hey people. there was a thread around a while back about bodyboard building so i decided to give it a try. i figured maybe working with a smaller piece of foam i might work up to a larger surfboard size later on. anyway, here are some pictures.
blank all glued up
edges rough cut
edges smoothed out with surform
004 and 005) rails roughed in
006 and 007) rails sanded down
your template looks strange I used to be a super hardcore bodyboarder so I am familar with what will work and what won’t. and pretty much anything will, that will. The rails look good but the bodyboard shapers don’t use the same tools, the use belt sanders and hot wire cutters heat guns and glue. I tried getting some sponge shapers to expierment with deisgn features but none would.
thanks for checking it out. i’m not much of a bodyboarder, or a surfer for that matter. i started learning to surf a while back, but got too busy. now i cant afford to buy a surfboard or build one, but i wanted to build something, so i figured i’d build this and ride the measly South Carolina waves on something! 
anyway, what about it looks strange? i kinda looked at bodyboards for big guys (i weigh 220lbs) and took dims from a couple different boards. you said you know what will work, you think this will? this is only my first one, but it would be cool to try some experiments like you said.
all i used to shape this so far is a knife, surform, and sandpaper. i couldn’t really find any in depth info on how to go about shaping a bodyboard, so i took what little i could find and meshed it with what i found here on swaylocks for surfboards. so i have a little mutt board! i’ll be ordering my materials for the deck and bottom soon.
thanks for any help you can offer!
later
The thing with the template is it is not smooth. It kinda looks like the crappy wave rebel boards… In south carolina i gewuss that will be fine. not much better than the K mart boards in durability and cost.
what would make it smoother? can you point me to a board that has a better template to play with?
you mentioned durability, is that because of the foam i used?
you mentioned before about trying to get shapers to play with some new designs, what did you want to try?
thanks
Congrats on your first project, it is always a great feeling to ride on something you made yourself.
I have been BB ing for a long time now and just picked up surfing in the last couple years. That shape is a little “odd”.
I would make the cut in the tail much more shallow and maybe round out the template at the nose a little.
I am 6’2" and about 190, I like a sponge that is 42" long. best idea is to grab a long sheet of paper and go to your local surf shop (when it’s not busy) and ask them if you can trace the outline of a board you like, also make lots of notes on the outline about things like rail dimensions that you can reference when you get back home. they might look at you funny but it is a good way to start out.
cheers and good luck
thanks alot! yeah, after i cut out the tail and had a look at some boards online, i realized it was way off! but i’m going to finish cutting the nose and tail and sand it down. i’m fixing to glue another blank and try it again.
thanks!
later
Hi!
a friend shaped a foam/epoxy bodyboard for me, and i really like it. Maybe you can get some ideas from it, it’s in the resources:
http://www.swaylocks.com/resources/detail_page.cgi?ID=1651
The waves here in Holland are not very good most of the time, but it flies anyway!
greetz
very cool. thanks smallwaves! we usually have little to no waves here either. do you get brusied up riding prone on a glassed bodyboard?
later
well, i finished shaping this board, but i’m not going to finish it. i just glued up my next blank and i’m going to try for a better shape. i found hdpe film for the slick and eva foam for the deck and rails on mcmaster.com. i figure if i used a decently thick piece of eva for the deck that it will cushion the xps and hopefully stop too much denting. i dunno, we’ll see.
thanks for the help, i’ll start a new thread for bodyboard 002 - if anyone is interested that is
later
it is the materials which make the board weak. but the nose needs to be rounder. Copy the template of a real bodybard, not something from K mart, and use that as a refernce the supper deep swallow was also funky. I wanted to foil a board, put in rocker, dome the deck and try concave in the deck, V, but the shapers I inquired to just basically said they had a good product and weren’t going to mess around
i didn’t copy a kmart board. i took dims from different boards that i found online. is there a certain brand or model that you would recommend me look at?
later
Hi Richie,
Did you put some stringers in that board of yours? I really like the feel of “stringers” on my BBoards. I know some people use carbon rods but I think theres a myriad of different materials you could use to stiffen your board up.
Cheers,
Rio
no i didn’t on this one, but i was thinking about for my next one. maybe help that xps keep from breaking. i was considering just splitting my blank in two and gluing in a stringer like a standup board, but i wonder if that would even hold up.
later