I recently have gotten access to a planer and some old blanks. I’ve been teaching myself how to handle the planer by just skinning the blanks.
Now I’m trying to learn how to put in more rocker, but I’m not quite sure how to go about it. Everybody I’ve watched on YouTube seems to do it differently and doesn’t really go into detail.
My intuition says to make a series of thin cross cuts starting at the tip of the nose/tail, each succession a little farther up than the last (and smoothing everything out between successions with lengthwise cuts) until there’s an even, gradual curve up the board. I hope I’m making sense here LOL
I notice many people just go parallel with the stringer the whole time, some feathering the depth as they go. Seems a little too advanced for me at this stage.
Check out the Ben Aipa YouTube shaping video by Fiberglass Hawaii. Best and easiest method for rocker measurements and changes. Plus he will answer pretty much any other question you may have about shaping. Very understandable and basic “point A to point B methods. The guy was a Master Shaper. Even back in the 60’s Greg Noll and his shapers were amazed at how easy Ben made it look. I myself have benefited not just from this video but also the fact that Terry Senate was a protege of Ben’s and did the Aipa boards here on the Mainland. Terry’s process was very similar to Ben’s. Picked up a lot of little things from Terry by sitting in that back room shaping bay. Little things that improved my shaping. The loss of these two Masters leaves a giant hole for hand shaping.
The Aipa video is great.
Terry Senate, while highly recognized in San Clemente, had a good following here in San Diego. I cant temember the shop’s name here in Pacific Beach that sold custom Indinity surfboards…but i bought one shaped by Terry Senate. It was one of my favorite surfboards.
Steve Boehne (Infinity) gave Terry his big break by teaching Terry and letting him perfect his chops at Infinity before going out on his own. I don’t know the whole story, but Terry made mention of Boehne once in awhile. Boehne goes way back in Surfing history, but doesn’t get the mention as a shaper that he deserves. He’s still good and he has passed that knowledge onto his sons.
Cross cutting like your describing is a great way and my preferred way to add rocker. It’s an easy and fast way to keep both sides symmetrical. But in the end it doesn’t matter how you get there as long as you hit your desired rocker numbers. So make sure you know what you want number wise at 0,12 and 24” up from the tail/nose then hit em. As long as your keeping your cuts smooth you will have a consistent clean curve between those points. Do those rocker cuts before your full passes when mowing to thickness.