Don't Be So Anal

[peteharwood]

I’m just putting this up for discussion…kind of in keeping with the “Keep it Simple” thread…

A lot of us learned to shape with crap tools scrounged from the old man (none of which were appropriate and/or electric), shit foam from stripped old boards, funky pink resin from the boatyard and a pair of sawhorses - if we were lucky - and we worked outside in the sun…

And, I bet, we had a shit-load more fun doing that - than sitting in front of a computer and video screen being spoon fed the hows and whys…

Fortunately, that vibe seems to be hanging around/coming back, very glad to see it - but - for the anal crew…it pretty much went like this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_JMosm-O-KY#!

[abakty]

My first blank… I got for free from Ken Reimer. I went home and thought I knew what I was doing. Not one proper tool, and all by hand. Like someone said before, probably my favourite board! No worries, just pure enjoyment. Sometime I hate it, now that I want to venture into longboards I want them perfect and it’s a killer (almost stressfull). 

[beerfan]

Peter, my 2nd board I totally winged it, rushed through, no power tools, left it 3" thick. Bloody hell that was the best board I’ve ever made, it’s also the board I thought the least about while shaping. Surfed it 90% of the time for about 3 years. I’d still be surfing it now if I didn’t try to strip it down an make it smaller ( epic fail! ). But it made me realise I really like twin keel fish ( despite their quirks ), and I now own a josh Dowling keel fish. 

 

Im tempted to do a super simple tri fin egg shape, flat bottom, 4x44 glass job, standard thruster placement. No bells n whistles, no gimmicks, no hyped up bs marketing name,just a bloody surfboard that suits the majority of waves I surf. 

[stingray]

I agree.....groovy is good...I'm so backyard I don't have a frontyard

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[Wood_Ogre]

Don’t google anal with wife or kids around !!! because it is all about your back yard !!!

[McDing]

Yeah.  So that's it??  Just some Calif. Poppies and that piece a $#!t cat thing that you bought at Target??  Get reals bro.  That's all sooo "Itchy-koo-Park.  Ya know??

[oneula]

we’ve never had a shaping or glassing shed

we’d shape in a $79 popup next to the garbage cans that’s not even big enough for an 8’

we have no lights or blue painted walls

we have no sturdy racks made of metal or wood 

and in the beginning we shaped only with a belt sander or a 2x4 with 40 grit paper stapled to it

some times we just used a hotwire or hot knive to cut out our shapes with zero bubble dust

one brother shapes and sands while the other(usually  me) holds down the blank with one hand and a vacuum hose in the other to vacuum as much or the petro chemical pollution with the shopvac so it won’t mess up the neighborhood street just infront of the garbage cans

we make our own blanks from bent home depot foam and springers and outside skins from woven bamboo wall covering from the same store. We “vacuum bag” these with saran wrap packing tape and tons of painters tape and PU glue from the same store.

If we had it our way we would never buy anything from a “surfboard supply” store just to prove we could build a board with out them just like we did as highschoolers in the 60’s and 70’s when all we had was the local (not big box) hardware store (city mill) to shop at.

Most of the time(not FGH) employees in such places can act snotty nose if you aren’t a “connected” pro with a big account

we make our own crap and usually give it away to friends and neighborhood kids

but we pay good money to buy our own boards from old time local shapers who deserve the work and make a living doing so

we do this be cause we like it and it brings us joy in doing so eventhough it is so addicting

and not because we wanna become the next greatest thing since swiss cheese in the local “industry”

I think as difficult as it is to do a good job with all these odds stacked against us

it some how keeps it core 

and keeps it in all in perspective

that there’s more to it all 

that what’s its been made out to be by the media

to surf was always a gift to us

something you did

when there wasn’t something more important to do to get by

like get your dinner from the sea

or keep your house and family in order

I don’t know what happenned 

but something got lost in the translation over time

I doubt allot here will understand why

[BgSurfer]

Sears late 60s Craftsman orbital sander (with a lifetime guarantee, burned up two in a few months), hand and sandpaper, handsaw, scissors, single edged razor, box knife, wood chisel, hand plane, window squeegee, paint brush, yardstick, scotch-taped poster cardboard templates, and 2 trash cans turned upside down in the parents garage.  Still see the multi-colored resin drips and spills stuck to the cement floor when I visit mom 43 years later.  Rescued the last old Sears orbital on one of my latest visits.

Times of surfing will get you through times of no money better than times of money will get you through times of no surfing.

[fins]

" ...corridors ??!!

 

  you were LUCKY ! ['looky']

 

.... We used to live in a SHOEBOX !! "

 

[ that's from "the four yorkshireman"  , monty python , 1970s .... just to explain it for the humourless geek , anal crew]

 

 

.... yes, Pete , I agree totally ....

 

   it's only surfboards , after all ! ....

 

 lets take ourselves , and it all , a lot less seriously , eh ?

 

 

 [a sense of humour is the best thing we can ever shape ourselves , I find ... ] 

 

:)

 

  cheers mate !

 

  ben

[nj_surfer]

Backyarding is alive and well. Kind of like a secret society…

Kind of like the guy sitting in the back… just outside the perimeter of the spotlight… keeping the beat… with that heavy right foot.

A local board builder/surfer/artist/cabinet painter around the corner makes the trippiest art from garbage… some of it comes from stuff he finds on the beach… some of it comes from old surf phots… some of it comes from shards of hardened resin that dripped off the rails of his last marble swirl… All of it repurposed and given new life… like the old stripped blank you made your first board from.

[rooster]

Huh, my poppies suck so far this year.  Havn’t got much rain since Jan.  I’ve become a snobbish elitist.  If you don’t build your own and surf it you’re not “core.”  Who really gives a shit, anyway.  It’s just surfn. Probably shouldn’t post after drinkn, either. Mike

[stingray]

roses are nice too.......

 

[rooster]

Roses are very nice.  Mine are just starting to bloom.  Had to start watering them though. My other Calif. natives, sages and ceonothus, etc. are blooming.  Love this time of year in the garden, Ray.  Mike