Build Your Own Stand Up Paddle Board – These are the plans for the Standamaran stand up paddleboard that I built in the winter of 2014. The Standamaran is a catamaran shaped stand up paddleboard that results in a very stable platform without sacrificing paddling ability.
I’m building this board from Home Depot and Lowes extruded polystyrene (XPS) home insulation, which is readily available practically anywhere.
Build Your Own Stand Up Paddle Board
This is exactly how I built mine, and it is designed specifically for fly fishing for carp. If you are planning to make your own stand up paddle board and you like the concept of a stand maran, you should adapt it to your own wishes and needs! The most likely change you’ll want to make is to make the pontoons longer to improve speed and tracking. Also, if you are much heavier than me (~175 – 185 lbs), you will need to extend the pontoons for more buoyancy.
Stand Up Paddle Boarding (sup)
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If you decide to build any of your own boards, be sure to check out the swalylocks site for general advice and surfers for the first time builder.
My Stanamara was built using methods similar to surfboard and traditional SUP manufacturing. The process begins with a molded foam blank that gives the board its shape and gives it buoyancy. This blank is made from Home Depot XPS foam, which is virtually waterproof.
The foam is then covered with a thin layer of fiberglass to provide strength and durability. Since I used XPS foam, the fiberglass is applied with an epoxy resin that won’t eat the polystyrene foam.
The Catamaran Sup
I added white pigment to the epoxy to avoid heating the blank and peeling the lamination due to the expansion of the trapped air. XPS has a higher risk of de-lamination due to heat than other foams because it is non-porous to the extent that air cannot pass through the blank, making adding vents ineffective.
UPDATE: January 2016: I’ve probably put something like 100 carp on it now, including the biggest Colorado Carp on the Fly to date. It’s nice to fish here.
What it definitely rocks: This design is exceptionally stable. I have never, even for a second, been remotely on the side of a fall while standing. However, I have fallen forward/backwards twice. Once while I was still getting used to it, I leaned too far back and it skidded forward under me and I did a Nestea plunge into about 3′ of water. The second time I taped it back from the small entry hole and grounded into a 4″ deep sandbar. Once again I went backwards!
The fiberglass schedule described above is pretty solid. Probably 50% of my time spent on this thing has been flooded tree and bush. As you can imagine, it’s led to a fair amount of abuse – but I’ve had no major durability issues apart from a few new small holes in the fiberglass that I haven’t even bothered to fix and won’t ruin the SUP as the Extruded Polystyrene (XPS) core is virtually impermeable to water.
Paddle Boarding For Beginners: Sup Tips And Gear
What it has problems with: This is a great fly fishing rig, but not necessarily very fast. I usually treat it like a sit-on kayak when going from point A to point B. While I can consistently paddle while sitting, it’s a bit slower than a beginner-level SUP, which is designed more for stability than performance. Again, if you want a faster SUP, make the pontoons a foot or two longer! Unlike typical production SUPs, which are a fiberglass layout over a foam core, this board is hollow. The big disadvantage of a hollow plate is that if there is a leak, water collects inside. Since the wood inside the board is left unsealed, the strips will warp if they get wet. It is important to install a drain or vent to allow free air flow to dry inside if this happens, but also to ensure that water can drain through the channels placed along the entire length of the board.
Cut along the lower edge of each rib on both sides of the spar. The holes are simple triangular notches made with a saw. Stagger the placement of the holes so that they are slightly apart from each other. Placing notches in a straight line creates a weak point in the structure.
This board has 28 ribs. Each rib is numbered and slides into its corresponding slot in the slat. Just as the edge was attached to the workbench with mounting sticks and hot glue, the ends of each rib must be attached to the workbench to provide a rigid structure for the “plank” (stripping).
Each rib must be perpendicular to the beam and must be flush and straight with the worktop. It is helpful to have two people involved in this procedure. One person holds the rib in place, making sure it is straight with the rib. The mounting stick is temporarily attached to the end of the rib. Another person hot glues the mounting stick to the workbench and then applies a bead of hot glue to secure the mounting stick to the rib before removing the clamp. After all the ribs are attached, look at the length of the board and check for any unevenness or twists.
Build Your Own Paddle Board Plans
At this point, the ribs are still floating in their slots in the center beam. Since the texture seemed stiff enough to peel, we left it at that. However, I recommend placing a bead of Gorilla Glue where each rib meets the side to secure it. When the board is removed from the table after peeling off the deck, it is more rigid with the ribs glued to the side.
The rail strips are 1/4 inch x 1/4 in strips that run along the top and bottom of the ends of the ribs. They hold the ribs for deck planking and define the edges of the deck and hull. The instructions say they are not structurally important.
The rail strips were ripped from the 1/4 inch thick strips we already had. We only had 12 feet to work with, so our 12 foot long board had to be made with longer strips of rail due to the extra length caused by the curvature of the board. We scarfed the strips together, placing the scarf joint in the middle of the board, where the rail would be relatively straight.
The instructions recommend installing the rail strips with super glue and an accelerator. We installed them with just super glue and masking tape. Each rail strip was held against the top edge of the rib end and a bead of super glue was applied, after which the rail strip was attached with masking tape. We started in the middle of the board and worked towards the ends, holding the ends of the rail tape in place with clamps throughout the process. After the superglue has dried, a bead of Gorilla Glue is placed at each joint to strengthen it. The rails do not have to extend beyond the first and last rib.
Best Stand Up Paddle Boards For 2023
The instructions recommended installing both the top and bottom rails before the plank, but the top rail was installed and the bottom rail was installed only after the deck was planked and the board removed from the workbench and turned over. It was simply easier to install the plate upside down from the bottom rail.
Posted at 9:39 PM in How to Build a Wooden Stand Up Paddleboard (SUP) Free Step-by-Step Instructions | Permalink | Comments (0)
Katya has made a lot of progress standing up on her paddle board. I am very happy to lend my expertise to this project and be able to document it. It’s good to go through the process and see how it’s done before I start working on my own paddleboard. With the experience fresh in my mind and the notes I’m taking, the second time should go much faster.
The first step was to build a 12 x 2 foot workbench. Much of it was made from salvaged wood. It’s basically a 1/2 plywood surface attached with drywall screws to 2x2s around the perimeter, along with a few cross beams. The desk was placed on top of an 8-foot-long folding table, with legs attached to support the ends. The desk was leveled as much as possible from side to side with spacers placed under the legs. The assembly was still quite flexible and uneven along its entire length and the entire surface of the garage sloped towards the entrance. This shouldn’t matter as long as it’s stable, because the body mid-length (what designers call