Longboard #2

In the business world I occupy, I'm a happy member of a professional organization based in Florida.  I made this design and the original piece as a donation item to their annual fundraiser.

I'm enjoying designing surfboards and thinking through the processes I'd go through to make them.  This is the 2nd design in what I hope will be a growing series.

The annual conference is held in Florida each year and I coincidentally had some really nice Floridian cypress I wanted to use that I've been sitting on for about 6 years.  My office landlord is an Architect and woodworker and asked me to go in on a whole palette of the stuff and split it.  It was a new wood to learn about so now I have a half palette of it.  Because of it's very pale grain I paired that with a black walnut (from South Georgia) in hopes it would provide enough contrast to make both woods stand out in the design, equal in presentation.

I hadn't planned for some of the results, though.  Cypress has a grain similar to other softwoods like many pines.  And Walnut has an equally distinct but very different grain.  The contrast between these two highlights even more the distinct character of each wood.  I just love the unexpected additions the wood brings to my work.