So after much research I have decided to shape and glass my first board. Im still a newb when it comes to the shaping world, so any help is appreciated. I am 6’ tall and 180 lbs and will be surfing with a 4/3 and booties. Im looking for a board that it going to perform well in the small stuff we surf most of the time. I wanna go almost as short as I can, so I made this one a 5’6. I want it to be skatey, fast, and hopefully turn and punt. My inspiration for this shape is the santa cruz g deck and rusty dwart, but with a wide squash tail. I was thinking a single concave, or some vee out of the tail. Id also consider doing steps in the rails or a step deck to get a thinner rail. Ill probably be riding this on mostly a beach break near me that is pretty punchy most of the time.
here is what I came up with after downloading aku shaper and messing around for a day. tell me what you think. Keep in mind that this will be my first shape, so hopefully nothing too complicated for a first time shaper.
First board. Keep it simple (no step-rails, wings, etc.).
Minor modifications I would suggest (not that I’m an expert, but I’ve made boards similar to that and I’m about the same size as you):
*Reduce tail rocker to 2" or slightly less. Need to flatten overall rocker if you want it to be fast/glide.
*5’6" is pretty short for a six foot guy. Don’t be afraid to go a couple inches longer.
*Looks pretty wide for a 5’6". You have a lot of outline curve which would reduce drive when on rail and send the board straight up the face. (Kind of like a deep sidecut on a snowboard). I would keep the same width but go more like 5’8" to 5’10" to flatten the outline curve a bit. It should still be plenty skatey.
*Final six inches of the nose looks a little thin (not narrow). Might want to thicken a bit to help land airs. Give your self some more buoyancy when you land with the front foot up toward the nose.
*On the bottom I would go flat to vee or slight single to vee.
Creature, the board looks fun! if it were me, i'd drop the rocker a little. maybe to 3" nose and 1 3/4" tail... also, being that this will be your first shape, try to keep it simple. shoot for clean flowing lines. either way, you'll be stoked on your creation! what blank are you going to use? PU or EPS?
I have checked out a mini Simmons thread but I’m not sure if it is the one you are referring to. I don’t really want this board to be like a mini Simmons though. I want it to be more performance oriented.
Also I forgot to mention that I was probably going to make it a tri fin.
P.s. I just took a screen shot of the board and loaded it to photobucket
Thanks for all of the advice guys. Ill try and drop the rocker a bit. I made a shaping stand, and I cut a rough template of the board today. Made the tail a bit narrower and slightly less wide. Ill probably get to shaping sometime in the next few days. I just bought a cheap power planer. Hopefully all goes well, but either way like you said Chrisp… Im gonna be stoked. Its PU by the way.
Looks promising! I’m no expert but I would agree with the design suggestions above especially reducing rocker and rail curve. Look forward to seeing it progress. Post some pics when you have done shaping. Good luck and enjoy.
yep, same asabove....those dims might be better suited to a 5'10" or 6'0"......need a flatter rocker to drive and get speed in the small stuff....good on ya for having a go, post pics and we can watch the creation come to life....
hey man interested to see how it goes, my thoughts are with how forward the foil is which is gonna make it paddle awesome but ride will suffer, is this because its more for small waves?
I shaped the board a little bit ago. I’ll try and post pics soon. I changed it up and took peoples advice. It came out with less rocker. Around 2 in the tail and 3.5 in the front. About 2 5/8th thick. Still a lot of foam forward. It is going to be for some small beach break. I copied the fin templet off of my 5’10 dumpster diver. Carved the fin boxes out by hand last night. Should glass it within the next week when the weather gets better. Thanks for all the advice that was given. It helped tremendously.
Hope to get a ride-able result out of my first crack, i have a small waver from a respected shaper which i think is around 28 Litres ( roughly using AKU) and want to add some foam
Can you tell me what your dumpy diver worked out ( volume wise ) when creating it in AKU -i assume you shadowed it then made your own changes?
Could you tell us what your new volume worked out after changes made from swaylockian’s advice
Reason i ask is i want to know want an extra 2-4 litres feels like underfoot and i guess your 1st shape of 33.36 L is more volume than the 5’10 Dd
Cheering you on
( i promise i won’t use the word volume in posts 2 thru 5 …)
