My self imposed exile from the shop will be ending soon. My crazy training schedule for this event will be over and I’m itching to smell sawdust again. Hope you can stand it when I get start yakking again more often.

The reason I’m posting this is to ask for the generosity of my fellow LJ’s. Some of you expressed interest in donating to the cause when the time came. Well this thing is for real. We are deep in the planning. If you are interested in the ocean, the environment, and care to help you can read more about what I’m planning and will find the donation form here.

http://www.capecodbaychallenge.org

Just in case you’re wondering…this isn’t a local event benefiting just a local area. Last year the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup was 378,000 volunteers from 76 countries and over 6,000,000 pounds of trash was collected.

Even if you can’t donate I’d like you to pass along this story to anyone that you might know that is struggling with health issues. Especially if they are like mine, balance related. Less than a year ago I was wondering where the downward spiral would end. The doctor’s had done about as much as they could…...then I got lucky. You can read some of the details here.
http://www.capecodbaychallenge.org/Standup/standup.html .

The moral of the story is don’t give up…don’t take the easy route. I almost had when a strange twist changed everything. Try something different, push yourself harder than you thought possible. Here I am 9 months later with my head feeling almost normal and the rest of my body in better shape than when I was 30. Not because of anything the doctor’s recommended, just my brother thinking it might help.

Anyway, sorry for the rare post asking for donations. It is for a great cause. If any of you are interested in standup paddle surfing and live in the area let me know. We can get together and you can give it a try. If I can do it anyone can. If you’re interested and don’t live in the area take a look at the links listed on the page link above. Lots of great info available. And for anyone on the north shore of Boston, listen to WBOQ 104.9 FM on June 21st. We just taped a show for their “North Shore Now” radio program about the event.

Thanks….hope you can help.

Can’t wait to see the winner. Of course you’re all to be commended just for entering. Again, Good Luck all!

Let me know if there are any sketchup operations that you are having problems with and I’ll create tutorials as I have time.

Shaker Knob

Associative dimensioning

Cabriolet leg

Boxjoint

I’m organizing a charity event for late this summer. The Provincetown to Plymouth Paddle Pilgimage to Prevent Plastic Pollution…...LOL…long winded but catchy….7P’s for short. Those of you that know me here know that I’ve taken up paddle surfing as therapy for some health issues. Well I decided to push a little further. Late this summer I will be doing a marathon 22 mile paddle across Cape Cod Bay to help raise money and awareness for charities fighting plastic pollution in our oceans.

Everyone that has gone to the beach sees the plastic that has washed up but that is just the tiniest tip of the iceberg. From the plastic bags that turtles choke on thinking they are jellyfish to beaches in Alaska 3 ft deep in plastic trash we are creating a mess that will not go away unless we do something about it. It’s also coming right back into the food chain in the seafood we eat along with the toxins it is so good at absorbing. This article shows some pretty disturbing numbers.
http://www.bestlifeonline.com/cms/publish/travel-leisure/Our_oceans_are_turning_into_plastic_are_we.shtml

I haven’t left out the woodworking though…I’ll be using one of my paddles and hope to build this hollow wood paddleboard for the trip.

This is going to be a lot of work on a number of fronts…organizing the event (I hope to have 20 or so other Standup paddlers join me), training, and hopefully building the board. Unfortunately it will mean mostly lurking on LJ to see what my buddies are up to but not leave much time for contributing. I will blog the progress of the board if I end up building it (training will take up most of my weekends so we’ll see)

Here is the route if you’re interested. Wish me luck…I’m going to need it.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/download.php?Number=1090887&t=k&om=1

Thanks for the opportunity to participate Martin. This one pushed me to try out wood burning which I really enjoyed and found what seems to be a new skill to hone. Now I’m thinking of starting a small side business since a number of people have been requesting paddles from all the publicity. It also may create a new friendship which would be the most valuable benefit.

I still have to shake my head in amazement when I consider the things that LJ has brought into my life. It’s an honor to be part of this community.

I’ve got 5 paddles in the works at the moment but #3 is different from my earlier ones. Straight shaft, teardrop, no laminations, dovetail. I added some geometric woodburning, somewhat primitive looking. It also has a channel, kind of the reverse of a dihedral feeding into the dovetail.

Paddle #3

I put in 8 3/8” dowels for strength along the blades.

The Dowelmax is awesome. This is just the most basic of uses for it but it made perfect indexing easy. I can’t wait to test it out on some more complex geometry.

Glued and clamped with mahogany banding.

Handle glued up

Primitive shaft grip

Blade graphic

Channel and dovetail

I need to shape the handle and I plan on glassing the shaft. The blade will just get epoxy. Then the whole thing a marine varnish for UV protection..

Paddle # 4

Paddle #4 is a 5 strip cedar and 1 strip mahogany laminated shaft with a 12 deg bend at the blade. The teardrop blade is poplar. I’ve removed a lot more material from this one and it’s the lightest by far. This one is intended to be my surfing paddle. I’ve built in a slight concave to the face of the blade to catch the water more (at least that’s the idea). I’m testing a lot of blade face shapes. I want this light, fast and able to accelerate the board quickly for catching waves.

It has a nice flex but is still plenty strong. I pulled and pushed on it very hard to see how it will stand up. Well beyond what it normally be pushed to on the waves. I figured it would be better to know how tough it is before I bother doing any epoxy and glassing.

I still have the handle to do and the finishing work but I think I’m really going to like this one. Not only the performance but looks as well. I haven’t decided on any woodburning yet.

It would be even lighter done all in cedar. That’s the plan for my wifes which will be #6

Slightly concave blade face

I put a coat of epoxy on the back of the blade since I had some left over from gluing the handle.

In the spirit of giving thanks I wanted to bring this up. What better time to consider others less fortunate than when we spend the time to reflect on our own blessings?

I’m kind of surprised and concerned by the lack of discussion of the Save the Children event. Only two projects posted? Hopefully the lack of discussion is because folks are hard at work finishing up their items to sell/auction. I’ll be posting my paddle and getting the auction underway tomorrow. Come on, let’s show what 2000 lumberjock’s can do!

OK…consider yourselves kicked in the pants. You’re running out of time!

http://lumberjocks.com/stc

Hope you all had a great day. Remember to lock up tonight…..:)

Long time no blog.

I borrowed a friends Burnmaster to try my hand at pyrography for the blade of my paddle. I’m a decent sketch artist but this is a first for me and woodburning (unless that done while a cubscout counts). I’m fairly pleased with the result.

I should have the epoxy and varnish done this weekend and get started on the auction shortly after that.

Humpback cow and calf

I’ve put it on the paddle on the left. My 1st paddle….tough to let it go but a good cause and all that.

I’m planing on doing the auction myself and focusing on the standup paddleboarding forums for advertising. I’ll try that 1st before trying eBay. What do folks think is a reasonable starting price?

Regards,