Hey, I’d appreciate it if you could check out the attached pictures of my first board (just the shaped blank at this point) and give me feedback on the outline, foil, whatever. My thoughts at this point are: 1) too much beak/nose thickness 2) rails are too “knifed” - not boxy enough (I made my first rail band too wide) and 3) something about the curve from the wide point to the nose doesn’t quite look right to me. Like I should take an extra inch off the nose or something. I’m not sure. I shaped it from a 6’8"P and cut it from all the way back in the blank so the rocker is very flat (about 2.5" in the nose and 1.5" in the tail). Thanks in advance for your thoughts/advice.
glass it. ride it. learn from reality rather than theory. buuuut. if the rails are too sharp, the glass won’t fold around them correctly. might want to make the bottom rail edge a tad softer. otherwise…glass it ride it. make changes in the next board.
Jim, a hell of a first try! Very nice outline and the rails look fine from what I can see. I would make the nose a tad thinner by adding a little more nose rocker but thats personal preference. Glass that puppy and have a ball riding it!
I am starting my 1st on saturday, and i will be thrilled if it turns out looking that clean. what are the dimensions that you are shooting for? Mine will have a similar shape as yours, what have you learned?
Hey Miguel. Dimensions are 5’11", 17", 21.5" (4" ahead of center), 16.5", 2 7/8ths thick, swallows are 12" apart with a 7" BC. Rails are down all around, very sharp edge in last 18" and get progressively softer going forward.
Regarding design, my main lesson learned has been that there’s no set formula (at least not until you’ve probably made and surfed many, many boards and really know what you prefer personally), so make what you want and find out if you like it.
Regarding tools, I went ahead and used a power planer (a stock Makita) to skin the blank and to cut rail bands and it wasn’t as scary or difficult as I thought. I had no major f-ups in terms of gouges or the like. Other than the planer my primary tools have included a hand saw, a small block plane (Stanley), a std size sureform, a hand sureform (my main tool for getting from rough outline to close to finish outline), an 8" long sanding block, a 24" llong sanding block, and drywall sanding screen. I would like to have a spokeshave to shave the stringer without hitting the foam.
One little tip - when you cut your swallow BC, be as precise as possible on where the two sides intersect in the stringer. I was a little sloppy and mine intersect about 1/16th too far to the right and it’s bugging the crap out of me and it hasn’t been easy to remedy (I still don’t have it where I want, but I fear really screwing up the foam in that tiny area and making the problem worse, so I may just leave it alone at this point).
Take your time, have fun, don’t breathe the dust. Post pics.
I agree with jimbrake. I had a helluva time with that buttcrack on my fish yesterday. A loose sanding screen helps alot when taking down the foam next to the stringer. I found that if you sand down and shape as much of the tail as possible, it will make it easier to cut the stringer. Once the foam is taken down, you can use a dremel tool with a cutting wheel to remove most of the excess stringer. Next, I taped off the foam on either side of the stringer and used a rat tail file to SLOWLY and carefully remove the excess. There may be an easier way but it worked for me.
if you really wanna fiddle with it you can easily take the nose thickness down from the top and not change the res tof the board. thinner noses and lower rocker go good with each other, less sticking.