AKU SHAPER FILES

HI!

I am from Cape Town, South Africa. I was wanting to start a platform on this site to exchange designs of surfboards designed on various sofware packages such as AKU shaper, Shape3D etc. I think this will be a great way for shapers around the world to share their knowledge with each other. In specific I am interested in Designs similar to some of the Lost boards, such as the RNF, Monkfish, Rocket etc. If anyone happens to have copies of these that is willing to share that would be great! I have been working on a POD sort of design and something similar to the RNF, which I will submit soon! It's a very exciting era of surfing that we live in, despite the ever growing popuarity of the sport, and we all know there is nothing better than surfing that "magic" board! So if you have knowledge you would like to share, feel free to post your ideas on this thread! Look forward to seeing what you guys are working on! Off this topic, I offer accomodation to surfers that want to travel to South Africa. If you are interested PM me!

i dont even show customers my files anymore lol! but beside that i dont use machines to shape boards.  . if i was you id be looking at original  late 60s or mid 80s for some ideas for that stuff. imo the round nose fish is pretty uninspiring outline

hmmm… you are right. The Rnf is pretty uninspired, but it goes really well, which is what attracted me to it. I have a very similar board at the moment and it’s the best board I have ever ridden. I have ridden quite a few boards. I suppose it just works for me. Thats the magic of shaping I suppose. Some boards work great for some people and average for others. Well, below I posted some of the files I have been working on. They aren’t complete, but pretty close to it. If you would like check them out and modify them and re-post them that would be great! I believe everyone benefits from sharing knowledge! The designs below are my idea of a good every-day board thats fun but still handles some size. They are all pretty short, which is a personal preference of mine.

Build it , they will come!

 

The files whether magic or not would provide detailed implementations

of single to double concaves, fish tail cad implementations and a whole host of other details that

arent really covered by the ususal posts where words are lacking and detailed measurements never

really offered…

 

On another note, file sharing of these relatively simple board files should be by nature almost 100% safe

as boardcad, aku and shape3d are not targets of hackers nor would exploits of these files and apps

likely lead anywhere.

 

 

I would post some files but I don’t know how.

heya mate ntb . i would move widepoints forward and pull the tails to less then 15. also lower your nose entry

my problem with the RNF is that its not really a fish and not really a decent thruster. id have 2 boards in place of…a wide thruster with a low entry and proper fish with keels or quad

Paulcannon, thanks for the input! I appreciate it… with the wide point more forward and a little less nose rocker, I think it would perform a bit more like a fish? My thinking was that i wanted a bit more of a straight rail incorporated to the design(hence the wider tail) and a really flat rocker to increase down the line speed. Single to double concaves were used which seems to be pretty standard these days and most people prefer them. I was not sure how much concave to put in, but just went with my gut feeling. I’m contemplating building the POD out of solid basla wood in about a month from now. Only problem is the balsa here is so damn expensive!

Jesus the site won’t let u post .brd files, but maybe just put up the .pdf version and if people are interested they can let you know and send it via e-mail.

Shukrani Sana! (Thanks alot in swahili!)


 

 

 

for any board file just change the 3 letter suffix of    .srf or s3d etc   to   .txt, store the file on this thread

with instructions for changing back to the proper suffix. If what you were talking about in the first post was

just about storing board files in Swaylocks threads, then that will probably poop out due to the older threads being

rather inaccessible or inconvenient. Just wont work and be popular without something more organized like its own swaylocks forum.

hi mike i have found over the years and i got this stuff from mike daniel, was to look at rocker entry more closely . its hard to really work it out on a program as i shape it by eye and measure. i really didnt start making noiticeable inroads into speed tunning until i looked seriously at rocker entry in relation to surfers center of gravity and stance width. A modern thruster can have a fish rocker entry but go nothing like a fish. fish have wider tails lower tail rockers and straiter rail in the tail and very different fin setup. a way different ride . a fish nose rocker can be as low as 3inches .

i keep my shortboard rockers around 4 1/2 to 5 depending on waves. 5 1/4 is plenty for just about as hollow waves as you want. i tend to ride boards my hight or less and prefer these sort of retro outlines . if your rocker entry is around 22 to 26 mm at the 12  inch mark you should be in the ballpark. i can ride a modern outline shortboard designed for my hight and ability. it would be a 6 6 by 19 with a rocker of about 5 5 . but i would not enjoy surfing this kind of board. it would be easy to turn and in that respect my turn would be less drawn out with less power. i dont mind putting effort into turns and drawing them out.  however i do require a board to snap cutback under the lip so for this reason i pull the tails on all my outlines. i find these wide tails boards are good for top to bottom surifng 80s style. but feel a bit slugish for snap cutbacks and also i catch rail on roundhouse cutbacks with wide tail boards. huie told me you cant really have to much tail rocker ina shortboard and i believe him 2 1/2 to 3 inches is great for snaps under the lip. i flip my tail rockers BTW .

concaves feel squirty and can offer a bit more control on steep faces. as yet no one has satifactorily proved to me that they make the board go faster. from my experience speed is mostly about volume and rocker. i shape a deep single through to the tail when required. my advice is if you diont know the design aspect is suposed to do then dont use it. make a few boards that are pretty well the same and tune one or two things at a time like rocker entry and rails . get a good outline and use it a few times with different rockers etc and you will start to feel out what rocker does

when i design a squash etc tail board in the program i design it and save it as a rounded pintail first using 3 point only. save that . then open as a ghost and add a point to design the tail. i find i get my sweet outline with 3 points a lot quicker

wrt widepoint ive done anywhere from 2 inches back to 3 inches forward and i like the look and feel of widepoint forward . the board feels positive in the barrel and can be ridden shorter as it moves the volume forward. i think if you into these retro styles you look at widepoint center and forward but not back as they dont look right or go right IMO

yeah there is a handful of bennet blanks i dont have to carve the hell out of get a rocker. i shape my personal 6 1s to 6 4s out of a 6 9 or 6 10 blank. but there is a couple of newer fish blanks that work. kneeboard fish blanks are no good . to much carving

Paulcannon thanks so much for the advice! It’s very helpful. I agree with you in regard to the rocker issue. All the good boards I have ridden have had a ballpark of about as much rocker as you describe. I watched the shaping 101 dvd today with JC. Also a great source of information! With regard to the concaves is there a specific concave that is more suited to a quad setup in your opinion? The board I want to shape will be a quad. Most people say single to double is the best, but most people also ride thrusters… Just wondering if the flow of water out the back will be different with a quad. Also with regard to the quad setup, are the two fins on one side toed in at the same angle? To me this would make sense, but just want to make sure.

Thanks again for all the advice!

Oh and if anyone has a shaper file similar to the Lost Monkfish or Mr 80’s twin and they want to post it it would be greatly appreciated! Sawubona from Africa!

hey mike my quads have the trailers with no toe or up to 2mm . they also have no or very little cant. i used double foiled fins for trailers and set them a lot further from the rails. the fronts are abut 1 1/4 and trailers about 2 1/4 from the rail. distance from tail is optional but the fronts are generally set back further then a thruster. i set mine similar to how i would set keels so the trailers are around 5 and then set the fronts relative to the trailers. i generally use a deep single concave for a quad and it carries right through to the tail flip for skilled surfers and i go to flat before the fins for average surfers. the concave is generally at the depth that is you turn a short straight edge on 45 degree angle to the stringer between the fins the edge will fully contact the board and then as you turn it to horizontal then you will start to see the concave. around 3 mm but the straight edge lets you see it relative to tail rocker.  id do a qaud fish with a pretty deep concave and shortboard with 3 inches of tail rocker would only get 1 or 2 and run to flat. just one way of doing it but i have good success with my customers and often have surfers of 20 years tell me i made then the best board they have ever had. although this may have a lot to do with the volume and width i force on them

i personally feel that double concave in the tail makes very little sense to me . i believe that it interupts flow and causes  drag