Joe and the Black Sun Fish

Joe wrote the other day. He is the proud new owner of the Black Sun Fish.

Here is a bit of what he and I had to say:

hey lars,you crack me up,

i'm still laughing from the explanation of 42. i read hitchhikers guide a long time ago but it still rang a bell with me. maybe i should have phrased it as an answer. i know there were no underlying hints on my size... i was laughing at myself. last question i promise. is the epoxy job a gloss? reason i ask is the gloss foam boards i have always seems to get scratched up from my board bags... salt/sand etc. this board iwould like to try and keep it nice for obviousreasons. thanks for the excellent answers. you sold it. let meknow where to send the check. oh and snackles are what i call cracks that don't ding but leave a snowflake or sunburst pattern in the glassand cloth. if you could mail a bill of sale or receipt when youget my check i would appreciate it. when you get downhere to deliver we can work out the meet-up. in a month i'll be on schedule at work (la countylifeguard) up at zuma or malibu and not home (venice area) much.best, joe

Hi Joe,There were no underlying hints about your size. We are all exactly who we are. I am a little smaller than you and I surf this same shape in spruce in a 5'10. I'll shoot a few more pictures for you of the BlackSun fish. No problems there.

Our boards have all been glassed in resin research epoxy since early 2007. Before that, we glassed all of our boards in polyester. The epoxy is way stronger and as long as our glassers stay clean, it is a lot healthier for them as well. As far as heel dents go, I don't know that there is anything stronger than wood and epoxy. I have never seen one of our boards "dent" like a foam or balsa board.

I surf without a leash and one of the three spots that I surf most commonly is a long left rock point. In the winter, we sometimes have to wait for months before the swell will drop below 12 feet (my cut-off). Who knows what that means for faces on a rock point?! In any case, I do lose my board every now and then and when I do, it goes up on the rocks. If the rocks are sharp, the board can get a gash through the glass and epoxy and into the wood. If the rocks are round, the board can definitely pick up a ding. However, these are all things that can be ground out at the glass shop and repaired. I don't know what "snackling" is but you shouldn't walk on our boards in the living room. One of my clients liked to do that for some reason. There was no apparent damage to the board but he did hear crackling. Which could be similar to snackling... I'm not sure about that though.

The Black Sun fish has never been surfed. I did bring it with me to the Longboard Collectors Show in Pacific Beach two weeks ago. Of the ten boards that Ibrought, the Black Sun was the hit. The guys there all wanted our longboards though.

The Black Sun on this fish is covering two knots that are side by side. We love knots. Without them, people can't even see that your board is wood. They are what add the natural character to the board. However, whenever there is a large knot we glass it from the inside as well as from the outside. The way that we chamber boards though, doesn't let us see exactly what will be where when the board is finished. In this case, there were two largish knots next to eachother that I wanted to reinforce and fair out (Knots are much harder than the surrounding wood). So I ground down the knots, glassed them from the inside of the board, faired them out with epoxy thickened with spruce sawdust on the outside, painted the black sun, inlaid the abalone at the same time as the logo, and glassed the board with double 6 oz on the top and a single layer of 6 oz on the bottom. Bomber.

I didn't wrap the sun around the bottom because I didn't think about it. I've always done my art separate - top and bottom. I'll definitely wrap it around the rail next time though. That's a cool idea.

The vent is for flying or leaving your board in a hot car.

42 is the Latitude that separates Oregon from California. 42, according to Douglas Adams is the meaning of Life, The Universe, and Everything. 42 is probably how old I will be before I stop paying my employees out of my kids' college funds. 42 was the number on the license plate of my 1959 Chevy Apache. I don't know - what IS the significance of 42?

OK Joe. I've had enough of a break. Back to the woodpile.

All the best,

Lars42 Surfboards
www.42surfboards.com
www.42surfboards.blogspot.com