The act of making handplanes and alaias out of skateboards for me was art, therapy, and just plain fun – not to mention I was recycling and putting something into use again that was discarded and broken. Photo: Blair Tom
On a trip to Maui in a brief respite from the frigid waters of my northern California home, I was thinking about making things. Surfers tend to have an innate creative desire, at least the ones I know. It comes out in their surfing, their work, and their lives. Sometimes the surf calls to us, and we end up riding in unique ways. Bodysurfing, with or without a handplane, or surfing using funky equipment, for the sake of having fun and staying young. Not every session is a competition to see who is the hardest local, who is throwing the most spray or tweaking the best slob air reverse.
I began making handplanes about five years ago. Collecting broken skateboard decks from skate shops, friends, and local skate parks, I began to cut out and shape varieties of handplanes. My friends and I gabbed about rocker and concave, templates and the variety of ways to seal them, linseed oil, tung oil, wax, varnish, or resin. In the end, it’s a piece of wood that helps you plane in the water by giving you an edge. Surfers have used flip flops, cookie sheets, and fast food trays. Essentially, anything you could imagine with a flat surface that is handheld will probably work. But the act of making them out of skateboards for me was art, therapy, and just plain fun, not to mention I was recycling and putting something into use again that was discarded and broken.
It’s therapy.
Now I even decorate these silly contraptions with artwork. First I started out with a cheap ten dollar soldering iron to burn the art and images into the wood. After saving a bit I bought a more effective device for wood burning and etching. I experimented with resins, varnishes and a combination of oils like linseed and tung. While floating in the shore break on my recent vacation, I saw a couple other guys making a go of the shore pound with homemade handplanes and some kids with cookie sheets. I went over to ask one fellow stoked hombre about the handplane he was using. He had converted an old wooden toilet seat into a plane, with a little fin on the bottom. No matter what anyone was using, everybody was getting smashed to bits in hollow little aqua cylinders.
DIY. Do it yourself. I mean, when you see a perfect wave peeling away on an empty point, do you turn to the guy next to you and say, “Hey, can you go surf that wave for me?” No. Of course, you don’t. You get your ass out there and shred it to pieces, or kook out and go over the falls. Point being, you do whatever it is yourself. So grab a broken desk and hack out a plane. Grab a broken skate deck. Hell, I’ve even made some fins for my surfboards out of skate decks; don’t be constricted to riding only what the industry provides. Make something and then use it. If not, you can always buy one from me or one of your other equally if not more talented backyard surf tinkering mad men.
On the plane back to the land of sharks, cold, and desolation that are the beaches north of the Golden Gate bridge. I was filled with excitement to ride my alaia that I made in my backyard when I get home and to make another one after that. It’s cheap. It’s fun. Anyone can do it.
