I just wanted to tell all of you about my recent experience with meecrafty, otherwise known as Dave in real life.
As you can tell from reading his posts, Dave is a real thinker and an innovator. He’s not one to accept things just because that’s always the way they’ve been done and he’s not afraid to push the edge of the design envelope. What you might not know, however, is that he is a serious craftsman who is able to put his ideas into foam and is willing to share his time and experience.
I first started talking with Dave around six months ago after spending many hours on this site, reading through the archives and learning what I could. Its one thing though to read about shaping and design but I knew that until I actually experienced the process a lot of things weren’t going to be real clear. So with a trip upcoming and a general idea about the board I needed Dave told me where to pick up a blank and which one to get and we made a plan to meet up at his house. Despite what I’ve been reading here on this site, I still didn’t know what I wanted in terms of design so we talked more about what kind of waves I expected to be riding with the board and what I wanted it to do. And with that he went to work mowing foam, all the while talking about what he was doing and why.
Wow. What an amazing thing to watch that blank turn into the exact board that I was thinking of but unable to articulate. He took almost no measurements and did virtually all of it with hand tools - letting his hands and mind feel the way to a perfect, absolutely symmetrical board. He spent many hours on that board, all for a guy he’s barely even met, for nothing more than the chance to pass along the stoke of shaping.
Thanks Dave, I absolutely can not wait to ride this board and try my hand at shaping the next one.
And by the way, look for some really amazing boards from meecrafty in the near future. I’m really looking forward to being a test rider!
Pics of my board to come.
Jeff