Every surfboard shaper interview I’ve heard has said that you need to build twenty boards before you know what you’re doing. Well, I’m halfway there! The Seaborn Sibborn is my tenth board. To mark the occasion I kicked it old school and stenciled it’s designation which I only did with my first few boards.
About Stephen Sibborn
This board is made in honor of Stephen Sibborn who has been a mentor to quite a few kiters over the years. In fact, I first heard him referred to as “The Mayor of Jetty Island” by Sensi Graves in an interview she gave. For me, Stephen managed to appear like a glowing Yoda when I needed encouragement or advice. My favorite moment was after other kiters made me feel self conscious about flying a 17 in my early days. Stephen said that sometimes big guys need big engines. I haven’t flown that kite in years but back then it gave me the boost I needed to hone my skills until I didn’t need it anymore. I appreciated the words of encouragement that made me feel good getting there. Hey, who doesn’t want a big engine!
Stephen’s other passion is Rock and Roll and his band, Road Trips NW, has been rocking Everett all year. I’ve managed to see them play several times while working on this board. I wanted to marry his two passions for the board art and the guitar is modeled after his guitar.
Building the Board
The board itself is modeled after my board, Frisabel, which was a great board but started to delaminate so I had to retire it. I did make some tweaks that tuned the heck out of it. It’s a little narrower, a little more concave and I made the rails as knifey as I could get away with. I usually do two inch rail bands. I considered three at first but settled for a two inch band and a two and a half inch band at 70% down the side.
Construction wise, I had one issue with the hot coat peeling at the rails during sanding. I redid one rail and then decided to just live with it. I may recoat the rails after a few rides but I will see how it goes. I’m guessing I may have a humidity problem in my new glassing spot. I will probably pick up a dehumidifier for my next board.
I learned a new trick for the artwork that was game changing for me. Masking tape is really tricky on foam. If you use tape that is too sticky it pulls up paint and sometime foam when you try to take it off. If you use the really fine stuff, it often doesn’t stick at all and will blow off with the air brush or bleed when you paint by hand. If you’re doing lots of detail and curves, it can take a long time to mask up. In desperation I turned to the You Tubes for help and starting watching pretty much any video on masking for airbrushes. In one video I came across a guy who talked about using silly putty for masking off details in miniatures. So I ran down to my local drug store and bought all the silly putty I could find to give it a shot.
It worked amazingly well! So, I popped onto Amazon and found a giant Silly Putty egg with one pound of Silly Putty and used that for the rest of the board. Combine that with a rolling pin and you can easily mask off your work area and then use masking paper and tape to cover up large areas around where you are working. It takes a fraction of the time and produces amazing results. Artwork…LEVEL UP!
The Ride
From it’s inaugural ride, I can tell you this board ROCKS! It’s nimble for it’s length and it really digs in when you edge making it rocket upwind like a quad. It’s also super stable on the foot swaps and transitions.
I’m looking forward to this board being my main ride for 2022!