Looking to Learn how to Shape/ Internship in OC

General Discussion
1

I am from Seal Beach, CA and i am really interested in learning how to shape surfboards. I have been surfing for eight years and am on the high school surf team.

I am not looking for someone to pay me or anything of the sort… i am willing to pay for tools, blanks everything…

All i need is someone to teach me that has experience themselves and has spare time.

I have tried everything I’ve been to all the local surf shops, went on a date with the local shapers daughter [not kidding], and talked to everyone out there…

so if anyone can help me it would be greatly appreciated…

Adam… OCsurfer

2

Im in HB

we can hook up I will share the little bit I know

do a search for my post and you can see some pics of my boards

or email me at

3

Come on down…

4

Hello all

The young man who requested help to learn to shape has begun his tutalage

We shall call him Adam

Kawika and I both ponied up for this adventure but out of driving conveniance I became the candidate

Adam and I spent a four and a half hours in my shop (garage) last Saturday, the first hour and a half

were spent reviewing basic tools, tecniques, and basicly gettin to know one and other.

The next three hours we (I would start off and then let Adam repete what I’ve done)

1 skinned the bottom

2 trued up the bottom

3 measured and marked the dimensions (6’3" x N15" x 20.5" x T16.25" x 2.5" thick)

4 drew the out line using tapered cylindrical fiberglass shaft (fishing pole)

and called it a day

Then we worked three hours on sunday

1 cut the outline

2 trued up the outline

3 mowed foam off the deck till we got a clean slate

4 mowed the bottom to achieve thickness (2.5")

called it a day

And we put in two hours this evening

1 cleaned up the bottom (it was slightly uneven)

2 thinned out the nose (slightly thick)

3 cut out the but crack and contoured

4 cut rail bands

5 blended rails to nose, tail, deck and bottom

6 block and finish sanded

7 spackled blemishes

here is the finished shape and the young apprentice

and a few other shots

5

Very cool Ken! Adam looks stoked and you have just made a huge deposit in your karma bucket!

Smed

6

Its funny , I didnt think I knew as much as I seem to know

did that make sense?

We got the board shaped and ready to glass in 8 hrs of classroom time ( I think thats good)

7

Good on ya Ken! Another stoked young grom, and hope for the future… Whether you think you had a lot to teach or not, you always know more than you think you do, and always think of extra stuff along the way. Best of all, some say the best way to improve one’s own knowledge is to teach…

8

That’s what it’s all about.

Can’t wait to hear how it rides!

Ray

9

and let the glassing begin !!!

next week

10

Adam and I would like to thank Probox Larry for his controbution of a killer deal on a quad fins and probox fin box set up.

Thank you Larry and I will make sure the probox lam gets on the board and we will do a sweet install and post pics

Oh! which cant goes in the front? I forgot,Doh!

11

Ken, 8 degree insert in front to start, keep up the stoke. Mahalo,Larry

12

This IS what it’s all about! STOKED! Looking forward to seeing the finished board. Mike

13

Thank you Larry

Merry Christmass

14

Nice effort. Have fun!

15

sorry the glassing got put off through the holidays

we will be proceeding this sunday at 9 am

hopefully we will get to the fin box’s

uv cat will save the day… LOL!

16

Ok lady’s and gent’s

today we racked up 7 hours of glassing time

here’s how it went

preping the bottom glass

bottom lamed

I forgot to spap a pic of the deck but we got it all hot coated and cured by by 1:00 pm

gotta love that uv cat

after a short break (beer for me and a water for Adam) we proceded to set the ProBox fin sets

this is a 5 fin set up

first we did the three towards the tail edited (inaproprate)

                      continued next post
17

next I modified two of the insallation fixture so could route the forward box holes without haveing to grind the rears

take notes Larry

All the ProBox’s installed… will grind later

this will be a great fin set up

5 fin

quad

thruster

will sand this week and post final pics

18

My young aprentise arrived today and we spent a few hours sanding the hot coat.

we used a sander for the deck and bottom and did the rails nose and tail by hand

I had previously ground down the fin box’s

the board came out very well as we only just hit weave in a few spots

heres the finished project

heres Adam eyeing the rails (he took to sanding well)

loving the quad fin set Fibre Glass Fin Co. and Probox’s

Once again Thanks you all for joining in on the adventure

Thanks again ProboxLarry for your advice and fin set

Adam will be chiming in soon

It was fun sharing knowledge with Adam.

It was difficult to get him to smile and loosen up, he was very serious about absorbing this sacred craft.

After we got done the Chesire cat came out…LOL!

19

well… since the beginning of our little shaping adventure i havent really had time to chime and tell everyone how things have been going… but thanks to ken he has kept everyone up to speed with what has been going down…

learning to shape from ken was great… i was able to gain a lot of insight into the art of surfboard making and i had a great time doing it…

Sunday or Monday i hope to do at test run and then if everything goes right it will see its first contest against Laguna Beach High School on Thursday before State Championships roll around in late February. I will keep everyone posted on my test run w/ my board sometime this weekend…

20

Hey Ken, that is what it is really all about, well wish it was, but the karma bucket is an important element in our future survival, not to mention the kids stoke, good on you mate, J.H.