let’s see… I let Resinhead help pick out a color scheme for a board once…
once I didn’t check the depth setting and routered a Bahne fin box hole thru the deck of the board… was annoyed but patched it up (including new foam plug and stringer splinted in)… then went back and did the exact same route all the way through the deck again…aarggh…
another time while putting in some fin boxes in a board, I had a paper dixie cup half full of catalyzed resin that I absentmindedly put down on another fully shaped blank…where it melted a perfectly round, one inch deep hole in the blank…
Late '60’s in high school the art teacher said to do something creative - she was tired of “teaching”.
Said I’d build a surfboard in class - never done one or seen it done. One class worth of shaping with a surform and a belt sander on a table in the art room, she said to finish shaping at home cause it was so messy. Who knew…
Did that and brought it back to glass - in the art room. Again, never done it before. Started at it - then the fire alarm went off for the whole school - total evacuation - fire department came screaming through the place. Seems the fumes got sucked into the hvac system and cycled through the whole of the junior/senior h.s. Who knew…
Second board - I stripped a Noll “Da Cat” and shaped another POS. Took it to Puerto Rico in early '69 - rode like crap - think I left it there. Who knew…
Couple of years later - discovered shit like dust masks, respirators, acetone, disposable gloves (that was a revelation after using gasoline for cleaning resin off bare hands) and not to glass next to the big oil fired boiler in the parents basement in winter. Who knew…
But, it was a gas and taught me how to think on my feet. A trait sorely lacking in this age of instant gratification on the ‘net that’s created more whiners than thinkers. Who woulda’ thunk…
Trying to get epoxy to cure in my cold shed in winter I set up a heater beside the board after glosscoat. Moved the heater closer to the board thinking that would be better... came back a couple of hours later and the epoxy had cured but about a 8" x 3" section of EPS along the rail underneath the glass had melted. So the board had a slightly deformed hollow section on the rail. I didn't bother sanding it I just surfed it a few times so see if it was any good before I fixed it. Didn't notice any difference in how it rode after I fixed it...
First one that comes to mind is routing fin box holes in the wrong place… Foam patchs and route again.
Glassed a single fin back on a board in art class in high school - Good thing the windows openned… I don’t remember big problems… Probably did it when there were no students in that room.
Did some customizing, glass side bites, sanding and stuff in on of my collage sculpture classes. Had a few students complaining about the dust…
Had a hot box once - the heater I had built the duct system around died, so I put a new one at one end, and holes at both ends… Curing the deck lam w/XPS, and had the foam on rails in the last foot and half bubble… That bummed me out… Sanded out ok, and filled w/a little putty… Turned out fine.
OK I have shaped, layed up and sanded about 30 boards in my garage and there is fiberglass dust EVERYWHERE! I can’t walk in the garage without coming out looking like I had a fight with frosty the snowman. I swear I’m going to empty the whole damn thing and vacuum all the dust.
Dummest thing I’ve done recently was mix the last of a little bit (looked clear) of RR epoxy thinking it was hardner into more Blue resin and wondering why it did not kick off. The worst part about it was I used it to laminate four custom fin boxes I had made. It took me two days to clean up that mistake.
I forgot about the Noll the day I stripped it - it also rode like (can’t say because people were sold on a myth…and they’re still paying too much for it - the myth) no knock on Greg Noll, I am, and will always be, in awe of his talents but…
To this day, I regret that I traded a Morey Pope “Blue Machine” for the Noll…
Still kicking myself about that…
I still think Dora stole some of his style from Bob Cooper.
Now here’s a thread - “Dumbest move: The board I should have never gotten rid of…”
Those were great boards.(Blue Machine) Knew a guy on Kauai that was from Texas. He picked one up on a trip home that was at least a nine on a scale of 1-------10. Under a $100. He knew what he had and I was so damned jealous. Lowel
Lavarat’s and Greenlight’s resonate with me. Hotcoating(fill coat) with epoxy on a nice warm afternoon not knowing an Arctic freeze was literally hours away. Spent hours scraping the goo off with an old butcher knife when it didn’t harden. I’ve melted thru eps, too, doing fin boxes.
Honestly though, dumbest thing was not learning to do this when I was 15 -16 years old and waiting until I was 44 and well on my way to being too over the hill to ride my POS’s. Mike
oh yeah , did I mention a mate stripped a pretty nice-riding nice ? Hansen mal ? [longboard]
before....
and we reshaped it into one of what people here have already mentioned ... [p.o.s. boards are popular / commonplace among some of us novice swaylocks "shapers" , eh....well, they were common amongst my old collection of boards , anyway ..... ]
after ...[somewhere around the place , he would probably have a shot of the [snapped] too-thin 'spring-board' that resulted ...
This woulda been around , oh ? 1989 , or so . We had NO IDEA what we were doing , and I couldn't convince him not to strip it . This , coming from me [!!] , the stripper and reshaper of ? 15 out of the 17 boards only , that I have ever [re]shaped . ]
Installing fusion plugs canted toward the stringer on the rear plugs of a quad. Needless to say it wasn’t a smashing success. Starting a lam with uv resin in the dark of early morning and getting caught flipping the laps in the dawning sun. My ongoing and current dumbest move although I’ve gotten away with it for 7 boards. Glassing in the garage of my apartment and having the new uncool neighbors complain about the odor. I’m currently trying to figure out a way to glass without getting kicked out of my apartment. Forgetting to catalyze resin on a leash plug. Stupid stupid stupid! Hahaha.
