Good Morning!
I haven’t posted here in a while, but I still have been scrolling through reading some good info !
I have a 5’9" fish template that I made from the old Blending Curves website. I was wondering if anyone has a saved file of a 5’6" or 5’7". It was a fairly wide swallowtail with no bumps or wings. Not the widest nose they had but still wide enough to fit into the category that some would call “retro”.
I miss that blending curves website, hope it will be back soon!
Thanks folks!
You can try to holler at blending curves on there instagram , he hooked me up while the site is down.
Greenlight surf supply also has some nice outlines
https://greenlightsurfsupply.com/collections/surfboard-templates/products/surfboard-outline-templates-50-511?variant=1052041383
Happy fishing
its not that hard to create a template, for me its the first step of shaping a new board, so its always a mystery to me why people go to such lengths to skip the first step??? If someone (like blendingcurves) has a template you like, well and good, use it, but if you can’t get your hands on someone else’s template why not just make your own? There are a variety of methods for doing it, several threads here in the past have addressed the matter, its a fun and creative part of shaping, go for it! Just my 2 cents 
That’s a great idea Tom. Thanks!
PM sent.
Huck you have touched upon a very key and core element, using your eye to design. I’ve noticed some of the newer guys coming up with the “aided” design fail to realize that the MOST important talent is to train your eye. If it doesn’t look right to you, it will never surf right. I remember watching guys in the islands taking an Hawaiian sling to draw outlines. When shaping, there is NO OTHER tool more important than the trained eye. It is incumbent on all to develop this asset. How else will you tell a slight deviation from the drawn curve? Or, some other problem in the process. In shaping…the eyes always have it.
Here’s a copy of the BC 5’7" fish
…so what s happened with that page anyway?
Hello Tblank, what you say reminds me all these guys doing all those pencil lines onto the shape to make the rails…you really not need all that to have a pro clean shape; only couple of marks for reference.
So guys try to develop an eye for the lines and curves, but that takes sometime and I see that new guys want all now.
Hello "Verb! It’s been a long time since I’ve said that. You are absolutely right, but different strokes for different folks. There is a fairly known guy around here that puts out a nice final product and I respect his shapes. I went to pick up some blanks from him and then witnessed his convoluted process of turning a rail with all this measuring and RE-measuring and the laying out all these lines for the bands. It took soooo much time and effort when he could streamline and use a discerning eye to get the same result. This was quite a while ago so I hope he got a clue by now. About the only time I draw a rail line is for 50/50 rails and that is to mark a centerline. Also I use layout marks along the length of the shape for smooth transitions but they are used for the whole time and not only for rails.
I have a Steve Lis fish I scaled up from 4’7" to 5’ 5". It is setup for printing on an 11 x 17 printer. I don’t have it in 8.5 x 11.
I also have this, but you’ll have to figure out how to scale it.
Thanks for everyone’s generosity and posting up / sharing templates!
It’s definitely a cool thing!!!
Ahoy,
For all those who make templates the old fashioned way, what do you guys use as a “curve creator”? I use a bendy strip of Masonite but is there anything that is more effective for this process? I have used fishing rods too in the past which was kinda funny especially because I was too lazy to cut the lure off the end haha.
so clearly not the answer he was looking for, but I do like to throw that out there for anyone seeking templates.
If you know what template shape you’re looking for; you should be able to produce it on a piece of masonite. If you can’t master shaping a template in 2D you’re gonna have a harder time with the 3D process, IMO. Reverb gives a good example in rail bands.
As we become more and more reliant on computers in our modern world we sometimes neglect to fully utilize the computer in our cranium, but I fully believe anyone with the determination can learn to make their own templates by hand and eye.
I’m no pro or expert by a long shot, the actual skills of production are another matter entirely, but I think anyone can train their mind’s eye to visualize their goal, and their literal eyes to guide them to that goal, and that to me is lesson one of surfboard shaping.
I have used bent sticks, fishing rods (no lures and preferably no guide loops), and after you get a collection of templates you can combine teplates. Lately I’ve been just freehanding a curve as I scale it up with a grid, cutting it a little oversize with a flexy blade pull saw, and finishing up with a sanding block.
They all work for me, and I’m sure there are other methods too.
here’s a link to a good thread http://www.swaylocks.com/forums/making-template-image-board
sidiabed - great video! He does things a little different than me, but it clearly shows how simple the process can be.
Yea the video shows essentially what I do as well when making templates. I really want to know what that music was in the vid. I was digging it. Huck, I like how you draw your templates out on chart paper first and then scale them up. I might try to figure that process out the next time I’m making templates.
