I think a lot more people are trying their hand at shaping because there is so much more information available to them to get started. Videos from Jim Phillips and JC make it so much easier to get a good understanding of what it takes to shape a board. It also helps that there are forums like Swaylocks, Anthony’s Board Building site and even the Surfer mag discussion. When I started there was no place where you could go and have someone like Jim Phillips or Greg Loehr give you helpful hints at how to shape in a tear drop concave or or glass with epoxy resin. A fad? A movement? who knows…All I know is that there is a large number of people out there shaping boards and having a BLASTTTT…I think the big surfboard shops should worry more about us than the imports and pop outs.
For me I just have some ideas in my head that would be unreasonable to have a normal shaper/sander do.
First off they would laugh at me (rightfully so in most instances), second it is economically not feasible for me to try weird sh!t (read crap that you learn from but doesn’t really work the way you wanted it to) repeatedly paying and waiting on someone else.
I still am awaiting my first blank, so some of these ideas won’t be created and tried for years I reckon.
All part of the process to stay busy, interested, and joyful.
If it is a retro-fad for many (i.e. only attempted because of its current popularity- to desire social acceptance which is a weak and inadequate substitute for love which is understood through sacrifice), I do not care as others motives are between them and their god, or their sea; not me.
edit- and on a lighter note (like many have already stated), the internet and e-mail have made it mindblowingly easy to communicate, research, and do business; the potential to gain knowledge is infinite.
And in my opinion most people wouldn’t expend hours of research, planning, and especially working with their hands in some messy stuff for a fad. Even if they are making obsolete designs that aren’t necessarily creative or different or new, it’s still a pretty positive thing.
For me, when I found out that Resin Research’s epoxy didn’t require a respirator and saw how much easier it is now days with free laps, I thought I’d give it another wack.
I just like to build boards that I could never afford to buy and explore different ideas. There is just so much info out there and of course, here at Swaylocks.
And it keeps me happy when I can’t get in the water. Not quite as happy, but somewhat happy.
FAD SHMAD…Cyclique rebirth of the design spirit in the collective mind,TOM the BLAKE in print a revealed option…the kook box … a derogotory term but in fact an entry level board that many could construct at home…the back of O.B.Pattersons book had the plan for the hollow paddle board as well as the balsa plan…how many started out with the balsa made in the wood shop in junior high shool…next cycle we got the foam kit from resin source store entry level board made by the capable craft dad…kids with belief systems in place make their boards out’a old boards graduate to fresh new foam an materials…now the cycle comes again and we can believe that we are the Vanguard of the coming dawn but we are just a fat spot on the wagon wheel rolling west toward the sunset…the mission is clear the end is never nearer the pursuit is all there is…the materials are whats availiable paul has been quiet the box board is likely to be nearing completion what sound will it make when we thump the deck…ambrose…or when the chop slaps the bottom…It will be light
LOL,…99% of the people that try to build their own board(s) usually find out quickly what a toxic mess it is and never go back to B.Y.O.
…I got a phone call just yesterday from a novice hacker,he was worried that he might have done some damage to his eyes because he got foamdust in them.
…Jokingly,I told him he’d go blind in a few weeks.
THE COOKIE CUTTER MAN AS SURFER…“I could just patch these oyher dings my self,I made a couple boards myself”…as the romantic stare into spsce takes this unknown aparent surfing participant to another place and time…"But I just want this one________ job done right because its a new board an; I wanna take care of it…"yes herbI too believe the primary function of the make a board adventure opens the door to respect a valiant effort yet it can still be lost on a small group that wishes to use it as a tool to erode the asking price for the work…the erosion guys must not be allowed to brow beat the valiant so there shold be a GUILD like network that seperates those that wish a crappy job from a some one who wants a production job from a Thai/chinese job from a crafty job from a art job…etcetra…none of these guys buyer and producer are inherently wrong or stupid ir ignorant just stratified concious in need of a match-maker…dial a board … service its just that people camoflage themselves so well sometimes…you give them your best and they just dont see it or you do a bang up job beyond what they want and are left wanting appreciation…I have left the ding un rubbed out and they invariably say they can do the rest and weeks sometimes years later I see the repair in the exact same state as when they left my shop…c’est la vie… la vie… ambrose …the wind is calm and the oveer predited south swell is supposed to be here, down the street I go
“With richer mines, the same quantity of labur would embody itself in more diamonds, and their value would fall. if we could succeed, at a small expenditure of labour in converting bricks into diamonds their value might fall below that of bricks.”
“some people might think that if the value of a commodity is determined by the quantity of labour spent on it; the more idle and unskilful the labourer, the more valuable would his commodity be, because more time would be required in its production.”
“the labour-time soically necessary is that required to produce an article under the normal conditions of production, and with the average degree of skill and intensity prevalent at the time”.
hello Ambrose, i think i know what you are saying. Like yourself karl Marx is hard to understand but there are some gems of insigtht in the cryptic prose.
the trouble is its so hard for the consumer who is not an expert in surboard design and construction to tell the bricks from the diamonds. I’m not sure who is responsible for the unrealistic amount of producers prepared to build boards for the market.
as i move thru life i lurch more and more to the left. I don’t like exploitation of the wage labourer wherever in the world they are. I don’t believe the unregulated market behaves itself either. I don’t think capitalism is the problem though coz mixed up in the supply curve is a mass of cottage industry - aspiring petit bourgeousie. My definition of capitalism starts when the producer uses stocks and bonds and venture capital to accelerate the development of their productive machinery - there are a limited amount of producers using these instruments and the particular one I have bought a wave implement from charges quite a lot for the product. I use the term machinery but really the pure capitalist doesn’t care whether that machinery is technology or human labour.
In a “perfect” world where all ideas and creativity, means of production, distribution of goods, property and wealth are collectively owned, and government has withered away…
The idea has crossed my mind before about why you surfboard shapers/glassers don’t have some sort of loose union or guild. Maybe because someone once said “herding surfers is like trying to herd cats”.
Not to mention the many cons Dale brings to mind that come with such an institution; varying from stale creativity to wasteful bureaucracy to curruption to cliqueish bullcrap deals and contracts.
But imagine being able to work hard loving the boards you make for 25 years then be able to retire comfortably.
I hope that surfing continually progresses to younger guys shaping their own stuff, as Herb said developing an appreciation for the hard work and thought involved, let alone the randomness and mutations that can spawn new exciting designs and approaches.
As much social b.s., business, and image is involved in surfing, it will always boil down to the individual on the wave with his craft. The surfer who builds his own just exemplifies the spirit of exploring the potential of the individual.
Shunning both the survival of the fittest realism of capitalism, and the ‘forced fairness’ of Marx’s dreams into a responsible anarchy of sorts. Based on the golden rule and empathy, while still providing quiet personal freedom and peace, which to me is true wealth.
There is no denying the advances made possible by the capitalistic machine. Being able to professionally shape, have a team of amazing talent and their feedback, and the marketing which allows a monetary return, maybe even notoriety. These motivations, however corrupt, have probably led to great designs that have benefitted us all in our enjoyment of waves.
But I still see someone like Greenough as the pinnacle. The big picture. Lifelong mental and physical health and joy through surfing. Tread lightly, even whilst on your own path, and cruise on through peacefully.
Maybe I read too much into things but that is what I imagine.
I was almost going to call you as yesterday I actually made a section bodysurfing, then straightened and rode the whitewash to the sand. No big deal really, but in the past I have had to kick and swim like a madman to do that. You know, really straining with the lack of buoyancy feeling. The way I lucked out and this little wave broke, though, I did it with my hands at my waist absolutely relaxed, I am dead serious man, while connecting to the shorebreak the idea/imagined feeling of mat surfing/flying fired in my mind, I was stoked, as stoked as I’ve ever been on a chest high blown out little inside wave. Hurry up with that thing man!
edit- kidding of course on that last part! Take care.
I knew Carl Marx he was younger than Harpo and he surfed kelly’s cove…
without a wetsuit in the 30’s…He left show business because every body confused him with Karl Marx…as with the other brothers he was a fine musician,taught the exotic percussion at sherman clay on kearney street … a master piece is like a sampple of a journeyman’s work submitted to a panel of master craftsmen for judgement upon which the decision is made wether acceptance to the guild of master craftsmen is warranted…after which the standards of quality are policed and maintaind by the guild and products are backed by the guild’s reputation…ambrose…would that marx could be understood a lot more work and alot more surf would get done!..but he died vastly misconstrued
Is there, indeed, a retro shape your own board fad? Or, does it seem so because the relative few are linked to this site and some others? I know a lot of surfers. I can count the number who shape their own boards regularly (including me) on one hand. Mike
As my 3rd board is just done, I can say for sure that building my own board will:
A] make them way stronger than the polyester boards here in Netherlands
B] make them cheaper than the only epoxyboards custom made boards around [a stingerless, flexing, UV resistant shape at 1.200 US is too much], and still cheaper than a BIC, or NSP or TUFLITE board, and trust me, mine wont break or ding or be not-UV resistant or have bad shapes, i still have swaylocks and experience to back most of my design
C] be more satisfying to make but a LOT harder than just buying one
D] I get all the chicks to check out fancy art work on my board my oncle has put on, HA!
E] as for performance: As long as I am not surfing very demanding waves, that need good boards, i am happy fooling around with my own ideas in the water and see what works and what not, one needs a hobby right?
F] in my case there is an anti do-what-others-do drive to make my own too!
Faster, bigger waves are easy to make good performing boards, and sometimes, the builders who live in slow wave zones just forget to include fast waves in their design criteria.
Almost all my boards worked great at OB San Francisco and also in Oahu. Most of them were real logs for SoCal, Santa Cruz, or anywhere with slow moving waves.
I takes skill to make something that can generate energy out of nothing.
