A while back I decided I wanted to try shaping a board. Looked around and decided that the mentoring program at Greenlight Surf Supply in Jersey was a good way to learn. Helluva lot of fun for a first day, but sadly, the planer was broken and I wound up totally screwing the pooch on my first attempt.
As you can see, the thought was good but the reality…
Not so much
Anyways, Brian from Greenlight is an awesome farking dude and basically
offered me a redo on the whole process for free because my last board
was A) a piece of brown trout (no duh) and B) foiled way too hard to
even put fin boxes in so unusable at that size. Happy to say that it’s
now being used for a kids board. Which rules not to have the whole
thing go to waste.
So here’s my 2nd take on shaping:
We
first started by fixing all the crappy warbles in the template and
reshaping the nose into something a little less needly. Here’s the new
outline. We took about an inch off the top so now it’s closer to a 6’3"
instead of a 6’4"
Here’s
the first chop. Man this brown trout is way easier to get right the
first time with a jigsaw and a planer instead of a handsaw and a rasp.
Notice
where I fucked up by putting the saw at an angle and took a chunk out.
Fortunately that little digger went away with cutting the rail bands…
Which obviously takes vast amount of concentration…
But before knocking out the rail bands we cut and cleaned up the swallow
Here she is with rails cut before smoothin. I went with a medium rail based off of a board I liked once.
Next up, rounding it off
And here’s the final product!
And to celebrate, we did cocaine
Inspirations for the board are:
2 Josh Hall quads I’d ridden and loved.
The fact that I don’t have a fish in the quiver in NY
that I’m pretty heavy on the front foot
Next weekend is first take at glassing. It’s going to be a quad with FCS boxes.
You’re stoked , lookin good mate.
Are you going to have help with the glassing ? I found it a life saver being supervised by someone experienced on my first effort …
Thanks man.
Yeah Brian is going to supervise the whole process. I’m a little nervous about glassing the swallow seeing how goddamn much of a PITA it was to get it into decent shape in the first place… but it should be no problem.
Since a full resin tint might be ambitious for my first board, I was thinking of something like this perhaps. Just bouncing photoshop ideas around
Top
Bottom
Hey Jack, great 2nd 1st attempt. The plan shape reminds me a lot of a Jim Banks Glide Fish. What are you doing fin-wise? quads or twin?
Oh BTW I always use USBlanks. They are probably the best blanks I’ve used & I’ve shaped in Australia & England & used several manufacturers blanks over the years.
Hey Pauly, thanks for the kind words. I just looked into that jim banks and it does share a pretty similar outline. Sounds exactly like what I want out of a board as well. The main difference I’d see is that mine’s a bit skinnier around the waist and is flat to slight vee instead of single to double but all in all same riding idea. I’m into the oneboard quiver concept (even though i have a quiver of one board quivers at this point…). I’m gonna go with a quad probox set up to keep with the theme of the board I’ve been basing this off of. Hopefully after I’m done with the board I’ll figure out a way to make myself some bamboo fins. That’d be neat.
Hi Jack,
Looks like a fun board. Just a few suggestions. Skin, foil, template, railbands about 90 percent finished before you shape the butt crack to avoid snapping off a tip. And, make sure your templates are as close to perfect curves as you can get them before you put it on foam. Mike
Process we went with was Template, skin, foil, tail, railbands and just be extra careful with the tail. Since I’m new as hell, forgive me for asking but why would you foil before you template?
Hey jack,
I’ve done it both ways. I always skin it first, though. I foil it before templating because that was the procedure I observed watching a professional. Getting a good foil is the most difficult part of the process for me. It works better for me because I can concentrate on those sets of curves first. The planer cuts are almost parallel to the stringer. If you have already cut the template it makes it more difficult for me to get even, parallel, thickness distributed through the board. That’s my garage/hobby shaper perspective. I know others template before foiling. Whatever you find works for you. Of course, eventually you are going to blend a lot of curves into something that looks like a surfboard and is fun to ride. Mike
Man I hope so… hehehe. Yeah, the reason I templated before foiling was because that’s how Brian showed me. I did notice myself following the curves as opposed to drawing straight lines with the planer though. Either way it seems to achieve the same effect…
Hi again jack,
Just thought I'd show off a fish I shaped mostly yesterday & finished off today. Its based on a Glide Fish & some elements of a Mandala. 6'9" X 22" X 3" Slight V in the nose to single concave to double concave & dead flat in the tail (actually for the last 16") The art work on the bottom only. I like to keep artwork simple & easy. My daughter is an artist so I pinched a few tubes of her hugely expensive acrylic paint (cadmium red, cadmium yellow & ultrmarine blue) mixed them down with about 60% water, got a thick squirrel hair brush & flicked paint at the bottom of the blank. Took about 10 mins total. Lam starts as soon as paint is fully dry.
That looks awesome Paul! I’ll bet the colors pop like crazy in person. Sounds pretty complex with all the concaveveesingledoublewhatnot but it looks like fun for sure. As of right now I’m booked for both days in the shaping room this weekend. Hopefully by sunday I’ll have a new board.
She’s all done! Super stoked on it, now if only we had waves…
