McDing:
It all good. Just misunderstood. But is it wrong to share?
Kind regards,
Surfding
Pontificate............ funny word. There's a lot of that on Sway's..... if there wasn't, the site wouldn't even exist.
Actually (just for the record) there is PLENTY that both I and Sufding don't share on Swaylocks Surfboard Design Forum. And Kokua's observation about knowing how to do something on surfboards doesn't mean you can do it.
Case in point, some guys will never get feeling the curve while taping off pinlines and getting them really spot on.
As far as my own position, I just want to clarify that I am a shaper, painter, glasser, hotcoater, fin & box man, sander (final shaper), pinliner, glosser & polisher.
I also do packing & shipping.
I also sweep the shop.
oh, and....... pontificate.
…in my opinion, every body want to be a shaper cause in the begining the shaper was a board builder, the guy who “knows all” the steps
-hey DS, I am my own secretary too (to receive the customer, do the papers, etc), ha ha
I probably shouldn’t be posting on the industry forum, Huie informed me of that, How dare I, I hardly had the credentials…lol
But I would like to say that this guy “leadfoot” has some nice, fat , shapes that mimic the White Diamond/ Dumpster Diver shapes…
Surfding. Why can’t I take equal amounts of foam from my blank ( top and bottom)??? Why do I have to take the excess foam off of the bottom?? You’ve heard of EPS, I know you have… From my past experience ,eps is no weaker or stronger for that matter, on the deck side or the bottom side of the blank…
Perhaps it’s time to “cut loose” from an over rated obsolete foam system that gets weaker the further you carve into it…??
I don’t post here often , too many people with a “history” and a stand of "this is how us Pro’s do it "… Sad…
Double pump… Sorry,
Surfding. Why can’t I take equal amounts of foam from my blank ( top
and bottom)??? Why do I have to take the excess foam off of the
bottom?? You’ve heard of EPS, I know you have… From my past
experience ,eps is no weaker or stronger for that matter, on the deck
side or the bottom side of the blank…
Perhaps it’s time to “cut loose” from an over rated obsolete foam
system that gets weaker the further you carve into it…??
Kiterider: www.americansurfindustries.com My main company is American Surf Industries, LLC.
I made 1,000’s of EPS and XPS blanks at the closure of Clark. I’ve hand shaped it and I’ve CNC’d it. When I refer to cleaning the thickness off the bottom of a blanks and skimming the deck I’m referring to PU. I still respect deck rocker regardless if it’s EPS, XPS, PU or Balsa because it’s easier to shape if your deck line is set from the start. Everything is foiled from your deck line. I’ve shaped a little over 4,000 boards (Hitachi/CNC) combined. Your comment to “cut loose” I find a bit Humorus? If you only new of my private High Tech Builds? Back in 2005 did some vacuum bagged XPS Parabolic EPS combo with impact cloth sandwiched horizontal into the blank custom made on a rocker table. The board was 4.6 pounds and was surfed around the world. So how am I obsolete? OK I stiller make a heck of a lot of PU boards however that’s because the Pro’s and the advanced surfers request it. They order 2 boards a month. PU is the main core they want. I throw out a vacuum bagged board once and a while. However I make more money with PU production than any other core. I want to make more high tech all the time however surfers are a bit cheap.
So maybe your right I am obsolete!
Kind regards,
Surfding
Hi Huie: Good to hear your comments.
I don’t know what to say really. I’m just doing the best I can with the way things are. However I do make my own designs and I’m not so into copying everything under the sun. I would love to make the best board I can with the best materials possible and that it why I originally came on to this site. I’m a student for life always learning and doing the best I can when I can. There are a lot of experts on this site and technocrats that can throw a wrench into things. Thanks for writing something normal and sane.
Kind regards,
Michael
Yeah Huie. There are fourms for surfboards with wings, or should I say kites… Welcome to the future dude…
I guess I’ll piss off from this … " Pro’s only forum" … because that would make you happy, wouldn’t it ???
The last time I posted on the industry forum , you subtly mentioned that I didn’t belong, or shouldn’t have a say here… I knew you were trolling this sub group, that’s why I mentioned your disapproval of anything I had to say…
Sorry, I’m always going to be there to fight your evil, and " just down right “meaness”…
I’ve never called you a PRICK, as you have done to me above.^
Nice to see you’re awake, old timer, nap time’s at 5pm.
I simply said: I belive PU is / will be / obsolete, in the near future, … Why should I worry about how much foam I remove from either side??
Super What???
I agree with SD deck line profile is very important, ask anyone from Coil…
First, I have not bailed. I’m simply listening. Second, I have glassed my own boards. The first pic I posted I glassed myself. I started glassing by doing dings. Third, I dont copy trendy “dumpster divers”. I make a board for how I want it to surf, mostly bc I couldnt get anyone to get their head out of their asses long enough to hear me tell them what I wanted in my customs. Fourth, I would glass, sand, or ding repair all day every day. I’m not looking for glamour (Ooh covered in caustic chemicals all day how glam…) or want to be the “shaper”. I’m trying to apply what I enjoy and Im good at to make a living. Im trying to pull myself single handedly out of this sandy shithole using all I have. At this point all I have left is surfing. Most comments have been very helpful but only in asuring me Im on the right path. Im going to continue to post my boards in hopes of getting some serious work. Oh and kite surfing is gay and kite surfing on a real surfboard is like being gay and dressing in drag.
I’ve been asked, “Why the hate”??
obviously you hate kite surfers and belive they’re gay because they surf with a kite…
I have no “come back” for that comment, sorry… Time to “punch out” from a place I’m not welcome…
BTW your boards look “run of the mill” white and nothing special…
Oh boy Huie's here. I always think of some character from "Mad Max" when Huie posts.....and that's a compliment!
Mc Ding has made some good points esp. about the hardcore segment of surfers like folks down in Byron, Tasmania, tree houses on outer islands and other pockets around the world. True colors.
Heck, I think stating that kiteboarding is gay is kinda harsh. I have to site how much I learned during the 80's windsurfing and building sailboards that I brought back to the surfboard table. I have to say that the creative freedom I had during the 80's durng the windsurfing boom had me grow in leaps and bounds.
My honest opinion is that kiteboarding is legit, but pales to what we accomplished designing wave, slalom, race, and speed boards. That was the true era of quantifying designs.
Kiteboarding pails by comparison. I would say the attraction to why kiteboarding ever even happened is because you could power up in even lighter wind than sailboards. It's a very distant cousin on some counts. You can't plane up a waterski with a sail on it, ya know.
The observation about starting out doing dings is rock solid. Dings made more oney for me at The Underground than surfboards ever did. Fact of life: quick turnover, less material cost, high mark up. None of the other shops wanted to bother with waxed and tarry surfboards. Everyone sent them to us. I said heck ya, I'll use all my scrap glass from rail trimmings and tiny amounts of resin to pump out repairs. Throw pillow covers over your sanding racks now to contaminate them..... big deal. Sure, more tape on the glassing racks.......no biggie. A garbage can full of q cell and away we go. And that was BEFORE UV resin!
Ask Joe roper. Ding repair = $$$.
Kite guy........... you're not gay, you're just doing a different dance. Leadfoot, to be really gr8 for what you are after, you will need to open your mind and let your ass follow. I remain a dry sponge ready to draw ideas from many different areas to apply to the best surfboard I can make...... some of those "areas" have been aviation, windsurfing, America's Cup stuff, auto design, water & snowskiing, skydiving dancing. martial arts, even horseracing......all kinds of bizarre stuff that keeps my mind fertile and open to design creation.
The most recent design I am enjoying vibrant business with is directly related to what I learned off certain aspects of speedboards from the 80's. People look at a certain part of the board and instantly know these are different. I love stuff like that.
As far as everyone wanting to be the shaper..... I guess that's true. Kinda like being the lead guitarist or singer in a band. Personally I have tons of respect for glassers and esp. sanders that can destroy my shape unless I communicate with them what the final shape is to be. However, THAT can't even happen unless the glasser/hotcoater knows what to give him to work with. Teamwork is ESSENTIAL. just ask Greg Martz at Waterman's or Peter and the guys at Moonlight.
As far as being the shaper with THE NAME thing, I suggest anyone that wants to SEE if they are really that good, just make some boards with an ALIAS on them. That's right, sign the boards with some other name that you like. Then see if the boards sell and if there is a buzz about them.
P.S. Yes, EPS is uniform, but PU ain't going away anytime soon... people are creatures of convenience!
.
Deck line shaping:
1 pic = 1,000 words.
...and as you said earlier "90% of shapers out there haven't a clue about deck rocker".
.....probably a higher % than that.
Silly mentioned something in another thread some time back about poorly done free laps showing all the wobbles on glossed and polished boards........ totally true, but even b4 that happens during glassing, think about all the novice shapers out there intersecting deck cuts then supposedly truing it all out with a little toy or razor blade plane.
Blocking........ what's that?
Deck rocker will REMAIN a mystery for years to come. No one knows how to measure it, and when they do, they don't know what to do with it.
that’s beautiful
?
Hey Dead.
I built my first compsand windsurer in 1984… I built a really nice triple concave for my wife to take to Maui in 89 and again in 90
I have been mentored by my good friend and awesome local board builder : Lee Brittain of : http://www.roguewaveboards.com/
If you think windsurf speed or race boards were good, check out what’s happening with kite racing as well as speed kiting… I think the kite speed record is over 50 knots… not sure I don’t follow it that closely…The race boards use the same huge G10 fins we used in slalom-race windsurfing…
They surely don’t pale in comparison.!!! I know, I started windsurfing in 1981, and it doesn’t hold a candle to kiteboarding, on a surfboard style of kite board or even on a wake style…
The material choices we used for the high impact windsurf boards lend themselves well to kite boards…
I just got home from a really windy session… There were 6 to 8 windsurfers ripping it up on 4.5 to 5.5s. While there were 20+ kiteboarders getting huge airs and slashing waves… I used to be able to do a back roll on an 8’ 6" windsurfer, I don’t see that anymore when I watch them, they just head out fast, jibe and head in fast… Kite boarding is way beyond that… It’s a friggin: expression session evertime you go out there… Fun to try, as much fun to watch…
BTW … 10 of the 20+ kiteboarders were riding kite- surfboards, some with footstraps, some without…Do I see a trend… Hell yeah, that’s why I don’t build twin-tips (wakeboard style) anymore, and soak up all the info. here on Sways so I can build good kite-surfboards…
With your background .You’d kill it, building for this sport…
. I gave up on windsurfing because there wern’t enough days in a year, that I could rip like I do now on a kite…
Dead.
For the record, I’m 53 years young, and it only took 2 Advil to get me through the night…
Winds were 20 to 30 knts… ,anything more requires 3+ advil… …
No seriously, I dont think kite boards are gay. I do think kite boarding is kinda silly. I was more using the comment to highlight how childish and pointless all that mess with that other guy was. Looking myself to navigate the exclusivity of surfboard making I’m not one to critisize other points of view.
The cell phone pictures of my boards arent really doing them justice. Better pictures would serve me well. Im working on getting a camera. I like to be low profile so I just leave them white. I want to let my surfing do the talking. The shape is for function not fashion and details you cant see are what matter most.
The real piont to it is that they work well. I surf well and I am very happy with the boards I make. I wouldnt be doing it if they sucked. Other poeple try them and like them too. Which kinda sucks because I have a hard time keeping one around for myself.
Maybe I should make a board just for kiting…any takers?