Board #1 Rail needs fixing

Hi all-  

I’ve started my first board, and could use some advice. The outline is a harbour H3 9’2", so far so good. I jacked up the rail though, and now only have a little sliver of planshape left with a weird pinched rail. Do you guys think I should just sand down the rail square taking off width? I was trying for a 70/30 or so rail since the board is pretty thick (3.25"). Any help much appreciated!

Hey atom00,

I wouldn’t call it weird, or pinched mate. I’d call it tucked. On longboards tucked rail work great. They hold on the wave face better than down rail. I’d blend it nicely and leave it. You may find you favor the rail shape.

My two cents ~

Mahalo, Rich

I’ve shaped three boards so this is not advise from a shaping expert.

  1. Pictures tell a thousand words. Hard to tell what your drawing is telling me.

  2. It’s a longboard right? Take that sanding screen and use long strokes to blend every thing together, think smooth.

  3. Getting frustrated? Walk away and start over tomorrow with a fresh attitude.

  4. It will be a long time before I’m the next Al Merrick but my first first board rides great and so will yours!

  5. Have fun ,go surfing.

Ray

I would just take a fred tool and work the bottom of the rail then take some sanding screen and blend it all together i really like a tucked under rail on my longboards they work great in large surf.

Atom,

This is what you want to do:

  1. Re template the front 24" in about 1\8 " on each side. You’ll probably want to take 1\8’ off the nose to compensate also. This will give you a symmetrical line to work with, otherwise you may get things uneven, then you have a can of worms.

  2. Re shape the rail to where you want it. ALWAYS leave a small flat spot at your nose area until you’re at your 220 screen.

  3. in the future shape the bottom portion of your rail first. I consider the bottom portion of the rail to be part of the bottom, so I shape them as one. As you gain experience then you can decide if you prefer shaping the top or bottom part of the rail first. Different boards will require different approach to how the rails get shaped.

  4. Always have good, positive energy flowing when you’re shaping. This transfers into the foam. When you glass the board, the energy is locked in .

ALOHA, c

Thanks guys- I’'m working on pictures at the moment, and Stingray’s suggestion to leave it alone for a while is working so far! Cantellya, I think I’ll try to shrink the template as you suggested tommorrow. It makes a lot of sense to shape the bottom/bottom rail to me now, seems easier to visualize things that way when I start the shape. BTW, I’m using an Sfoam blank and loosely following their video, but I don’t have a fred tool. I think the 36 grit on a sanding block is working fine tho, and I’m stoked at how easy/fun it is so far.

Thanks again,

Atom