Hi all, this is just by way of a thank you to everyone out there who has contributed to this forum. I have just completed my first board and without this forum it may not have ever made it to the water.
I thought i would share a few of my experiences for anyone else out there starting to build. I wanted a fast loose longboard. No pretence at noseriding, a bit more rocker than usual in the front of the nose to avoid catching on steep takeoffs, with medium tail rocker and a loose quad fin setup.
Firstly KEEP GOING. I made mistakes at every stage from gouging the foam to final sanding but the end result looks fine on the water and surfs like a dream (biased opinion i know, but isn't that the whole point?)
My worst mistake was trying the wrong glass. I bought some cheap 6oz glass on ebay for a really good price then didn't look at it until the morning i was ready to lam. It was way too stiff. on top of that the resin i had was too thick. anyway after attempting my first pour it was obvious it was never going to wet out properly so i had to take it all off.
Second attempt with new cloth and better resin all was going well until i decided to put a heater under the board help it kick. it is cold in wales in november. Even worse was i then turned it off after half an hour so the board expanded then shrunk and ended up with more ripples than you would believe. After a good sanding and another safety layer of glass on the deck it looks almost passable from 6ft away.
Finally i stupidly sanded the gloss coat with 120 grit so it needed way too much final sanding. Still loads of scratches in but you don't notice unless you look close.
Took it out this morning for a first surf in head high clean right pointbrake and it was a dream. I was nervous about the quad fin positions but the seem to work. Grip really well on the first drop and into a hard bottom turn then drive down the line.there should be some pics and any criticisms are welcome.
Dimensions 9.0' 16" nose, 14" tail 2.3/4" thick
[img_assist|nid=1063174|title=board 1|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=356|height=640]
[img_assist|nid=1063175|title=board 1 bottom|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=480]
