An Interview with Larry O’Brien and Mike Shourds

coronadomike: Some folks aspire to Countless Summer time, however Timeless Summer time can also be a pleasant aim. Mike Shourds on the seaside close to the Lodge Del Coronado.

Initially posted August 23, 2012

By Terrie Leigh Relf

Nothing says OB greater than surf, candy boards, and social consciousness!

Larry O’Brien sliding right into a mellow wave at Sundown Cliffs on a 3 foot plywood board.

Within the following interview, OBcean Larry O’Brien, classic physique board collector, cave explorer, and aspiring eccentric shares one in every of his many passions: Creating boards from discovered wooden and different supplies.

UKbellies: a faculty of classic British bellyboards.

Coronadoian “Paipo Mike” Shourds, builder of wood physique boards and recycled junk bikes since 1960, can also be a collector and all-around inventive individual.

Terrie Leigh Relf: What impressed you to create your physique boards?

Larry O’Brien: Again after I was in junior highschool, carpentry was one thing taught in class, and intercourse was one thing you discovered on the road. Making a three-foot plywood stomach board was one of many elective initiatives for eighth graders. I didn’t make one, however a few of my buddies did, after which rode them. At the moment, I used to be extra involved in bodysurfing.

iron: a salvaged classic ironing board modified with rail handles (sissy bars) on the underside.

These days, most woodshops have been faraway from our faculties, and I feel there is just one that serves the citywide grownup persevering with education schemes. So, woodworking has turn into one thing you be taught at dwelling or on the road. Luckily, the Web has been an actual game-changer, and I feel it’s been the largest issue within the rebirth of using wooden.

I’ve no commerce secrets and techniques. I freely share my designs and constructing strategies. I need folks to make their very own boards. We should preserve the flame alive. I stay hopeful that sometime we will liberate the glee membership, and train children woodworking in all the faculties.

I’ve been a collector of classic surfboards and stomach boards for a few years. It was solely about ten years in the past that I began making my very own wood boards. I don’t do it for revenue. To me, they’re ride-able artwork, they usually additionally tickle my interior mad scientist.

babar: scrap plyood paipo with anti-pearling canards comprised of the arms of a damaged chair.

Mike Shourds: I additionally began making wooden boards again in 1960. My dad wouldn’t purchase me and my brother a surfboard, so he gave us a ½” sheet of plywood and a jigsaw and stated, “Make one.” Thanks dad! The seaside was our playground after we have been children, so all the pieces rotated round it.

Terrie: Larry, how did you provide you with the identify “seaside toys”?

Larry: I may need bought seaside toys from one in every of my buddies. I take advantage of it as an umbrella time period to cowl a variety of surfcraft sizes and development strategies. There are lots of particular phrases, like surfboard, bellyboard, paipo, alaia, lamaroo, bodyboard, handboard, handplane, and even Royal Egyptian Cubit Board. Calling them seaside toys helps to maintain it easy.

Terrie: Have you ever experimented with different recycled supplies in your ride-able artwork?

Larry: I repurposed a big waiter’s tray just by placing a bodyboard leash on it. It was a enjoyable experiment. It nonetheless makes an excellent tray, and that may turn out to be useful on the seaside. Some time again, I made a handboard (mini paipo) out of the lid from a bathroom seat. I added a layer of cork to carry up the buoyancy. I even glued on the lodge label that claims: “Sanitized in your safety.”

inoutboards: Mike Shourds In and Out boards which might be designed to be ridden in both course relying in your temper and surf circumstances.

Final yr, I made a bellyboard out of an previous ironing board. It was a kind of wood ironing boards that fold down out of a wall cupboard. I added handles and a tailblock comprised of recycled wooden. I have to confess that I purchased a brand new ironing board cowl for it. It was an impulse purchase. I couldn’t resist the 60s sample.

I haven’t recycled any cork bulletin boards, however that’s definitely an excellent supply. I nonetheless have a bunch of cork that I purchased used. It had been shelf padding at a retail retailer, so it’s repurposed in a way, plus cork is comparatively sustainable because it’s periodically harvested with out killing the tree. Cork has a number of advantages when utilized in surfcraft. It makes a wooden board float higher, it affords some padding, and also you don’t want wax on the deck.

Mike: I make them from every kind of scrap wooden I discover on my walks with the canines. I don’t repurpose damaged surfboards a lot any extra as a result of it requires chemical compounds like resin.

Terrie: What’s probably the most thrilling wooden you’ve labored with?

herohandle: A nostril deal with that additionally serves pretty much as good mount for a Hero digicam.

Mike:  Most likely probably the most thrilling wooden I’ve ever labored with is lightning-struck poplar. I get it from a man in Illinois who has a small lumber mill in his background and recycles bushes that will usually go to the landfill. He sells it low-cost on EBay.

Larry: There’s lots of good work being completed with a farmed tree known as pauwlonia. It’s mild, however sturdy sufficient that it doesn’t must be fiber-glassed. There’s not any must make surfboards out of old-growth redwood.

Terrie: Have you ever collaborated with anybody on initiatives?

Larry: I uncared for to say Lazarus boards. It’s a course of that Mike and I brainstormed. Primarily, it entails making a bellyboard or two from a damaged fiberglass surfboard. The aim is to attenuate the waste and the quantity of chemical compounds wanted to make the board ride-able. Standard knowledge is to strip the fiberglass off the damaged surfboard, reshape the froth, after which add extra fiberglass and resin. In contrast, a Lazarus bellyboard will get a large wood tailblock glued onto the damaged fringe of the surfboard. Then, it’s sealed with varnish, epoxy resin, or each.

goddess: A Goddess board on the seaside .

Mike:  Made one or two only for enjoyable. Waste not; need not. Larry and I took some damaged surfboards, cleaned up the perimeters, squared them up, and completed them off.

I labored on the ironing board with him, too. Sanded it up, then re-glued it as a result of it was cracking up. It didn’t want resin. Larry placed on some rails after which varnished all of it up. I haven’t used as a lot cork as Larry.

Terrie: Mike, might you discuss a bit about glue, resin, and polish?

Mike:  Most varnishes are naturally primarily based. Polyurethane is definitely pure. Any form of mineral spirits come from pine bushes and aren’t poisonous. You may get water-based varnish, however it doesn’t maintain up as nicely. I additionally use linseed oil, and that’s pure. Larry makes use of hemp oil, and buys it by the gallon at Individuals’s, I feel.

baseboard: A Mike Shourds paipo recycled from previous baseboard molding.

For glue, I simply use Gold Medal All Function White Glue. It’s a glue that wooden carpenters use as a result of it’s water proof. You simply clamp it and it units in a single day. I additionally use Titebond II. The container doesn’t say what’s in it, however it’s not such as you’d use rather a lot, simply sufficient to coat the board and glue it collectively.

Terrie: What’s the greenest product you should utilize to seal your boards?

Larry: That’s a kind of questions which have multiple reply. Uncooked Tung oil thinned with citrus solvent is a very good selection. It dries (polymerizes) shortly with out the help of the chemical driers which might be contained in lots of the ordinary retail merchandise. Some folks will insist on water-based merchandise. Tint and pigments can sluggish the UV injury, and longevity is definitely a inexperienced issue to contemplate. Typically, the greenest selection entails utilizing up a product that you have already got in your own home or storage.

Mike:  Hemp oil and boiled linseed oil. Boiled linseed oil has in all probability been round for 1000’s of years. It’s been used with carpentry perpetually, and was in all probability the one strategy to seal wooden approach again when.

Terrie: Are your creations on the market?

depraved: a mini paipo (handboard) comprised of small lumber scraps. Oiled with exterior Watco.

Larry: I don’t at present promote or give them away, however I would think about donating boards for charity raffles and auctions. That might be extra doubtless if I might workforce up with an actual artist like Michael Dormer or John Tafolla. For now, I simply choose to share my boards and details about them. It’s just like the distinction between giving an individual a fish, and educating them the best way to catch their very own for the remainder of their life. I’m not saying there’s something unsuitable with promoting boards comprised of sustainable or recycled supplies, however I simply don’t have the time to make them in massive numbers. In the event you don’t wish to construct your personal, then Jon Wegener and Christine Brailsford are a few builders that promote pauwlonia boards regionally.

Mike:  If somebody needs one, I’ll promote them one. I’d reasonably present them the best way to make one, although. That might be rather more rewarding. The youngsters down the block needed one however didn’t have the cash, so I gave them the wooden and confirmed them the best way to do it. As soon as they’re completed, they’ll carry them again and I’ll assist them end them off. Then they’ll know the best way to make one other one.

poplace: A Mike Shourds paipo comprised of poplar and lacewood. A superb instance of ridable wood artwork.

That’s how I began. My dad confirmed me the best way to use the instruments, and the primary ones I made have been about as crude as you may get. After I have a look at issues or watch folks doing one thing, like laying tile, for instance, I feel, “I can try this. I simply must know the best way to do it.”

What occurs is you come to a realization. You be taught by doing, by asking others to indicate you ways. Or, you get a guide or a pamphlet. Making the issues we use, like footwear, or finishing duties like altering a tire or the oil in your automobile, is a misplaced artwork. Individuals simply wish to have another person do it for them. They don’t wish to get their palms soiled. It’s unhappy.

Terrie: Another feedback on sustainability, being an artist, or creating useful artwork?

Larry: I feel sharing data is the easiest way to cut back the quantity of recent plastic used for surfcraft. I say new plastic, as a result of I’ve some future initiatives that may contain recycling or repurposing plastic into surfcraft.

pineshelf: A Mike Shourds paipo comprised of easy pine shelf. You in all probability have one in every of these cabinets in your storage, and it’s simply dying to go to the seaside. “Woof. Woof. I wish to go to the seaside with you.”

I’d wish to see most of the people get higher entry to undesirable supplies on the landfill. The free part on Craigslist is an effective supply, however we might have one-stop purchasing on the landfill. That might be greener with much less driving round and extra time for artwork.

Mike:  There’s this man who recycles previous wooden from barns. The wooden might be over 100 years previous. Individuals appear to love distressed wooden for flooring.

There’s additionally a man who mines elm logs out of the Nice Lakes. These are in all probability 150 years previous, because the Dutch elm illness took them down within the 30s or 40s, just like the bark beetle right here with oak bushes. A few of these elm logs are value over a half-million {dollars}.

penzy: a California retro model of a classic British bellyboard. The tail block is a mixture of mild and darkish poplar.

I simply choose up wooden, an previous cupboard or dresser, then break it down and use the wooden The one wooden I normally purchase is birch at Residence Depot. I discover higher wooden alone.

Terrie: What about your inventive course of?

Mike:  I don’t think about myself an artist, though I’m certain some folks think about what I do as artwork. I’m an all-around inventive individual and get all these concepts after I exit within the water on my own. Typically, I get these loopy concepts after which go dwelling and take a look at them out, just like the slingshots I make. It’s a considering course of, all the time spinning. I feel, yeah, I might make a kind of. I make just a few, assume, that’s not it, that’s not it, then I get the fitting design. Good previous trial and error.

okie: a modified wake board comprised of cork and plywood. Small rail fins on the tail finish can be handles when you journey the board backwards.

I feel that’s how we bought to the place we’re at this time. Again in prehistoric occasions, the folks would spy a dinosaur, marvel if it tasted good. Yuck. Then they see a mastodon, and notice after consuming it that that they had sufficient cover to make a tent, footwear, and so on. That is the place creativity begins. Individuals overlook this stuff these days. They only go right down to Wal-Mart.

I feel alongside the identical issues as Larry on this. There ought to be courses on doing regular issues: The right way to unplug a bathroom, change a lightweight bulb and all these different fundamental day-to-day issues. It’s unhappy how we reside in a throwaway society.

Terrie: What are among the initiatives you’re engaged on now?

Larry: My newest path is one thing I name Goddess boards. The template was impressed by the traditional Goddess collectible figurines. There may be all the time a trade-off between pace and maneuverability, and I feel these targets are nicely balanced in a Goddess board.

Mike: I’m engaged on a double hand board from trash can wooden. It’s like a miniature catamaran that you just maintain out in entrance. Nonetheless engaged on just a few different hand boards.

oakfish: A Mike Shourds oak fish comprised of a jobsite reject. Perfectionism nearly doomed this good piece of wooden to the landfill or hearth pit.

Terrie: Thanks in your time, Larry and Mike. Something you’d like so as to add in closing?

Larry: I just lately attended an occasion in La Jolla known as the Paipo Stokefest. It was superior. It harkened again to a time when surfers weren’t as quite a few, and the assembly of tribes was a cheerful event. That morning in La Jolla was stuffed with real curiosity and camaraderie. After I left the Stokefest, I discovered a damaged Styrofoam bellyboard within the seaside trash. These Chinese language boards normally solely final in the future on the seaside. It’s deliberate obsolescence on steroids. Please don’t purchase them in your kids.

Mike:  I like to assist children make one thing they’ll journey and be happy with. One thing aside from that Chinese language junk.

Terrie: Keep tuned for the following section the place Larry and Mike take me to Coronado to journey a paipo. Little question we’ll focus on the best way to upcycle that damaged Styrofoam bellyboard cowl, and may have much more pictures to share!

junk: Chinese language junk like these styrofoam bodyboards normally final in the future, after which find yourself in our seaside trash cans. All people can be higher off if mother and father merely rented a good bodyboard for the day.

nutter: A modified skimboard with a peanut template. Cork deck on a plywood base.

Most pictures by Mike Shroud; picture captions by Larry O’Brien.

Associated