Im working on shaping my first board and ive been messing around with AKU Shaper a lot but it seems like the more I mess with it the less I like it, so maybe I just need some outside perspective.
10’4 x 20 x 24 x 16 x 3 1/2
What do you guys think? What if anything should I change? Im shooting for a board I can ride on those smaller days.
Thanks for any feedback in advance
1 How much do you weigh?
2 How long have you been surfing?
Ive had a few longboards shaped by Scott Anderson like the Farberow and Farberow 2 models but I feel like I just need a bit more volume/planing area in the nose. The last Farberow 2 I had was 10’2 x 19 1/4 x 23 1/2 x 3 1/2 and that worked pretty good but like I said I feel like I could use a bit more volume up front. I rode a friends Tyler Sleek Zeke that was 10’6 x 20 x 24 x 3 1/2 and I just loved it so I was trying to achieve something similar.
longlostlatz,
Do it! Shape it, glass it and sand it. You will not believe the smile on your face when you catch your first wave with it.
Maybe it’s me but it looks like there’s a ~3 foot long straight spot in the rail line starting at the wide point and ending with a bit of a leading into the nose. If you want the 20" nose then perhaps another 1/2" or so at the wide spot would provide you with a little more curve leading into it.
Another way to do both would be to square off or squash the tip, like Tyler’s Riddler. C’mon, hardly anyone uses the curve on the last 4" of the nose on a shortboard, let alone a longboard.
"I feel like I just need a bit more volume/planing area in the nose."
I've seen a couple of nice longboards that had the beak nose/down rail up front. That sort of thing can increase planing efficiency.
Mike Hynson has a design like that as does the Peck Penetrator.
This board is almost a carbon copy of my small wave board. I think the template looks fine except I would square off the tail and make it 17" instead if 16". Since you want more planing area (want it to noseride better?), you could shape it reverse on the blank which will reduce the nose rocker and give you some good tail kick for easier turning and it will also help keep the nose up. I went pretty pinched 50/50 rails all the way through. If I had it to shape over I would definately put in a pretty large concave in the nose. The best advice you have gottenis to shape it rode it and fall in love with it. If you dont like it sell it for cost and shape another with what you have learned.
Just my .02
Terry
Yeah I was going for more parallel rails like ive seen on a few other longboards like the Zeke. Ive thought a bit about just blunting the nose off but wasnt sure how much more difficult it would be for a first board.
As far as the tail I chose a round tail so the board would be easier to turn off the tail simply because this is gonna be quite a bit of board. All the longboards ive had in the past were square tails so I kinda wanted to try something new. The Cooperfish Mello Yello has a similar big round tail on a similar styled board so thats kind of what I was going for.
Mello Yello for reference.
your outline is parabolic. meaning, it has a bow in the area defined by the blue node. like a peanut or one of those meyerhoffer abominations. given the scale here, that bow translates to probably 1/8". this will be terribly obvious once you cut it.
notice the red node is inbound of your outline curve. that means the outline has a wiggle in it. The outline curve should be either right on the red node or just slightly inbound of it. i’d say take the yellow node at the nose and move it up (towards the stringer) by three or four clicks and you’re good!
kirk
Ok so I adjusted the outline a little bit, this is version 2.
it’s better, but i can still see the outline curve extending beyond the horizontal line connecting the yellow, blue and red nodes. that line defines the tangency, or widest point in your outline. so, you still have a wiggle. push that yellow node at the nose up towards the stringer some more until the outline curve does not extend beyond the tangent line. zoom way up on this if it helps you.
kirk
Open the board file in shape3d or boardcad and turn on the curvature graph. This will indicate the oddities in your outline.
If you’re dead set on a 20" nose I’d add a control point at 12" from nose and go from there. This give you a little more control at the expense of possibly adding a break in the outline at that point, but again you can control that by looking at curvature.
When I slide the yellow block up towards the stringer and get the tangent line all worked out the nose is 18 3/4. I was under the impression that the program smoothes out the transitions in the width, its not like 24 inch wide board with a 20 inch nose is that unusual. If the center of the board is 24 inches wide at the widest point and the nose is 20 inches wide shouldnt the curve be pretty consistent from the middle all the way to the nose? When I print this shape out on paper I dont see any wiggle in the outline.
If you click on the add point button below the guide points tab it will give you an extra red blue and yellow thing to put at your disposal. i would suggest putting one about 1-2 feet down from the nose, and play around a little more.
Did you print it with a grid in the background? I’m guessing from the pic that the wiggles is 2-4mm over a length of 1 meter. Not so easy to see on a plain white background. You might even wash it out when fairing the template.
On the other hand, to get it right… zoom in, pull up the grid in the background, watch the outline numbers as you move along. I’d strongly advice to use a program with a curvature graph (I don’t care which, I wish aku would have it too). If you don’t want to add an extra control point, move the red control point way forward and pull the yellow at the nose in, this can give you more or less the same curve with a 20" nose without the problems. The current yellow control point is lower than the red, which means that the curve may overshoot the red control point.
If you post the file, we can show the problem.