In my other thread “Am I Evil: An Ode to Sanding” I asked if I was evil for my unrelenting love of sanding glassed boards. Now, while I know I’m not an evil person (maybe a little sick and twisted) for loving sanding boards the most of the whole board building process, the truth is I love the whole process immensely and riding my own creations even more.
In light of my “dark” thread, I thought I would express a little gratitude to the brotherhood which is the Swaylocks community and tell a little tale of how I repaid some of the knowledge that has been given so freely and kindly on this site. If I tried to thank all the individuals on this site that have inspired me along the way, I would surely leave someone out, so I will simply thank Mike for the creation of this site and give a BIG THANK YOU to the whole Sways brotherhood. I have learned so many incredible techniques on how to improve my board building skills through this website and the contributions of its many selfless individuals that I felt obligated to give back somehow. Now while my contributions to this site are limited I have been able to give back by taking what I have learned trough and trial and error and this site and help teach friend of mine how to build a board. I hope you enjoy the short story, as without all of you there would be no tale to tell. Again, thank you everyone.
Here’s the dig, a good buddy of mine had found out that I had started to build boards, (shape it, sand it, glass it) the whole nine yards. He had some interest in at least shaping a board before, but had really never taken the initiative to make it happen. One day he asked how my building was coming along and I told him that it had came to a momentary halt as I had moved and no longer had anywhere to shape, glass, or sand. He suggested that we take and old abandoned shed on his property and convert it into a shaping bay and give it t a go. We went to sus the shed (a little small and beat) but I was game. A little refurbishing and we were in business.
Act One: Fabin’ the Shaping Bay
The shed we had to work with was small, dirty, and beat, but it’s all we had and we were determined to make it work. I told him I would take care of setting up our shaping bay, all he had to do was drive us to get our materials, go in half on everything, and make trash runs. So I demo’ed the interior, installed our lighting and shelves, and painted our shape shack. We brought over my shaping tools and racks and we were in business.
Act Two: Getting Dusty
I had some blanks laying around in storage, so I showed him what I had and let him take his pick. I had some Clark, Walker, Just Foam, and American EPS blanks and explained the pros and cons of each type and size and he opted for the EPS. A good choice as I explained that the rocker was “hotwired” in and it would make things a little easier on him. Now through all the blood, sweat, and tears he managed to put out nice shape. A little tough love, A LOT of encouragement, and jumping in every now and then to help clean things up went a long way in helping him turn out a nice shape. I offered to help him glass it, but he really liked the shape and didn’t want to botch it glassing it so he opted to have it outsourced at a glass shop.
Act Three: Ahhh, Time for the Chemicals
Now while he sent his off to the glass shop, he got a chance to watch me glass my own. “Wow, maybe I could have you help me with my next board”. “Sure thing, since you used polyu foam this time, pick your poison epoxy or polye”. I was also working with both polyu and EPS foam at the time so we opted for epoxy. Up to this point he had only seen me work with polye resin so I was careful to tell him not to work the epoxy the same way as poly resin. A little later he had a good looking board coming along. Most importantly, he has reported back on the ride and the stoke is alive.
All in all, I must say it was one of the most rewarding experiences helping a good friend of mine create his first few boards. Truth be told, he was very appreciative, and very gracious during the whole process and thanked me several times. I always told him no problem that I was just glad to be able to pay it forward.