Yeah Mike, that was the weird thing about it. He had a good reputation and my phone call with him before driving up seemed like he was a cool guy. Who knows, maybe we just caught him on a bad day. I’m sure the shape wasn’t perfect, but I was a paying customer. A little tact would have helped.
I do all myself too, from big block. It’s my hobby and sometimes a second job say my wife, lol. I like all the process, and try to improve each steps is really interesting. At a time i do some second end époxy glass for hobbist shapers and even pros. I stop because sometimes it’s very hard to get a nice finish product from a not so good shape. Some shapers that try to make a business with board buy preshapes they more or less “design” on computer then they give it to glass and they want to take their 150/200€ it’s just not possible. I think there is still place for a small custom business, but have to do all the process.
Fifty years ago, when I showed Hobie my personal surfboard, when I applied for a job, he asked ‘’ Who glassed this board?‘’ I told him I did, and he tried to hire me on the spot as a glasser. I told him I wouldn’t glass, I’d only shape. After giving me a disbelieving look, he did hire me as a shaper. I don’t think Hobie was accustomed to having his job offers turned down. It was normal, if you made surfboards in those years, that you did it all. I preferred the creative process of shaping and designing surfboards, to the repettitive glassing process. Still do.
So you worked for Hobie? For some reason I thought you shaped for Hansen.
Aloha Mako,
I worked for both. Shapers at Hobie were being paid $8 dollars per board. That was the industry standard piecework wage. Hobie hired me in Feb. 1965. In May 1965, Hansen reached out to me, and offered $10 dollars per board to shape for him. No brainer for me. Shorter drive, and a 25% increase in pay! I was making $ 1,000 dollars per month. To put that in a 1965 perspective, accountants were being hired @ $ 600 dollars monthly, and beginning teachers were being hired @ $ 800 dollars monthly. So, shaping surfboards was not a bad gig!
Hi Bill
If my math is correct, that would average about 5 boards a day, yeah?
That would have been a fair bit of mowing in those days before close tolerance blanks etc
Cheers
Glenno,
That’s exactly right. The other shapers were committed to four boards per day. I was the only one that committed to five boards per day. And yes, those were not small, or easy boards then. A nine foot board was considered a treat to do, as the majority of boards then were ten foot plus. Today, a nine foot board feels like punishment! Even the foam was a lot tougher to cut, than foam today. But… it was a helluva lot easier to work on than balsa, which is what I cut my teeth on.
25 monsters / week
In a busy glass shop a good sander makes the most $$$$.
Very True Mike.
When Men were men and women were girls…great stuff…
I’m a man, I shape/glass/sand/polish/boxes/glass ons/poly/epoxy/heavy/light/colored resin/airbrush/repairs…and sometimes I go surfing!
I also wash boats and wheel and deal materials…Crazy life.
Pure man!
Stingray, in fine form
get in get out get paid.
a few thoughts:
shape is definately the most important aspect for how a board will ride
a nice glass job can make a crappy shape look good but not ride good
besides the initial stage of design / shape layout, sanding is probably my favorite step (which is funny since most people HATE sanding) but as others have said it is the last step of getting your final end product and there is significance in how the job is done to how the board will ride (especially with glass on fins). although it is not fun at all to sand a poorly shaped board…
i think people have been really into glass jobs recently because a lot of artistry is getting put into it. same as people being into the asymetricals - its new and different and is all about creativity
Hardly new; slightly different. 
The job of sanding surfboards has got that much easier with the use of fcs 2 /futures,as well as fully sanded bottom laps.fin boxs sanded flat,just like a finsh coat …start with 150 grit ,The job of glaasing has got more complex bits of carbon here and there that take time to do neatly, having to slow down bottom laminations so you have time to rub out air over top of fcs 2 then requiring lam cheater coat cause a little dry,dealing with a million different decals and model names 30 minutes cutting and organising placement , dealing with different sorts of resins and glass brands cause the boss got it cheaper,always fun trying new resin ,just like silmar they say.!! then its thicker, thinner, gels quick but sits there in unturnable jellly state for an hour or is just evil .hahahahha the fun of contract glassing,hard cause you got glasss a lot of boards to make a wage,not to many young guys learning cause you can not afford to make mistakes…
easier because of plugs, yes… but I contract sand 40 channel Is. boards a week, the amount of give and take in there performance boards, damn! deep doubles, wings, dips, hips, scabie bits, chims, carbon here there and everywhere. And NO weave. All on a filler coat from tired glassers… Mind you, glassers have it bad! correct.
but 10 years ago 150 sand + clear proteck + wet rub.
Now grind plugs, 120, 150, 240 (hands sand rails = no weave) then orbie 240 finish. done! out the door.
And all the boys are good at what they do, best.
I started as a sander to yorky ,but have been glassing for last 15 years , a couple of years Back I ended up back in sanding bay for couple of months after a sander walked out…was doing 30 sanded finshes a week…10 different labels in bali of all places …steamy yes still hard dusty job , all respect
Consider the sanders job when fins were fixed…the sander had to be the finish shaper and fin foiler! Not to mention how good or bad the laminating was!
Quality control is doing it all, yourself, if you can.
Pretty Funny. You gotta admit Ray. Yorky’s got some funny $#!+ goin’on there .