Wednesday, July 28, 2010

I thought my boat was cool 'til I saw this.... UNREAL

My friend Mike Pollard moved to the Big Island a couple years ago, he took a staff position at the big observatory over there- a "dream job" from what I've heard. Not only has he been messing with giant optics (he's a physicist) he's been messing around in his workshop. Here's what he put together:


Mike built an absolutely beautiful two man canoe. I assembled my boat (it came as a kit- I just sanded things to fit and epoxied it together), Mike BUILT his from scratch- huge difference!


Here's the man himself attaching another of the many strips of wood that make up the hull of the canoe. This method is called "strip plank". Mike's also one of the first stand up paddlers that I met when he lived here in San Diego.  We scored chest high Black's beach way back in '07, that was a great day of surfing- little mini-barrels pitching over the tails of our stand-o boards.


Here's the hull with the it's planking completed. Check back for more photos and I'll try to get Mike to pitch us a few words about his build, stand up paddling on the Big Island and life in general...

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