The fact we are all here sharing board building ideas on the World Wide Web pretty much tells me the ‘old school’ method of learning board building is fading away. I’m not saying it pleases me or I prefer it. Just the way it is. Jiams website will be useful to some. It was quite generous. I won’t be using it because I don’t work from that format. I would have loved to be shown by an old master when I was young and had more time. But, I didn’t. I try not to spend too much time looking backward. I like to look forward. I stopped judging guys who use aku and computer milling devices, etc. Shit, Brewer’s been using the shaping machine it for a long time. I built my first board board at the age of 44 from a template I took off my Haut board and after watching the JC video 50 times. I’ve taken templates from boards I owned shaped by pro’s including Haut, Lis, and Brewer,several times and make no apology for it. I bought them. They’re mine. I’ll do whatever I want with them except claim I created them. I use the information I’ve gleaned from Sways for every board since I found this site. I give credit where credit is do if I’m asked. Mike
Nice work on the website. I'll bet you have gotten a lot of downloads already. I downloaded a few for myself. Bill T. taught me how to mix and match templates to create new shapes. I only have a few masonite templates in my garage. It was a real pain scaling-up my longboard templates when I decided to shape an SUP. I ended up using four different templates just to make the 30" wide outline.
It's hard learning how to draw a good curve. I feel like an idiot walking into a surf shop with a tape measure, and a pad of paper. I am most interested in getting the general measurements of a particular board style. I would be perfectly happy if your site just provided measurements at regular intervals, and didn't have the PDF files.
I would love to see a new section on boards designed for little kids.
Sheesh… This thread has me considering making a template…
a beautiful template is a wonderful thing and pleasing to the eye, but the trick is in understanding how it works with the tail, center and nose measurements, its something Im struggling on to be honest, at the moment Im just making boards and trying to work out how these measurements effect a board.
Im very lucky in that I have a guy who is teaching me heaps and hopefully by the end of the year I will have the ability to understand a lot more on making a great template and why it works instead of it just being numbers copied. Its the communication that is truly helping me with my teacher.
My last board which i posted up with the handprints on the general forum on boards you are working on, I stuffed between the fins on the bottom and im gonna glass it as is so I can ride it and learn why it dont work, you never know it might be a beauty.
I understand the aim of this site, but without the understanding of why a beautiful template works you will only ever be a hacker which i dont intend to be, but its a good starting point and a very thoughtful thing to do. It would be what you do with these templates, if I was to use the site ( which I wont need to ) I would be using it to study the templates, take measurements, compare to other stuff out there and try to get a understanding of why you made the template that way and then tweaking them to what you hope to achieve. I hope that sorta makes sence.
It's amazing how many different templates you can come up with from just one good template. I got one from someone here, who is very experienced, and not only is it a great template, you can use the curves to tweak other templates. I would think most guys on here who download those templates, wouldn't be able to help themselves from tweaking them. It's fun and easy. Somebody here, not sure who, mentioned running your eye along the template curve on its side ( i hope im explaining this right ), and you can see the bumps that need sanding/blending. Simple, but it works. The only problem is, i never end up keeping the templates, as i change my mind, whip it out, and tweak it again and again.
Hopefully the people that visit the site will have some sort of understanding.
=)
outlines for kids is cool thought. I’m still figuring out how to track the traffic out of curiousity. I’m not sure at the moment. Thanks for checking it out!
If you’re just making a standard shortboard I can’t see why there should be any fuss about the template. Your standard shortboard shapes vary very little as far as I can tell. No real mystery. I only have two templates which I can tweak a little depending on who I’m making the board for. Most of the time I just make the simplest board possible. Most people in my opinion make too much of a fuss about all the small details. I once made two identical boards. one with a concave and one flat bottom. For the life of me I couldn’t tell the difference in the surf. I’m sure Kelly Slater could but for us mere mortals there’s no point getting hung up on that kinda stuff. The fact that people are now ripping on finless lumps of wood pretty much proves this.
Anyway, I’m sure there’s plenty of you that disagree with me. I’m happy to be educated.
Great site. Would really love the outline for kids-boards too, since I’m planning to build a board for my daughter in a year (or two so you still have some time to add them to your site lol).
I don’t see the problem of people downloading a template and use it to make a board. It’s just a new way of using templates. Though I personally like to use Aku shaper to tweak a template a bit, I think that these templates might be very usefull for a lot of first time builders or people that only build one board every year or so (including me). So thanks for all the effort you put in making this site.
"Somebody here, not sure who, mentioned running your eye along the template curve on its side ( i hope im explaining this right ), and you can see the bumps that need sanding/blending."
Hi beerfan - Good advice. I think Lee Vanderhurst also mentioned 'rocking' your template on a hard flat surface and feeling for bumps and/or flat spots... another nice trick no matter how you arrive at your initial curve.
Nice advice there, John, I'll have to remember that one! I've used the eye to "compress" curves and shapes for years, but rocking the curve is one that hadn't occurred to me.
[quote="$1"]
Somebody here, not sure who, mentioned running your eye along the template curve on its side ( i hope im explaining this right ), and you can see the bumps that need sanding/blending. Simple, but it works. The only problem is, i never end up keeping the templates, as i change my mind, whip it out, and tweak it again and again.
[/quote]
That was me, but I was just explaining something most shapers do - ''compressing'' the curve optically.
Don't tweak your existing templates! Trace a copy and make tweaks on that. Always keep the originals intact for later reference.
John, thanks mate, i'll try that one as well.
Mike, i know i should keep em, i just get too lazy to go and get more mdf. Im planning on shelves on the roof of my new place so i'll have somewhere for them. Not sure i'll have a shaping area, but i'll make do somehow. That's a shitload of templates mike!
I'm not here to bash jjlam. I did not click on the link. I do not need a free template download.
I did a thread on this topic but we talked more about beer than curves....I'm here to have fun...
http://www2.swaylocks.com/node/1029109
In the process of "Blending Templates" I've made lot's of friends...Old school people that work with their hands...Tradesman......Craftsman....Do what ever you want....
I don't have a blog. I don't do face book or my space. I don't have a web page......I have a few internet friends with Labs that don't use computers to design.....
The Low Tech Lab
The Rat Turd Lab
Shitty Shapes Inc
Team Lame
South Bay Lab
South Bay Lab North
Troll Under the Bridge Lab
It's all about having fun....step away from the computer....learn about tools.....
...and....you can work wonders with tape.......I'm doing a 10 footer right now with no template...hmmm...
Stingray
fair go guys. It took Jjlam over a year to do this website… he even asked swaylock crew what they thought before doing it… I thought we are all on here to learn more, share ideas, find out how others make surfboards… Not to rubbish someone because he thought to make something to help others?? And big note themselves because they dont copy templates… What next? You’re not allowed to be a member unless, you blow your own foam, knit your own fiberglass and make your resin…
Foamhack, excellent comment. It is 530 and I’m on my way to the beach. Funny comment at this time of the morn.
ahahahahahahahahahahah
Greg blows his foam…
I wax my stick…
Re: webpage activity
I use “SiteManager” (sitemanager.com ) and Google Analytics (Google.com under the"More" tab). Paste a little piece of code (they supply) on each page and get daily, weekly, monthly data. The free version gives me all the data I need.
Funny…I thought the computer was a tool?
I don’t think anyone has slammed jjiam’s effort. Just some disagreement on the best way to learn. Disagreement is a healthy thing. Otherwise, Sways becomes a good ol boy circle jerk. Mike
ahahahaha....a circle jerk is sharing our tools just like our templates....ahahahahaha