Anyone else start shaping on their own? Here’s how I got started FWIW:
One day I went surfing and my friend insisted I try his brand new G&S Twin finned Fish Surfboard. Anyhow, I jumped at the offer bcuz it was still single fin era late seventies, and I never tried a twin fin yet… So he sat on the beach and watched me surf his board. This started a chain reaction of events to come. The next few days later another friend bought a rad six five fish twin fin! I asked where he made the purchase. He says he ordered it custom. So I’m this 14 yr old -almost 15 teenager who was like - wow a custom board! I got Dad to drive down to west cliff surf shop to see about how to order me a custom twin fin board. So the guy I talked to made me fill out a order form, and gave me the phone # to my shaper… So I called to tell him what I forgot to write in on my form… Then I also
asked him if I could watch- he said ok. So I came in the next day to the shaping room to watch! I tell you what, it was one of the most interesting thing’s I’ve ever seen! Anyway, my shaper has a big skil 100 -as he called it, and then he started drawing up my dims on the blank.
At this point I was fixated on the shaping process… He reminded me of what I wanted, and recommend I don’t go too heavy on the vee bcuz he says it’ll slow it down some etc…So I settled on a moderate vee…he also recommended a longer med rake double foiled fins! I was like Holy sh_t this is going to be Insane !
The next day my other surf buddy I run into asked how it went - the custom. I said it was awsum! He asked me if I learned anything. I said, I tried not to bother my shaper, but I asked questions only when I was confused on the steps…
A week goes by, and I visited my friend and he says his brother was going to shape a old beater board he had. I was like - wow cool! Then a day goes by and he tells me his brother wondered if I could
Shape it since I saw a board built by the pros…I thought for about forty seconds, and said ok! Let’s do it! So I asked my friend if he had any tools. He saya he has a few, and saw horses. Five hrs later we had a crude but totally cool looking six foot rounded pintail! It had fuller down rails, thin nose, thin tail, two n half thick, med vee two feet up from tips and total stoke!
My friends bro stopped by unbeknownst to me, got it glassed and was surfing It. Sadly I never saw the board again. But report came back- my board worked great! He even claimed his brother told him he pulled a 360 on it.
Anyone else learn on their own? I’ve heard a good deal of established shapers started in a garage - like me.
I still remember us stripping blanks ! I shaped two boards in three days. Sadly we moved away from the coast as my dad’s job took us inland for awhile. Then we came back to rio del mar aptos, ca and I shaped a fivenine thruster as a friend had a beater blank he stripped down and paid me $140.00 to shape it. I only made eighty bucks bcuz I had a friend fiberglass it. Anyhow, it’s been a slow start bcuz I don’t have facilities. But I’m currently almost done building my stands, and cutting lumber still. But man I haven’t found a funner hobby then shaping board’s ! Glad you liked my story. I’m hoping you folk’s will tell me your story.:))
Folk’s it matters not how you started, it matters not wheather you learned from books, vids etc… what matters most is that you got started Shaping board. Hell, I bought surfboard book -which is misplaced in storage, but I hopful I’ll find it. I also like vids, and hope to make a vid myself someday. Remember, there’s no better or worse way to get started. What matters is: you are doing art to your work, you enjoy it, you learn in your own personal way, you learn from others, and your on a journey. That’s all that matters.- Jim
I got back into surfing after a long time away, and bought a brand new board on ebay. When I picked it up, I started asking about who made it, and the lady at the warehouse told me they were made in China by workers who didn’t actually surf. This kinda bummed me, because I still thought of surfboards as being made by surfers. So I made up my mind to build my own surfboard - out of wood. Entirely on my own (with help from the tree-to-sea forum for wood surfboard builders), I built a hollow wood copy of that board, and then several other hollow wood boards.
I won a blank at a Thrailkill roundtable raffle, and shaped my first foam board, which was a combination of foam and wood. Then I met McDing, and he had some old ecotech blanks, he told me up front they had “issues”, but great starters to learn on, so I got several from him, for next to nothing. He even gave me some shaping pointers along with the blanks. Years later, several of those boards are still in action, and still some of my favorite boards!
Most of what I know about making surfboards is from the internet!
Huck- the way you started sounds classic to! I’ve recently msg’d- Mcding he’s really knowledgeable, and gave me sum excellent pointers to I plan to apply on my blank im cutting into. thanks for sharing! Keep at it! Enjoy what you love.
I moved to Hawaii when I was 14. We lived on the Air base. One day I wandered over to the wood hobby shop and saw this older kid with long blond hair fixing surfboards. His name was Jim Phillips and I became his right hand man/flunky. He has pretty much taught me everything over the last 50 years. I still call him when I have a question. Just last week I called looking for some of that brownish yellow resin tint color.
Cleanlines - Jim must be a pretty good shaper cuz - rooster pointed out to me when I started draw n up my dims that he was using one of Jim’s methods of drawing up the design after first planing bottom to rough thickness, and skinning deck
first. Then I sanded, and or surform ed out to get flat… I thought wth, may as well try it!? I’m thinking sawing out my plan shape might take less effort? Good to hear your story. Good Shaping.
In the 50’s there was no used board market to go to. New boards were $75 and $85 dollars. I didn’t have that much. I could, however, pull together forty dollars, $20 for balsa and $20 for glass and resin. It was enough to build a ten foot balsa board. That’s how I started.
Next door nieghbor’s back yard was like a test lab. I first stood on a wave in ‘67 at Secos. I watched these guys try everything. Blowing foam (trying to), making stringers(and not only wooden ones), shaping and laminating. They did it all and became known in the industry. I was toatally mezmerized by the process and would watch all I could. By the time they were doing boards for profit, I couldn’t afford one. So My brother and I made a few of our own. Total dogs. Got away from surfing for awhile. Then moved to the North Shore many years later and lived next door to Mike Casey’s shape shack. I picked his brain and had a couple boards done by him. Mike clued me into design and the whys and wherefores. Been doing my own since then. Had to figure out what exactly worked for me and my big ol’ ass.
Bill - that is totally cool how you got started! Bill I heard back n the fifties and sixties - they were experimenting moving wide point fore or aft center to the normal center wide point designs…pretty k stuff. It must have been fun back then? I wouldn’t know cuz I started surfing in 78-79’.- Jim
32 years ago my dad took me along to visit his high school buddy, Dan Heritage who had a surfboard business. He gave us a tour of his board factory. I can still picture it all today, thats how big of an impression it made on me. I was hooked and I knew someday I wanted to build boards too. In the late 80s I scrounged together some money and got a blank. I shaped it and glassed it in my parent’s driveway. To this day you can still see the outline of that board on the concrete from the resin dripping off the rails. I built one or two boards a summer for the next few years. Took a decade off after getting married and starting a family. Got back into it about 6 years ago and have been doing more and more boards each year for myself my 3 kids and a couple friends. Been turning down people who want me to make them boards cause I just don’t have the right place to work and take it to the next level.
Mako224- I’ve heard of Heritage surfboards but I don’t remember where they are at? Interesting story about your start! Use that resin imprint as motivation! Good stuff.I know what ya mean about having space to build. I’m trying tor
To get back on my.feet again as
I got burglarized - had to move and start from zero…im started shaping
and im not quit n-period.
doing dings @ 13…lol…then stripping old boards and re-shaping/glassing them…making them look worse than the boards they were before…74 was when i built my first real board,and was a pro shaper @ 18…but my best work has come from my heart.
Began with fixing dings at 13 and dumpster dove at Dave Sweets. Made some very strange “belly boards” to cheat on the black ball @ 3rd point Malibu (in the day).
The only professional shaping advice was given by Larry Felker as he was mowing foam with that damn Rockwell. Just the basic stuff and “get a real job”.
Used a crosscut saw and my Mom’s cheese grader at first and by high school was the “mobile shaper/glasser”.
And yeap I’m a “Valley Cowboy” there are a few of us alive.
Summer of 1968. I had just bought a big, heavy, three-stringered 10’ Barland/Rott surfboard the year before and that’s when Nat Young and Billy Hamilton came to France with some of the new “mini-models” (8’6"…) with heavy V-bottoms. Overnight, everybody started selling their old logs to buy V-bottoms “minis”.
I didn’t have the money to buy one of those new boards, so by a nice and warm sunny afternoon, I put my old Barland/Rott on two sawhorses and started ripping the fiberglass off, then cut off 2’ from the tail and went on to shape some weird looking 8’… From then on, I never stopped shaping weird looking things…
First photo: my friend Daniel and I (with the hat, very Carl Elkstrom looking…) admiring that first “shape”.
Second photo: the end result, once glassed (first glass ever, too), I’m on the far left with the nice speedo…
I started shaping after ordering my first custom board from Rob Lion (Royal). I went and saw the board at several stages through the process and decided it didn’t look too difficult a task.
How wrong I was, I stripped the glass off an old board and went to town on it with a planer. Made a horrible mess, got foam in my eyes, nose, mouth. Decided shaping was a stupid idea.
I shaped two boards in three days. Sadly we moved away from the coast as my dad’s job took us inland for awhile. Then we came back to rio del mar aptos, ca and I shaped a fivenine thruster as a friend had a beater blank he stripped down and paid me $140.00 to shape it. I only made eighty bucks bcuz I had a friend fiberglass it. Anyhow, it’s been a slow start bcuz I don’t have facilities. But I’m currently almost done building my stands, and cutting lumber still. But man I haven’t found a funner hobby then shaping board’s ! Glad you liked my story. I’m hoping you folk’s will tell me your story.:))
