Im hooked, addicted, love em. I have always been a addict ever since peter daniels shaped me one wehn he still had the shop at thornleigh. ive now decided to try to learn to shape them no matter my inexperience. I also decided to take pics of the journey of shaping and Hope you enjoy them. For those that can shape and glass these magical things I hope it brings back some memories of when you started doing them. This is a ongoing journey and im at the moment shaping 8 channels into a tail of a board becomes I want to end up with 8, six aint enough, lol.
after pratice and just cutting in, i know, some reverse, some not, wonky lines, very primitive, but learning all the same, I decided to have a real go at it, the lines still a bit wonkey, but made some adjustments to my method, painted them a little purple as this will be the colour of the channels of a board I complete one day as all channels should be purple, lol. I learned a lot from this go and took it into my next attempt and tried to make em better as I was still a long way off. I talked to a few people and made adjustements on my next go as you will be able to see with the blue pictures I took
here are the blue pics. I softened the edges a little, made the ridge line on more of a angle so that the glass will stick easier and not leave air bubbles hopefully, On this attempt you will notice that I have not blended them well, I have a way to go but im getting closer and for 3 attempts im pretty happy with this result. Thsi time got them dead straight, though the next attempt when I do 8 is to fade them in better and the middle set fade out before reaching the rail to free up the tail with so many channels.
oops, my boys board which i still havent hotcoated, I so easily get board of projects and move on, even if I havent finished, i keep telling myself I will finish it one day, Monday is meant to be good weather so that might just be the day
So far, I have cut in the middle of the 8 channel job, the fading in and out was done bloody well and im more than happy with that I was given awesome advice on that is to just pretend in my own head space that its a concave and to fade it in and out that way, that was a awesome piece of advice. Ive been looking at it late at night when I should be asleep and ive notice that the left channel ridge is to verticle, I must have gone to close to my measurements without relising, oh crap, dont matter, only my 4th attempt and ive still got 3 channels either side to complete, then I can flip the blank and cut in channels at either end as well, so should get plenty of pratice on those days off that I have when I feel the weather is no good for hotcoating. Do you guys ever get so fixated on something that when you sleep its all you can think off, all you want to do and you really have to concentrate not to be so selfish so that you dont spend all your time learning new things instead of being a dad to your kids.
Im sure im not the only tragic out there, man I love learning about shaping and hacking away at the foam. My boys board that you see in the pitures started off as a 6'6, then cut down to 6/4 for another shape, then cut down to around 6 and the the 4th shape out of the blank was the 5''4 egg. You gotta get mileage out of the blanks you can find. I even found a snapped yorky board on the beach a few weeks ago, Im gonna cut channels into the nose one day.
More pics to come when I finish the first 4 channels out of the 8
I want to learn how to glass fins on with the channels as well, this will be a bloody mission for me. Ive got a old fin from a single, think I will just laminate a small bit of foam and continually glass that fin on, time and time agian, glass it on, cut if off, glass it on, cut it off, you know the drill, once I get decent enough on it hopefully I will be able to always have to knack of glass on fins, I dont need fcs, would always prefer glass ons I reckon, specially with channels
The fins should be (IMHO) Aligned to the channels or vice-versa. Actually the channels should be aligned to the fins would be more correct. It doesn't make any sense otherwise. Also; It you are doing a board with "bumps" or "wings" the channels should be aligned with the wings. Eight channels is friggin' insanity and way over-kill. I friggin hate'em. But still do one once in awhille, not as a custom order but strictly as a lark. They always sell right away. People are fascinated by them. Do I think they work? That depends on what you want from the board. They have characteristics that are all their own.
"....They have characteristics that are all their own"
I'm all ears , McDing ...please tell me more !!
I've always wanted to ride a six channel , but plenty have told me "they work best in smooth faced waves' ...anything else ?
.... what are your impressions / experiences from the channels you have ridden , please ? a guy here , Colin Earle , my surf supplies guy , has made them [4 and 6 channels] for ages ! his look lovely , too !
Mcdnig, Im really looking forward to hearing your comments later. Im mainly shaping 8 because the more channels I shape the more pratice I get. Im thinking of making a 8 channel board and a 6 channel board one day for keeps. I have now shaped 39 channels and feel im starting to make progress slowly. All of them have been straight and not toed in, when I flip the board im going to carve down tail shape, do some mock rails and toe in 6 channels to see how I go on the next one if that makes sence, but yes, Im really looking forward to hearing your further comments.
thanks surfdenbeer, its only very poor blanks, old snapped mals, stripped boards and then cut channels into them, flipped over the blank and cut channels into the other side as well, finding any spare bits of foam I can get my hands on and cutting channels into it. Ive got another two spots left I can use for channels then I will have to save money to buy a proper blank from midget and do one proper. Im just praticing as much as I can so hopefully I can do a good job on a proper board and enjoying the journey. My whole aim in learning to shape was to end up with my own channel board and shape for my son. Its coming to fruition and Im keeping that light in front of me.
I will post a pic of a the blank im cutting 8 channels into under the blue light as well mate. lol, board porn, I love it mate.
My theory on Channel bottoms is that they are extremely lively. In choppy or wind blown conditons they become too lively. The channels create a certain amount of lift. The lift becomes harder to control or compensate for in choppy conditions. In glassy conditions they are fast and loose. The idea is that the water is channeled off the the tail in a specific direction. Running the outside channels farther up than the middle and inside channels provides the speed, thrust and "squirt" of a channel bottom. In chop it is more difficult to channel the water thru the channels in an even flow. Channels were very popular in the early '80's. Many of us in California and Hawaii at the time thought they originated on the US West Coast. The truth is they were popularized in OZ long before they made it to our West Coast. Jim Pollard and Colin Smith were early proponents. The Twin Fin era was subsiding and shapers on the West Coast were looking for something they could do to a Single Fin to liven it up and improve it. Simon Anderson came along and the Channel Bottom faded. I know most guys that do them these days use a Thruster set-up but I would think that a Quad set-up would be killer. Haven't tried to do one yet, but have been giving it alot of thought. It all comes down to proper positioning of the channels in relationship to the fins, wings, length of channels, etc. I think a few years back I started a thread called "The Best Channels I've Ever Seen" or something along those lines. I can't remember exactly. It was a thread about Cort Gion. Santa Cruz, Hawaiian North Shore shaper from that era who did who knows how many channel bottoms during the '80's. I ran into him in Oregon a few years back and he pulled one out of the back of the car to show me. I was blown away. PS------ Channels have also been incorporated into Twin Fins . Some of the configurations used these days by guys who shape Twinzers are are really just a variation on bottoms that were being used on Twins in the early '80's. Have fun with it. Hope my comments are food for thought. Lowel another PS---- I only say "I hate 'em " because they are so difficult to glass. Can you imagine glassing and sanding a Quad or Twinzer Channel Bottom with glass-ons?
i like channels 