Joining the trade. Shaping or glassing?

General Discussion
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Long time surfer, and I’m kind of on a year long sabbatical right now, not working, just enjoying life a little. Just gave up my career in the food industry, and I’m not sure what I’ll jump into next, but looking to switch things up. Getting a new board shaped right now from my local shop, and ended up having some pretty good conversations with the shaper and the glasser throughout the process.

I’m actually thinking about learning the craft. Not really looking to make money at it or a career, just a skill I might like to learn and see where it goes.

I’m pretty handy, I’ve been building and fixing things my whole life. I know my way around tools. I’ve done all my own ding repairs through the years, but that’s about the extent of it. My shaper and glasser are both awesome and at a minimum would give me lots of helpful direction, maybe even take me on as an apprentice if I’m lucky.

So my question is, should I learn to shape or glass first? I’m not gonna lie, shaping seems pretty intimidating. I feel like you need an eye and a skill set to get rocker, concave, rails, etc right. Glassing seems like a lot more work, but more of science. I do like the idea of learning to do art and inlays and such. So, is either one easier to learn at first?

Any input and feedback is greatly appreciated!

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Go with glassing first. A job in a busy glass shop will put you around other craftsmen from who you will learn all kinds of things. They will constantly be pointing out what they like and what they don’t like. This will teach you to be critical of what you see. You will begin to develop an eye for critically acclaimed surfboards. The eye is the most important part. Then you must get to the point wherein you can use your hands to create what you see. Eventually creating with your hands what is seen in your minds eye. Picking up little tricks and tools of the trade as you go. Most good glassers can shape at least a little. But guys who start out hacking foam very often have no clue of how to glass a surfboard. It’s my personal believe that glassing can teach you to be meticulous. Which is a good thing to be when you evolve into a shaper.

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Thanks for the feedback. That’s very much in line with where my head was at.

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Glassing and sanding for me too. A good glassing give a durable not tweaked board. Very important. Now you can design board on free soft and have it cut on cnc for cheap. Not really need to know hand shaping to make board.

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Ummm- you start with a broom.

Remember starting in a commercial kitchen? Sweeping floors and washing dishes and lugging boxes of this and that?

And keeping your eyes open and watching and learning?

Then prep work, commis and so on? Prepping and portioning.

And one day you get told to prep fifty pounds of something, using tools and techniques you didn’t pick up at home but rather doing it the way the pros do it. And you know how and you do it. Fast and efficient.

In the same way, learn the trades. Sanding too, doing very fine work with a great big heavy sander where one little slip can ruin it all.

But you start with a broom

doc…

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I trained as a scientist/researcher first. But my principal career was being a University (Cooperative Extension) information specialist and public educator.

The Zen masters say, “First, you must empty your cup.”
For years I told my children, “You can learn the easy way or you can learn the hard way.”

I’m no pro surfboard builder. Built my first surfboard in the late 60s after reading a chapter about building boards in a book, “The Complete Book of Surfing (Dixon, 1967).” No custom surfboard builders where I grew up, just surf shops. Asked around, where I could buy materials. Then I dove in.

The hard way is to do something cold — no knowledge, no input. You can burn up a lot of materials/money that way. Build something with basic/minimal tools first…

IMO it starts with “reading” and listening. Buy a book. Watch videos made by pros. Read old Sways threads. Then ask questions.
(And it never ceases to amaze me how many try to do something new or complex without doing a test panel first.)

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12 videos available here at Sways:

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Yeah I get starting at the bottom. I’ve been the owner and executive chef of a restaurant for the past 10 years, and have been running kitchens for 30 years. Even owning my own establishment, I washed dishes, did closing clean up, emptied grease traps, all the dirty work. Never too proud or egotistical to do the grunt work. That’s how I feel about working in any trade.

My question was more about which area to start learning first. Shaping or glassing.

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Out of curiosity, why not start by building a whole board from raw foam to final sand? If you happen to have a garage and some cash lying around, maybe something like a greenlight build kit (and the big set of tutorial videos that comes with it) would be a good intro…

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I have thought about that. And I might give it a shot one day. To be honest, shaping intimidates me a little bit. Getting rails, concave, contours right, etc… Under some guidance I’d feel more comfortable, even with all the information out there online.

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I hear you. FWIW, while the greenlight tutorials teach you a method that may or may not be considered the “pro” way to do it, I personally feel it was a good detailed intro and relatively fool-proof… Then over time and a small handful of boards I could start to refine my own process with some tiny bit of confidence. Concave and rocker are easy: just leave it how it is in the blank! :wink:

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It’s good to hear you had a good experience with those kits. My garage now is pretty packed out, but I’m in the process of getting rid of a lot of stuff. If I get to the point where I section of a workspace, I may tackle one of those.

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Just my 2 cents’ worth: if you’re not looking to make this a career, but just want to add this skill set (to design, shape, and glass your own boards) to your resumé, or your life skills, I would not hesitate to teach yourself via internet (this site, and YouTube, FB groups, etc.)

Professional methods are going to be very different from a self taught backyarder, so if you want to be a professional, I don’t think there is much value in being self taught. If anything, its probably a drawback, you have to unlearn before you can learn. As a professional in the construction industry, I hated having to train someone who was “self taught”, I finally got to the point I just wouldn’t hire them because it wasn’t worth the grief.

But being a backyarder board builder, self taught, has given me the freedom to design my own quiver, custom shapes not available at the local surf shop racks. My boards were not shaped by a seasoned pro, but they have the advantage of being designed by a shaper who knows my needs and circumstances better than anyone, and who takes no shortcuts to a custom board to my tastes from shape to color scheme and artwork.

It has opened a world of creative possibilities, and given me immense satisfaction in bringing my personal vision to life. I don’t build boards for others, but I have sold a few (that were built for myself), and got some good feedback and reviews, and made a little money.

But the main satisfaction is designing with my own brain and creating with my own hands the visions of my imagination.

I am totally self taught, with a lot of help from swaylocks and some other sites. I started making my own boards about 15 years ago, I make about 2 a year. The luxury of being a backyarder vs a professional is we have no pressure to meet a timeline, we can take as long as we want, and just proceed at a snail’s pace if that’s what we like, and sometimes I kinda do.

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Maybe I’m missing something. It sounded like maybe you wanted to learn by working in the “Industry”. If so, you wouldn’t want to start in your garage with an EPS “Surfboard Kit” and a video. The first reason being that only about 20% of all surfboards are EPS. I am being generous percentage wise. The second being that the methods and tools used in many of these videos are not those commonly used in the Industry. A great example is the JC glassing video. Nobody in the Industry folds there cloth back to place their laminate/logo. Also; I have been around a few shaping bays and I have yet to see the tool set used in the Greenlight video being used by a professional shaper. Most videos are geared towards backyarders and they certainly are of value to backyarders. But if you want to work in the “Industry” learn from that same industry.

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Make one first.
Then decide.
…

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Thank you for making that point. I don’t like riding EPS boards, so I don’t want to shape one. Always been a PU guy. My local shop uses EPS or poly blanks (US BLANKS) but glasses with epoxy.