I wish I could remember who posted them but they were truely words to live by. If you think you are the one, please let me know. I’d like to send you a gift. It is obvious and simple. But once you get in the habit, your work and a lot of things in life just turn out better.
”Don’t take short cuts or postpone your issues thinking you can fix them in a subsequent step. Take care of them as you find them”.
All the best, big guy, who ever you are.
That is some good advice. In the past, I’ve been caught not taking it.
Not sure if you want others to chime in with their ‘best advice I ever got on swaylocks’ but I’ll add some of mine. Not verbatum.
“Your first board is gonna suck, then your second will be a little better, and so on…”
“You sand with course paper then use a finer grit than the last paper to remove those scratches, then use an even finer paper to remove those scratches, then use an even finer finer paper to remove…and so on.”
“Insert some good McDing quote here.”
“Insert some good Thrailkill quote here.”
Best Advice.
Try Epoxy.
Every control surface is a drag surface
you can replace rocker with template
learn how to vacbag
always wear gloves
Worst Advice.
It’s all been done before.
I don’t think it was me but I did make huge improvements in quality the day I started “losing time” on getting the outline square and true before jumping to the next step. If you start with something near perfect (perfection, as you know, doesn’t belong to this world), chances are that the end product will be near perfect, too. If you overlook one little flaw, not only you won’t fix it later, it will get worse and worse. And trying to fix it will usually result in even worse…
Some of Swaylock’s advices that are gold for me:
“Measurements should adapt to the curve, not the opposite.” Bill Thrailkill. (Not sure of the exact words but you get the idea.)
“Any lobotomized monkey can sand off CNC grooves.” Barry Snider. (Again, not sure about the exact words…)
“Any job worth doing is worth doing right.” Jim Phillips. (Who, if I remember well, was quoting his father.)
Nearly all I learned about making surfboards is based on endless nights digging through the swaylocks archive.
So this would be quite an endless list for me.
But one of the quotes that stood out is what Balsa already mentioned:
“Don´t look for the numbers, look for the curves.” (Bill Thrailkill, I don´t remember the exact words, but that is what got burned in my memory)
Not swaylocks advice, but best advice nonetheless and it applies.
I was probably 6 years old when my grandpa dropped this bit of knowledge.
”Never scratch your butt before you pick your nose…”
Translation- all is possible but in due time and proper order or else you end up in a crappy situation
One of my axioms: ‘‘Don’t let the ideal numbers dictate the curve, let the ideal curve dictate the numbers.’’
Ok, it was me. What do I get? Kidding Greg. So true, though. Like building a room that isnt “square.” Your chasing it around until its done. Bill’s thing about curves has saved me a lot of angst, too. Mike
I remember something close to that. Maybe Surfding?
I liked that guy. I think he fell ill
Michael Ward brought a lot to the table. “American Surf Company.” They still do CNC cuts of boards and other stuff. I don’t know how Michael is doing.
One of the axioms that I’ve always lived by, “Don’t lick your mixing sticks”.
not me.
…ambrose…
it only rhymes
if you spell it outloud…
ambrose that is…
send me a cash prize
I’ll send you a t-shirt…
bigger the prize
better the shirt…
I do have 3x.
shameless self promotion
is my new bag.
Hey amc III, Got my seven screen passes T in my classic stack. Thank you very much.
Let’s see:
Uncle Dale Solomonson - long before Sways - about design in general, “Some things matter more than others.” While wondering why some dinged up, warbely rail, tail chunked boards worked way better than other brand new boards - which looked fine at the time, early 80’s.
Uncle Amby, ambrose M. curry III, More desing sage, “Any board works in the top third of the wave.” While exiting my tri-plane/Greenough hull phase.
An Oregon shaper from up north when I was asking about an eps blank, “Get a hot-wire and do it yourself.” While explaining I needed 6" of nose and tail rocker, 'cuz I’d measured the true rocker curve from apex (made sense to me) not from the center/middle.
Meeting ambrose and seeing hot wireing in real life…
Robin Mair - Lengthy coversation, emails, and fin layour diagrams. Never went back to tri, or quads that are not on the rails and close together.
Lots of other tidbits over the years - and some sweet hook ups: fins, carbon fiber, fin boxes, hot wire, sanding blocks, etc. etc…
This is my quote.
So its the best advice, I will give.
Have a space you can set up your way, going into other peoples spaces is ok but its never like your own space.
“Man I’m sure i packed the stringer plane”, turns out i left it in the shaoing bay 3 hours flight away. “I’ve lost my third lot of gauze screening and im doing the rails with sand paper again”