So I have this " magic board " and I wanted it duplicated. I took it to the person who has been shaping my boards for a long long time. This person shall remain nameless, but he is a pretty well known shaper, especially here in Newport/Costa Mesa area. Anyway, I took it to him, he wrote down the measurements. I insisted he keep the board with him while he shapes the other, I love the original board. He says no no I don’t have room in my bay for another board just sitting there. I asked him to make sure he got al the notes on the board, yeah you can get measurements, but the rails are a certain way, rocker, bottom contour, where fin boxes are placed…etc etc. Oh yeah I got it, alright I tell him. Well after two weeks, I go to the glass shop to drop off my spray job and the fricken board is nothing at all like the original, and it is set up for a quad when I wanted a thruster. I call him, and express my concerns, he assures me I will like the board and he changes the fins. Well you can see where this is going, I hated it. So I sold it an recouped most of my money.
The original board was made as a personal board from a differant shaper for himself. After he rode it, he gave it to a friend of mines father in law. He broke a fin out, got it fixed and gave it to my friend. My friend broke another fin out got it fixed and later gave it to me. I broke a fin out twice and snapped it in two. The took it to the Mentawais and snapped 3 inches off the nose, got all that fixed. It is still my favorite board.
I was telling some of my friends that are managers of a surf shop. One of their dads shapes out of his garage. So we all met the next morning surfed and I showed him the board. He said oh yeah, let me have a crack at it. He thinks that the guy who shapes my boards ( or maybe used to ) just plugged the numbers in a CAD machine and called it a day. He was thinking that it needs to be done by hand. I agree, I tried shaping and damn… not good results. Charges me less and I get my board in 5 days !!! I go pick it up and sh*t me, it is close. I have not surfed it yet, no waves and heavy rain coming with the waves. So it might be in a couple days.
So after hearing my story, did I make a good decision ( I guess depends on how the board rides ), and what does everybody think of " garage shapers " ? Any good or bad stories or experience ?