are hand shaped and the board is given a light final sanding. At the end of the class the board you have just built will ready to take home to be glassed. We will likely build wood fins too…

My qualifications: I started shaping foam and fiberglass boards in 1977, and twenty five years later in 2001, I independently pioneered a completely radical new method of building Hollow Wood Surfboards.

The Jensen Method of creating hollow boards has resulted in surfboards being built on every continent on Earth including Antarctica...!!!...I have taught more than thirty workshops worldwide, including Australia, California, France, Holland, Ireland, Japan, Portugal, The Isle of Jersey (U.K) and Washington State...