How you began

I was wondering how many of you folks began shaping on your own…WITHOUT a mentor. Which of you gained proficiency without a great deal of physical guidance…but from information provided outside the actual shaping or glassing bays. I was lucky enough to have several people mentor me…I was wondering if there are any professionals, out there, who were (predominantly) self taught!!! (is this possible? the first shapers had to start somewhere, I figure…as costly and difficult it must’ve been for them. Is trail and error the best teacher??) Aloha…(the “getting to be a pain in the ass” question guy)…T. P.S. I’ve picked up so many useful tips from Mike’s (our?!) site, that some of my technique has improved dramatically!! thank-you, so much…ALL OF YOU!

I was all of 18 just back from Hawaii,and built a stinger,one of the first around,with a sureform,block plane,hobby plane,screen,hand saw,and a paper template I copped off of a Bertlemann/Aipa 6’-7" board.(1974/75?) I bought the blank from Rich Harbour via Mike Wilson,and got it glassed @ Pacific glass in LongBeach,Ca.(Laura Powers did the lines,and I got to meet her for the first time in my life). Later,I got known in the area as the person to go to,and ask Qs about stingers.Most of the boards I shaped under Rick McHale for Dyno ,and Jack’s were stingers. Everything before this was my Genesis in building.Herb.

I was wondering how many of you folks began shaping on your own…WITHOUT > a mentor. Which of you gained proficiency without a great deal of physical > guidance…but from information provided outside the actual shaping or > glassing bays. I was lucky enough to have several people mentor me…I was > wondering if there are any professionals, out there, who were > (predominantly) self taught!!! (is this possible? the first shapers had > to start somewhere, I figure…as costly and difficult it must’ve been for > them. Is trail and error the best teacher??) Aloha…(the “getting to > be a pain in the ass” question guy)…T. P.S. I’ve picked up so many > useful tips from Mike’s (our?!) site, that some of my technique has > improved dramatically!! thank-you, so much…ALL OF YOU! I moved to Hawaii from Cape Cod, Mass in 1961. I started surfing immediately and wanted a board so badly, but boards were $150.00 in Hawaii then. Parents didn’t spend that much dough back then on sports items. My dad took me to the Pearl Harbor exchange and we bought a surfboard kit. It came out pretty good for the first time, I had lots of pals in the same boat as me and I wound up building them boards too. By the end of my senior year I had gotten a job with Hobie in Hawaii, that was my last year in the Islands and I wound up on the east coast after that. The next spring I took off in My Rambler station wagon and shaped my way up and down the lenght of the east coast. In 1966 I met up with “Tinker” AKA Carl West, he was a partner in Challenger with Bill Bahne. He saw a potential in me and gave me a steady shaping position. Two years later I was in San Diego shaping for Bahne, Challenger and Channin/Diffenderfer. It wasn’t until I met Tinker that he got me firing on all eight cylinders. He was one of Velzy’s early students and was a absolute master of shaping the board COMPLETELY with the PLANER! His mentoring stuck fast and Inspired me to above all, do it as good as possible and do it right the first time. This combined with the skills that my family’s furniture, cabinetry, architectural mill work had taught me, set me on a course of becoming a master surfboard craftsman.

well, i’m 18 and have been shaping/glassing for a little over a year now. and until recently, i learned how to do everything from books and magazines. just the basic stuff like tail shapes and rail designs, etc. so one day i just went and picked up a blank and some resin and cloth and i havent stopped since. i make all my own templates and basically learn from trial and error and from testing and comparing my boards. either way you do it, its a LOT of fun. -steve

I was 15 in 1968 and found a Foss blank at the dump. Took it home and shaped it with a cheese grater and glassed it with Hawaiian print cloth at the nose (gosh, how wierd!) and Volan glass from Crystaliner. The board looked pretty good, so one of my classmates bought it. He’s a famous surf photoghapher now but I can’t tell you his hame to save him from embarrasment! Word got around school that I made boards, so I was now a “shaper”. Nobody to learn from back then so it took some time to figure it out. You actually had to put your own rocker in as there weren’t a whole lot of plugs. I’m sitting in my office looking at a board I made in high school and wondering how we even rode those things! It’s 6-3 by 20. The dimensions now days are close to what I was shaping then, but the similarities pretty much end there. Good luck to all you beginning board builders. Keep it up!! The future of design will come from you. aloha

I began shaping about a year ago. I grew up on the west coast of Florida and hardly any shapers were in the area. I read books and magazines and made mass amounts of phone calls to get most of my info. When the JC vidoes came out is when I decided to actually jump into shaping. I didn’t realize at the time how much is left to the imagination in the videos. I have learned by trial and error how to shape and glass. I still have a long way to go, but can tell you this site has helped so much! I am stuck in the middle of Florida now, better than the west coast but still a forty-five minute drive. In May I am moving to the east coast and hope to meet more people who’s brains I can pick.