Thanks, Railway!! I’ll keep your advice in mind! I did notice when I found a bump I tended to want to shorten my strokes to try and take it down. Had to keep reminding myself to lengthen the strokes because I kept focusing too much on sanding only the bumps at times.
Haven’t started on the deck yet because the bottom rocker still needs some work. But the decks a little funny. At the ends the deck is flat to the rails but in the middle the deck is slightly rounded down to the rails so the deck is uneven from end to end.
I think my problem now is I keep staring at the board too much and I keep thinking I see bumps or something that needs to be fixed. But I’m not sure if I’m just seeing things or if there are actually bumps or dips.
I probably should just remeasure all the width points every few inches to recheck the outline for any inconsistencies or wobbles. Then probably run the rocker stick width ways to check the rocker to see where it’s uneven.
Don’t get too obsessive. I was told to trust my eyes and hands. My first board was really rough (lumps and hollows) but surfed ok! I have a board I surf currently that is my favourite (don’t know who shaped it) that is totally different side to side on the bottom and has a couple of straight spots on the rail outline but I still love it! I’m not a fancy high performance surfer, I love just cruisy along the face and carving a few turns here and there so probably not a great reference for how much these things affect performance but I think it shows that things don’t have to be PERFECT to work!
Thanks, I needed to hear that!
I have to keep reminding myself that this is my first board and just the start of learning. But I’ve loved every step so far!
Haha, realistically that’s all I probably do on short boards, cruise along down the line maybe a turn or two. kind of an average Joe kind of surfer, haha.
Finished the bottom today! Not perfect but don’t want to thin out the board too much and since I still need to clean up the deck of all the old yellowed foam I figured I’d stop.
At the thickest point it’s about 2 5/8 give or take a smidge. Depending on how much I need to take off from the top to get to the clean foam I’m hoping I’ll end up around 2 1/2 or 2 3/8” at this point. I’m hoping for the latter since I’d prefer a bit more thickness.
But I’m not sure if that’s overly optimistic or not.
Got some more typhoons swinging by island so not sure when I’ll get some more clear weather to continue but next step is working on the deck and then rails.
Matthew, youve got a great outline going on. Looks very reminiscent of early Wayne Lynch “Double Ender” models that were very popular in the transition period from longboards to early shortboards… (they would be midlengths now).
If your surf is longer, tapered, but sloping facey waves, you might look at the Hull-type rail profiles. They taper more than a typical board, and the 60/40 profile you describe might suit a “Hully” rail line.
Warning: Hulls are notorious for being a little finicky riding. Check out Ritchie West’s rail line from the Wilderness days… dis place men tia: Richie West: The Santa Barbara Era
Thanks, daddontsurf! When I was designing the outline I was looking at a lot of Wayne Lynch boards for inspiration since the twin fin side was going to be wide point back.
Never really seen that type of board in person so not sure what to expect with the ride. The wide point mostly coincides with the thickest part so when I ride the twin fin side I’m not sure if paddling will be a bit more finnicky and sensitive to my paddle position when I use that side since the thickest part won’t necessarily be at my chest like all the boards I’ve ever ridden.
I tried getting as much symmetry in the rocker and thickness as I could but wasn’t as successful as I planned.
A hull type rail, I haven’t heard of that but I’ll take peak through some of the threads see what I can find on it.
The waves here are definitely pretty slopey and slow breaking but usually decently long rides. Not really a true point break but closer to a point break than to a beach break.
I’ve recently been thinking about keeping a flat deck mostly out to the rails to keep the extra volume that goes into a down rail with a tucked under edge. But the original board the deck tapers down to the rails already so I don’t think I’ll be able to get a flat deck without taking too much thickness off the center.
Once I foil the deck I should have a clearer picture of what I can do with the rails.
But I recently talked to a local shaper and he got me pretty nervous thinking about glassing.
Since I won’t be able to get any of the name brand surf epoxies and I’m unsure of the quality of the fiberglass I’ll be able to get.
Even the squeegees he was suggesting I should get the Fiberglass Hawaii squeegees because he tried some cheap plastic ones (the kind I bought) and said it was hard to use for glassing. Said the flex in the local ones weren’t quite right for glassing.
I’m just hoping it turns out ok and I don’t ruin the board!
Hey Matthew
I just looked at your board “with fresh eyes”.
There may be a way for you get more rocker by swapping the nose and the tail. You did say that you were concerned about how flat the rocker was… and that the tail was thicker. If you swapped the nose and the tail, you may be able to add some rocker to the front. Your rocker stick will confirm this.
I believe that the deepest part of the bottom foil, the wide point, and the thickness should all coincide on a neutral handling surfboard.
Daddontsurf, I’m actually making into a two tailed board or real double ender with fin boxes at both ends. So I can surf it either way.
So it’ll be wide point back for the twin fin side and then at the other end with wide point forward it will be two single fin boxes for a “twingle”
So depending on the waves I can turn it around to get a different ride.
Got started on the deck yesterday! Sanded off most of the old yellowed foam. I still have a few spots I think one more session will fix. The one main spot left was in a pressure dent that was quite deep. I’ve been trying to sand it even but not quite there yet. There’s also a few spots along the rail in the middle of the board where the original board tapered down from the stringer to the rails (I guess it was slightly crowned, not sure if that’s correct term or not).
But I’m thinking maybe I can just wait to take off the rest of the yellowed foam and deal with that pressure dent near the rails when I start shaping the rails and rail bands. Good idea or not?
The other problem I’ve been working around is that a slight piece of the stringer at the tip came out (I think it happened when I was cutting out the outline and that piece splintered off). I can slide it back in to fit ok but I need to get some glue to glue it back in. I keep having to be extra careful when I’m sanding the tips or taking down the stringer as it keeps wanting to slide out.
Should I just buy a wood glue or super glue?
as usual, THE GREATEST SURFBOARD IN THE HISTORY OF THE KNOWN UNIVERSE. good work laddie,cant wait for it to dip
you will make it work almost as good as a stoked 13 year old test pilot from a tile lined indoor municipal pool in a landlocked
urban environ who can help but have a heart warming blood rush
keep the faith. the real gift is knowing when to stop shaping before it gets too thin,soft inner foam is a harsh critic dont ride it before the glass job has cured , dents are imminent , knee area impact are disheartening… go kid go…
aloha from waipouli
…ambrose…
2:37 am
That’s a very vivid metaphor, not sure if I follow though.
Thanks for the advice!
That soft inner foam was on my mind while working on the deck. I was kind of thinking maybe of doing a heavier glassing schedule to help with the longevity of the board and maybe prevent some dents. But I suppose when doing a reshape it’s bound to happen.
Just started using a super glue type of quick bonding glue on the balsa board I am making. The bond is not as good as wood glue, but it dries really fast. I had to re-glue a couple of braces, so I used wood glue the second time around. All the main pieces are glued with wood glue, then clamped for at least half a day or more.
Stoneburner, I’ll keep that in mind for the next board! I think I need to keep the glassing as simple as I can without adding anything extra in to make sure I can actually get a surfable board.
But the local shaper has started giving me his stringerless eps off cuts that I’m going to try gluing up blanks so I’m thinking at some point with the stringerless eps I’ll try something like cork or flax/ hemp weave or woven bamboo.
So been stuck inside all week waiting out this typhoon. Needless to say spent a lot of time ogling and eyeballing the board. Keep coming back to it to get a fresh eye.
But finally measured out the uneven spots I kept looking at and took a straight edge to the bottom to figure out what was going on there. Then did a lot of reading.
So I think now what I thought was vee at both ends of the board is actually more of a hull or belly. In between laughing at myself and doing some more checks.
At one end I have a slight rounded dome (hull, belly) that gets less pronounced/ more flat to about 15” back that goes to a flat bottom in the middle then at a bit more than 2’ from the other end starts another belly that gets more pronounced closer to the tip like at the other end of the board.
Now after spending some more time laughing at myself and figuring out how I got here. I’m trying to decide what to do next.
I have the thickness in the middle where I could try and flatten it out if I wanted.
Or I could shorten the 2’ long hull end to about 15’ so that both sides are more symmetrical since this will be a reversible board with fin boxes at each end.
Or I could flatten out just one side so when I ride it one way I’ll have entry hull to flat tail and when I turn the board around I’ll have a flat entry to a hull at the tail. But would just need to decide which fin setup would go better with entry hull and which with the hull in the tail (twingle fin vs twin/keel)
Or I could just not worry about it and keep it as is and try my hand at surfing a weird hull type board.
Anybody have any advice or thoughts on my stupid predicament?
I have a hull that I love. It has belly through the whole board until the tail which is flat. I’ve put a harder edge through the tail than it came with which has improved it a little. If it were me I’d go down that road and maybe think about setting it up for a couple of fin options at the tail rather than a double ender? You may end up making too many compromises to both ends and not be happy riding either way?! Just my 2 cents, I’ve never tried anything like this. Keep us posted with progress, it’s a great project!
Thanks, Railway!
I thought about that a lot when I first looked into doing a double ender, needing to make a lot of compromises to get the board even somewhat “functional” as a design. And then I realized I would be making even more compromises because it’s a reshape and I’m working over the original design. And now I’m realizing I’m making some compromises based on my poor skill and mistakes I make.
And in the beginning my thought was I might end up with a board I only like surfing from one tail but now I’m thinking I could end up with a board I don’t like surfing either way, hahaha.
But it’s my first board and a reshape so that could have be the case regardless of whether it’s two tailed or not. (That I don’t like how it surfs)
But I figured from the beginning it’s my first board and was probably going to come out pretty rough and ugly regardless and since the foam was free I might as well try something weird and different.
But overall it’s been an awesome learning experience so far! Doing so much reading up on designs and theories, making many mistakes and realizing I should have done this or that, and just getting some experience working with foam and the tools I have available. And it’s definitely quite humbling but also helps me appreciate what an art this is and I’m quite awed by the masters now I know a little bit what goes into shaping.
I think the biggest take aways so far, especially for a reshape, is I should have been a lot more focused on measuring everything once I had stripped the fiberglass (one of my rails got more foam stripped off from removing the fiberglass so it’s thinner than the other rail), especially checking the bottom contours. That way I could see what I needed to do or focus on to even out the blank and get more of a neutral starting point.
I think this was the case with the original bottom contours, I didn’t realize there was a lot more going on and I thought when I used the 24” sanding block to work in the rocker that the middle section would get sanded down a bit more than the edges until it was flat/ even with the rails. I realize now that it didn’t quite do what I thought and now I ended up with some kind of belly or roll at the ends somehow. Thankfully it’s not such a pronounced roll/belly/ hull, I didn’t even notice it until I checked it with the straight edge. Definitely not as noticeable as the pictures of boards with belly I’ve seen where you can see the belly or hull in the pictures.
Belly is not a deal breaker, but can be cleaned up to a V with a sanding block. I had a board with belly in the nose & I loved it. Balsa puts belly in the tail of his gliders instead of V.
Usually we’re too hard on our own projects, the doubt is always strongest in the home stretch. Can’t tell u how many times I thought I ruined a shape, only to end up loving it. Surfboard shape nuances are not as critical to having a fun board as we think. I remember the first time I saw an alaia, I said that could never work in a million years
