How To Build a Vertical Surf Rack on the Cheap

My quiver grew to a half dozen this summer and storage was becoming scarce. All the nooks, crannies and corners were spoken for and by August I was actually storing a board or two in the car. It was time to finally build a permanent spot for the boards. I searched all over the Internet for examples, but only found blueprints and schematics for horizontal racks. I knew I wanted to go vertical (tail on the floor, nose to ceiling) to allow for expansion (wishful thinking?). I had a lot of guess work, but it seems to be working out well enough.

Best of all, you can pull this off for next to nothing using stuff lying around the house/garage. However, I did spend some cash, which I’ll price out for you later on. (Had I been more diligent though, I could have cut the price down even further!) Price really depends on how many board you are building for and how deluxe you want the rack. (I went deluxe.) But look around your house and garage for materials to use, be creative. Chances are you have much of the supplies you’ll need at the ready. (This whole project could fall under the Reuse portion of the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle ethos!)

For the bare bones edition of this project, all you’ll need is:

a 2×4
wood dowels (24″ per board)
wood screws

Things to consider for a more deluxe version:

wood glue
padding for the dowels
padding for the boards’ tails
a safety mechanism to hold the boards in place like hook and eye sets and nylon twine

And here is what I did (click on any image to enlarge):

Clean Up – Clear out a space in your garage or wherever you plan to store the boards. Make sure you have enough room set aside for the size of the rack you plan to put in. Beatles poster and astroturf are a must.
2×4 – Take the 2×4 and mark out a center line lengthwise. Next mark out spots to drill holes for the dowels. For the boards with bigger fins, I went 12″ between drill spots, and then 11″ between spots for the short boards. In the end, the 12″ gap was a tight fit, but worked. You may want to consider and extra inch or two if you have extra room. Also be sure to take the dowel’s diameter into consideration when considering spacing between the drill holes.
Drill Holes – If you have access to a drill press, definitely use it. You’ll get much better results. Ideally, you want the drill bit and the dowel diameter to match so the dowels fit snugly into their holes. With a hand drill you run the risk of getting a bit of wobble in the drilling action thus creating a slightly wider opening/less snug fit for the dowel.
Prepare Dowels – I bought 1″ hardwood dowels. (I’ve heard that the softer wood can warp and compress over time resulting in a floppy dowel.) But I suspect that PVC pipe would work well for this too. I cut my dowels down to 24″ segments which seems to be wide enough for even my beefiest board.
Attach Dowels to 2×4 – Place each of your dowels into the holes drilled into the 2×4. For extra strength (and because I used a hand drill and worried the dowels might spontaneously pop out), I smothered the dowels’ ends with Wood Glue and then placed them into their spots. Even with the glue, I had a few wobbly dowels. I used toothpicks to straighten out the direction of the dowel as well as tighten the fit of the dowel. After the glue was dry I used a Dremel to saw out the protruding bit of the toothpicks.
Mount 2×4 – Find the wall studs or something super sturdy and attach the 2×4 to the wall using wood screws. I put the height of the rack at 4’8″, but this can vary based on the difference in height between you largest and shortest board. My boards range from 9′ to 6’8″. Also, with the bigger racks, get some buddies to help you out with this step. This is not a one-person job. (You may consider doing this step before attaching the dowels (#5). It definitely would have been easier to mount the 2×4 before I had the dowels in, but if you have to make adjustments to the holes afterward… Carpenter’s choice.)
Secure Boards* – Living in California, I always worry that an earthquake will bring all my boards down. I picked this idea from Harbour Surf Shop. I bought few sets of hook and eyes and some nylon string. I screwed an eye into the end of each dowel, then connected the eye to the hook with a length of the nylon string so I could “lock” the boards into their slots.
Pad the Dowels* – To make a softer resting spot for the boards, I took some pipe insulation I had found and cut them lengthwise in half. Using zip ties, I secured them to the dowels with the padding facing the side the board would rest on. But I am sure there are a hundred solutions to this step. Take a look around your garage, see what you find.
Tail Padding* – To protect the tails of the boards I found some old rugs and set them down below the boards. Simple. I’ve also read about a guy who used old yoga mats as padding. Again, look around for unused items; use your imagination.
Load Your Quiver – This is the best part. Put your boards in place. Step back and marvel at your work. Bask in the glory. Now grab one of those boards and head out for some waves!