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DIY Boogie Board Float

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flying_spanner

flying_spanner

Gravity Is Optional
Sep 20, 2007
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27
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Hey there all.

Well it's been a productive weekend.

All my new gear I have purchased in the last 4 weeks is no longer Vergin-esque as Megan (my girlfreind), Mike (a mate from school), and Myself went for a snorkel in one of the sheltered wee bays 20 mins drive from where we live.

My Wild Blue wetsuit is great! :D It cost me (NZ)$200 and has most of the features of the $700 Picasso suit I was drooling over in the local dive shop.
SeaTrials.JPG
Here's a link for anyone who's interested in the specs. Wild Blue Weekend Warrior Green 5mm

My Sherwood Mako mask is super comfortable, and has a really wide feild of vision. It may have a larger internal volume than say an "Omer Alien" or similar, But it suits my needs.

So enough Bragging about all my new gear and get on with the real reason you're here looking at this post.

Today I've been making one of those boogie board floats. Below is a link to the website that has instructions on how to make the float, I basicaly just copied this but changed a couple of things to suit my needs better.
Rob Allen Spearguns, Freediving and Spearfishing Equipment

Here's the pics.
Float1.JPG
The mast for my flag is a tube of semi-flexi plastic that is the support out of the Bladder Fuel Tank from a McDonnell Douglass Skyhawk jet fighter!!! (My flatmate and I are aircraft engineers & have heaps of redundant aircraft parts at our disposal)
Float2.JPG
Here's the mast folded down and stowed for transport. It's held at it's base by a piece of 3mm bungy that allows the mast to be pulled from it's mount (the block of wood in the centre with the hole drilled in it), but still be attached.
I reckon the flames should make it go thru the water heaps faster!!!
Float3.JPG
Here's a pic of the underside showing the stainless steel swivel/clip with 20metres of floatline attached. The floatline can be purchased online from the link below. Nick the owner of the online store is very approachable and easy to deal with via email. Even if you're a green as grass newbie who knows nothing like me!!! (there you go Nick, there's you're free plug!!!)
- Floatlines

If anyone has any questions fire away. Next on the plans are Backpack straps like the Floatboard on the website link previously. And a custom made, Origon stock, spear gun to attach to the other end of my floatline. Watch this space :D.
 
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Nice post and good links too! Awesome for a guy like me living on the cheap!
 
Looks good flying_spanner I have cut a couple of notches near the front of my board so I can wrap the float line around the board. I find I can then tie off the line to suit the depth I am diving or shorten it right up when swimming hard.
 

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foxfish said:
Looks good flying_spanner I have cut a couple of notches near the front of my board so I can wrap the float line around the board. I find I can then tie off the line to suit the depth I am diving or shorten it right up when swimming hard.
Click to expand...

That's a really simple, yet brilliant idea that hadn't occured to me. I may "borrow" that idea too
 
bgill said:
Nice post and good links too! Awesome for a guy like me living on the cheap!
Click to expand...

Don't get me wrong making this wasn't exactly cheap.

Board $19.99
Bungee Net $15.00
Flag $7.00
S/Steel Clips $14.00
Caribina's $12.00

Total $67.99

A commercialy made PVC (rigid) float with flag and stainless shark clip down at my local dive shop is only $69.00.

So why not save yourself the hassle and just buy the dead right thing from the local dive shop?

Well my Float-Board is a lot more usefull for shore dives as It serves a few more purposes than simply marking my position, like spares storage, get to surf back in at end of dive, Backpack to carry gear over rocks to water, etc etc.

Will it be too bulky to put in the boat? Yip, probably.

Next I can see myself buying/making another float that'll fit into my divebag, purely for boat diving.

Hope these ideas help someone & if anyone else out there has any other ideas that they have incorperated into their float-board post 'em (with pics) for all to see!!!!
 
My dive line is a plastic coated washing line, stainless clips are expensive! Bungee cord is cheap as chips at the locale chandlers.
 
Hello everyone. I am new to the Deeperblue.
Here is a pic. my board. Got a problem with the flag. Have not figure out how to keep the flag always on top of the board. Sometimes, the wind and wave flip the board over, and the flag goes under. It always make me nervous to not see the board when I surface.

 
nice job flying spanner.
catman, what sort of boogie board is that you have got there?
I have been thinking of buying one of those insulated fish cooling bags you can buy to clip onto the back of a kayak. Attach this somehow on top of a boogie board and you have a "drip and leak" proof bag so that no fishy smelly things can drip into the water as they are kept inside the bag and kept cool. Will keep the bronzies away now that summer is approaching again.
 

I think I may have an answer to this problem. A lead keel attached to underside of board under the flag.

Take 1 oblong (1" by 2.5") dive weight. Drill two 5mm holes right through the weight, aswell as through the board. 2 long stainless bolts with nuts, a couple of washers and Bob's you're uncle, Betty's you're aunt!!!!

I'll post some pics of mine once I've done this Mod.

Please note: this idea is also "borrowed" this time from my flatmate who's also an engineer and much smarter than I :duh.
 


Sounds like a great idea, thx. I mean, the DIY part:inlove... not the relative part... rofl

Nice to know fellow freediver from aviation industry also. Thanks also to your engineer friend for the original idea.
 
Ive actually thought about this also, for my one I made a while back. Problem with fitting weights to the u/s is it gives kelp a place to tangle on. If you dive in heavily kelped water where it makes a canopy on the survace your gonna have trouble dragging the float through the kelp...
 
OrangeKiwi, this board was completly made from scratch using insulating boards kown as "roofmate" or "floormate" , these were shaped to look like a boogie board but a bit longer. Size is lentgh 100cm width 60cm. Them they were coverede with epoxi resin and fiberglass mat.
 
Reactions: foxfish
They are nice boards catman, you obviously went to a lot of work to get what you wanted.
 
I was having problems with my inflatible torpedo float: originally I was just balancing my gear underneath it to keep the flag upright, which is a little hit or miss. However an email from a forum member got me thinking about this. Also, I saw an older spearo in Devon with a huge torpedo float that had a small, flat dive weight strapped tightly to the bottom.

I found a ribbon shaped piece of lead on a rocky beach, which I have wrapped around the attachment points at one end of the float. Then I found a very big wheel lead (used for balancing wheels when new tyres are fitted), 150g - perhaps off a lorry. It already had a folding tag, so I just crimped that on at the other end of the float. Seems to work.

Yes, my RA solid float has the lead weight on the inside presumably for that reason. I see they now offer a long screw on weight alternative too (you don't need the weight if you don't use a flag):


Excellent float catman. Very neat looking. I like the speargun holders on both sides. Does it have a dive flag? Reminds me of the Omer board: Omer Shardana
 
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Keeping excess line out of the water on your flat board as several of you do seems ideal. For those of us using torpedo floats, I Just noticed this interesting under-float line holder on apnea.co.uk (might also keep the float upright without requiring extra heavy lead weight?):
Apnea Online Store
 
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Reactions: the_milkman
Looks like it'd work. Dunno how it'd get on in around kelp tho.....

I've fitted a lead weight to the underside of my Boogie Board float now, and it hasn't flipped over since. (We get some pretty mean westerlies here in Marlborough).

Now that I'm starting to clock up a few more dives I couldn't be more pleased with the Foam Filled Float line. Just make sure you have a swivel between the gun and the line and it's sweet as.

When a work mate of mine recently motored into the bay I was diving to check on my progress, he said the bright coloured float stood out like a sore thumb, and the bright green float line drew an easily visible line on the surface to my exact position.

He had no trouble seeing where I was diving from a long way out, which is most reassuring .

A quick tip I've found that works for me.

Always take your speargun along, even if you're only diving for Scallops in a somewhat "desert" sandy bottom where you're unlikely to see any fish worth shooting.

Reason being we all know Murphy will produce a huge school of Kingfish like you've never seen before, the day that your gun's back in the boat!

Also when you come onto some good ground that you want to revisit on your next breath simply leave your gun on the bottom to mark your spot and on your next breath follow the float line down to where you were previously. This is great for diving in slight drift, or reduced vis.

I know this idea is so simple and plenty of spearo's out there may be saying "so what I do that all the time". I'm new to this sport and it hadn't occured to me to leave my gun on the spot until I went diving with an experienced spearo and watched him do exactly that.
 
Reactions: Delphinusnz and Mr. X
Gotta love the DIY stuff, This winter a float and a flasher are my projects.

A commercialy made PVC (rigid) float with flag and stainless shark clip down at my local dive shop is only $69.00.

So why not save yourself the hassle and just buy the dead right thing from the local dive shop?
Click to expand...

I live in the sticks, small fishing town in japan. NO SHOPS to buy anything.
have to make the things I can make. hopefully I'll have mine finished in time for next season. Thanks for the idea, love your finished product.
 
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