When shaping longboards should you go classic with polyster or try epoxy?
I have ridden plenty of both. You can go either way. I like my old school logs done in PU/PE, and I like my HPLBs in EPS/Epoxy.
Which one would be easier to work with as a first time shaper? Which will teach me more about design?
Both have advantages and disadvantages. One big concern is the smell of polyester if shaping in an attached garage. It finds its way into the house easily and is nasty. Epoxy (RR) is a bit harder to sand but you can do the laps without a sanding coat and gummed up paper. Epoxy is generally accepted to be lighter and stronger but your glass schedule and other factors play in here as well. For shaping, polyurethane blanks are better to work with than EPS, but you can glass poly with either type of resin (despite what they are likely to tell you at the local shop). I don’t think that either would teach more about design than the other. My preferance is for RR epoxy.