Sunday, September 12, 2010

Free CAD programs for surfboard design



For my alaia outline I was looking for a free software solution instead of using some commercial DTP software like InDesign.

The one I used for my alaia is AkuShaper which I came across while reading some articles on Swaylocks. It's free (there's a commercial pro version, too), java based and really easy to learn. As I just needed it for the outline, I didn't get too much into the two other views needed for real 3D modelling.

The other one I came across is BoardCAD. Also free, also Java based. The screenshots look pretty similar to AkuShaper, however I didn't install it as it seems AkuShaper is the first choice.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Hand-planes


Now that everyone is making his own alaia aka "now my fence wants to surf", these guys are doing some beautiful hand-planes for bodysurfing:



Weisbecker Surf Movie "Water Time"

Seems like Weisbecker's has been doing his Montauk to Costa Rica trip again, now with a camera and producing a documentary. While his book "In the search of captain zero" was a classic, his latest book was quite a hard read...

We'll see what the movie brings. First glimpse seems interesting:

Original alaia footage

Doing further research for my alaia project I stumbled across the following footage about early surfing in Waikiki. Includes some scenes with alaias and olos and the occasional "surfing dog".