balsa pig.

so stoked to know platty! yet again he sends me this amazing contribution. Hi Mike. Bill Cilia, a mate of mine and surfboard builder (Nirvana Surfboards) has been restoring a balsa pig. Unfortunately it is a no name, but the blank glue up and construction was done by someone with a fair bit of skill for the time. The board had seen better days as far as the glass job was concerned. Initially Bill had not planned to remove the glass. The plan was to repair the dings, sand, gloss and polish. The problem was the glass was so brittle from the UV’s working their magic, that when he started sanding the board, the glass started disintegrating in front of him. So he had no choice but to strip off the glass and re do the glass job. On the brighter side the balsa was like new. The fin was left intact, cleaned up and re glassed prior to glassing the board. The board is 9ft long by 20 inches wide. The photos show Bill and the board through various stages of the restoration. Unfortunately there are no shots of the lams going down. As I was behind the camera and it was too hard to take photos and help Bill glass at the same time. It’s always fun hanging around Bill’s little factory and giving him a hand if he needs one. Bill has a wealth of knowledge in the art of surfboard building. He started building boards in 1967. And he is always willing to pass this knowledge on without me having to ask. David.