Nads, big Nads

I have shaped 4 boards for Dale Dobson in the last few months, the first 3 were too thin, too thick, not enough rocker,etc. I had used up all of my stringerless blanks to custom rocker his shapes. I got a quick emergancy blank from Walker, with not a clue as to its weight. The glassed and sanded board came out at 19 lbs, over the limit for Dale. He wantd to get a dremel tool and bore tiny hole in the rails and swirl the bit around to take out excess foam. Luckily I convinced him he would remove about 7 grams of foam this way. Instead I taped down a straight edge 5" out from the stringer and slid my fine tooth bandsaw blade along it, cutting the board length wise into 3 pieces. Then as I would chamber a balsa blank, did the same on this foamy. It brought the weight down enough for him to be satisfied, satisfied enough to get a stand up tube in the finals of last weeks Oceanside Longboard contest, leaving him in second place. All that chambering only took out 2 pounds, it’s amazing what a little psychology will do.

What a hoot Jim. How did you re-mate the 3 sections after chambering and did you do a reglass/patch over any of the sections? The customer is always right… or at least trying at times. Tom S.>>> I have shaped 4 boards for Dale Dobson in the last few months, the first 3 > were too thin, too thick, not enough rocker,etc. I had used up all of my > stringerless blanks to custom rocker his shapes. I got a quick emergancy > blank from Walker, with not a clue as to its weight. The glassed and > sanded board came out at 19 lbs, over the limit for Dale. He wantd to get > a dremel tool and bore tiny hole in the rails and swirl the bit around to > take out excess foam. Luckily I convinced him he would remove about 7 > grams of foam this way. Instead I taped down a straight edge 5" out > from the stringer and slid my fine tooth bandsaw blade along it, cutting > the board length wise into 3 pieces. Then as I would chamber a balsa > blank, did the same on this foamy. It brought the weight down enough for > him to be satisfied, satisfied enough to get a stand up tube in the finals > of last weeks Oceanside Longboard contest, leaving him in second place. > All that chambering only took out 2 pounds, it’s amazing what a little > psychology will do.

I’m sorry Jim, I’m not downing You or anything, because I know your level of shaping is well above mine but isn’t that a little…well…silly. 7 grams. Is that really neccesary. It’s a longboard for crying out loud. Maybe on a ultra light competition shortboard I could possibly see going to the extreme.But a longboard. I fail to see the point. Would 7 grams have made the difference in his heat? Jim, I know you are a class A board builder and maybe oneday I will see the point, and I hope oneday I will have even half of your knowledge. But I have been surfing most of my life on God knows how many boards and not one time have I said "well maybe if this board were 7 grams lighter I would rip it up. Anyways,Jim, Don’t mean to question your authority,just a little curious. Nice job by the way on that board.

I’m sorry Jim, I’m not downing You or anything, because I know your level > of shaping is well above mine but isn’t that a little…well…silly. 7 > grams. Is that really neccesary. It’s a longboard for crying out loud. > Maybe on a ultra light competition shortboard I could possibly see going > to the extreme.But a longboard. I fail to see the point. Would 7 grams > have made the difference in his heat? Jim, I know you are a class A board > builder and maybe oneday I will see the point, and I hope oneday I will > have even half of your knowledge. But I have been surfing most of my life > on God knows how many boards and not one time have I said "well maybe > if this board were 7 grams lighter I would rip it up. Anyways,Jim, Don’t > mean to question your authority,just a little curious. Nice job by the way > on that board. “All that chambering only took out 2 pounds, it’s amazing what a little psychology will do.” YOU MISSED THIS LAST SENTENCE HOMEBOY. ALMOST EVERY NORTH COUNTY SHAPER HAS CATERED TO DALE DOBSONS WHIMS BECAUSE QUITE FRANKLY HE IS A GREAT SURFER(WITH A ATTITUDE) AGE ASIDE, THIS DUDE HAS THE SKILLS,POISE,LOOK,AND SWITCHS STANCE LIKE HE INVENTED IT. NEVER FIGURED OUT WHY HE DOESN’T/DIDN’T SHAPE HIS OWN SIGNITURE MODEL(FOR $$$$) WHILE HE WAS PEAKING AROUND '86-'90 INSTEAD OF GHOST SHAPERS. HE TOLD ME HE JUST DESIGNS THEM. IMPRESSIVE STYLIST NO ‘SHORTBOARDER’ WILL EVEN MESS WITH!!! AM I RIGHT JIM? ANYONE HIS AGE WOULD LOVE TO WORK A BOARD LIKE 'DA GUY.

Chris: Surfhungry’s right on. What Jim said was that he had talk Dale OUT of trying to swizzle 7 g. of foam out of the rails on that board. Jim’s concession was to slice the board up and chamber foam out of the core for a 2 lb. relief in overall weight. I want to know Jim’s schedule on putting it back together. I’ve surfed around Dale and met him a few times and I would imagine he is a hard customer to please. His surfing speaks for itself and he’s been an exceptional surfer for a LONG time. Tom S.>>> I’m sorry Jim, I’m not downing You or anything, because I know your level > of shaping is well above mine but isn’t that a little…well…silly. 7 > grams. Is that really neccesary. It’s a longboard for crying out loud. > Maybe on a ultra light competition shortboard I could possibly see going > to the extreme.But a longboard. I fail to see the point. Would 7 grams > have made the difference in his heat? Jim, I know you are a class A board > builder and maybe oneday I will see the point, and I hope oneday I will > have even half of your knowledge. But I have been surfing most of my life > on God knows how many boards and not one time have I said "well maybe > if this board were 7 grams lighter I would rip it up. Anyways,Jim, Don’t > mean to question your authority,just a little curious. Nice job by the way > on that board.

Jim, that sounds like a lot of work, & you one of the few who could pull it off! . I was wondering how you feel about styrofoam & epoxy? (9-4 X 3" double 8 oz deck & 8oz bottom…15 lbs.) as an alternative for lighter boards. I would be interested to hear your thoughts. Thanks

Sorry guy’s, did’nt catch the 2 lb part. I have to speed read alot( not much time). 2 lbs I can see. 7 grams had me wondering. Maybe I should go back and read the instructions on that ceiling fan I hung directly above my bed. Nah, those leftover screws must be extra’s

Chris:>>> Surfhungry’s right on. What Jim said was that he had talk Dale OUT of > trying to swizzle 7 g. of foam out of the rails on that board. Jim’s > concession was to slice the board up and chamber foam out of the core for > a 2 lb. relief in overall weight. I want to know Jim’s schedule on putting > it back together. I’ve surfed around Dale and met him a few times and I > would imagine he is a hard customer to please. His surfing speaks for > itself and he’s been an exceptional surfer for a LONG time.>>> Tom S. This a great story in itself.A master shaper building boards for Master surfer.Steve Bigler has been around for decades and basically knows what he is after in a board.He works with Jim and ends up with a magic board.A guy like Jim works day in and day out in a dusty room for little or no financial rewards,he "ghost shapes"for some of the finest labels in the world for little or no reckognition.At 50 plus years Jim Phillips is still stoked on surfing and shaping…he probably shapes these boards for free…his greatest reward is to watch Steve Bigler do his thing and to know in his heart that he built the board.This is what makes the whole thing worthwhile.

Hey Jim, there was a run of Steve Bigler models some years ago. I’ve seen several that featured tinted foam stringers. Were these Bigler autograph classics done by you? Tom S. > This a great story in itself.A master shaper building boards for Master > surfer.Steve Bigler has been around for decades and basically knows what > he is after in a board.He works with Jim and ends up with a magic board.A > guy like Jim works day in and day out in a dusty room for little or no > financial rewards,he "ghost shapes"for some of the finest labels > in the world for little or no reckognition.At 50 plus years Jim Phillips > is still stoked on surfing and shaping…he probably shapes these boards > for free…his greatest reward is to watch Steve Bigler do his thing and to > know in his heart that he built the board.This is what makes the whole > thing worthwhile.

What a hoot Jim. How did you re-mate the 3 sections after chambering and > did you do a reglass/patch over any of the sections? The customer is > always right… or at least trying at times.>>> Tom S. Well Tom, it wasn’t very difficult at all, I aligned the pieces with little tabs of masking tape and brushed a thincoat of lam resin over the seam. after it had set, a 3/4" strip of 4 oz. was glassed over the seam, hotcoated and sanded back out. The board lost about 3/32" of width from the kerf of the saw blade, but who’s keeping track.

I’m sorry Jim, I’m not downing You or anything, because I know your level > of shaping is well above mine but isn’t that a little…well…silly. 7 > grams. Is that really neccesary. It’s a longboard for crying out loud. > Maybe on a ultra light competition shortboard I could possibly see going > to the extreme.But a longboard. I fail to see the point. Would 7 grams > have made the difference in his heat? Jim, I know you are a class A board > builder and maybe oneday I will see the point, and I hope oneday I will > have even half of your knowledge. But I have been surfing most of my life > on God knows how many boards and not one time have I said "well maybe > if this board were 7 grams lighter I would rip it up. Anyways,Jim, Don’t > mean to question your authority,just a little curious. Nice job by the way > on that board. What Dale had wanted to do, was the dremel thing, I fortunately talked him out of it and chambered the board like it was a balsa board. It reduced the weight by 2 pounds. I could have gone a lot further with it, but hey, I was rail roaded into broing it.

“All that chambering only took out 2 pounds, it’s amazing what a > little psychology will do.” YOU MISSED THIS LAST SENTENCE HOMEBOY. > ALMOST EVERY NORTH COUNTY SHAPER HAS CATERED TO DALE DOBSONS WHIMS BECAUSE > QUITE FRANKLY HE IS A GREAT SURFER(WITH A ATTITUDE) AGE ASIDE, THIS DUDE > HAS THE SKILLS,POISE,LOOK,AND SWITCHS STANCE LIKE HE INVENTED IT. NEVER > FIGURED OUT WHY HE DOESN’T/DIDN’T SHAPE HIS OWN SIGNITURE MODEL(FOR $$$$) > WHILE HE WAS PEAKING AROUND '86-'90 INSTEAD OF GHOST SHAPERS. HE TOLD ME > HE JUST DESIGNS THEM. IMPRESSIVE STYLIST NO ‘SHORTBOARDER’ WILL EVEN MESS > WITH!!! AM I RIGHT JIM? ANYONE HIS AGE WOULD LOVE TO WORK A BOARD LIKE > 'DA GUY. Surfhungry, Dale had a real change of heart a little over 2 years ago. He hadn’t been doing well in contests, was getting into scraps with the guys around the factory and frankly, drinking hisself to death. John Kies, owner of Encinitas surfboards lives directly above Cardiff Reef and was scoping the surf real early one morn and saw Dale in the parking lot through his binoculars. Dale proceded to puke up a small trash can of bloody vomit, he went into the hospital later that day. He asked the attending doctor if he would be able to resume drinking after he got out of the hospital, the doc said sure, if you want to die. He hasn’t drank since that day.

This a great story in itself.A master shaper building boards for Master > surfer.Steve Bigler has been around for decades and basically knows what > he is after in a board.He works with Jim and ends up with a magic board.A > guy like Jim works day in and day out in a dusty room for little or no > financial rewards,he "ghost shapes"for some of the finest labels > in the world for little or no reckognition.At 50 plus years Jim Phillips > is still stoked on surfing and shaping…he probably shapes these boards > for free…his greatest reward is to watch Steve Bigler do his thing and to > know in his heart that he built the board.This is what makes the whole > thing worthwhile. I ah hate to bust your bubble RB, but I think Steve is still taking a federal vacation

Jim, that sounds like a lot of work, & you one of the few who could > pull it off! . I was wondering how you feel about styrofoam & epoxy? > (9-4 X 3" double 8 oz deck & 8oz bottom…15 lbs.) as an > alternative for lighter boards. I would be interested to hear your > thoughts. Thanks Ray, I’ve talked to Dale about a styro and epoxy, but until he has a board that REALLY gets him off, I don’t feel like investing all that time and money in epoxy just for giggles.

I ah>>> hate to bust your bubble RB, but I think Steve is still taking a federal > vacation I am sorry Jim,that was pretty dumb and I deserve to have my bubble busted.I also apologize to Dale.Guess I will lick my wounds and take another course in basic elementary school reading.

I am sorry Jim,that was pretty dumb and I deserve to have my bubble > busted.I also apologize to Dale.Guess I will lick my wounds and take > another course in basic elementary school reading. Talk about bubble busting, I went to Kathy Greenwoods house to try to get to know her a little better, wink, wink, nod, nod, and who is she with, surfing hero, Surfboards Hawaii team rider, Surfer Magazine cover shot, Steve Bigler. It was back to the minor leagues for gremmie me. Broken heart and all.

Hey Jim, there was a run of Steve Bigler models some years ago. I’ve seen > several that featured tinted foam stringers. Were these Bigler autograph > classics done by you?>>> Tom S. Hey Tom you an me both got the names messed up…It was my fault I guess.Hopefully Jim won’t come back and get ya like he did me.My bubble is busted and laying on the floor looking really bad…and rightfully so.

Talk about bubble busting, I went to Kathy Greenwoods house to try to get > to know her a little better, wink, wink, nod, nod, and who is she with, > surfing hero, Surfboards Hawaii team rider, Surfer Magazine cover shot, > Steve Bigler. It was back to the minor leagues for gremmie me. Broken > heart and all. Ha! Now I get to bust your bubble…her sister Beth looked better and I got to scope her out thru the same window…I saw it all and had to run home for some “private therapy”.

Ray, I’ve talked to Dale about a styro and epoxy, but until he has a board > that REALLY gets him off, I don’t feel like investing all that time and > money in epoxy just for giggles. …Facks first.Big’s been out for awhile and is riping the Con.

Ha! Now I get to bust your bubble…her sister Beth looked better and I > got to scope her out thru the same window…I saw it all and had to run > home for some “private therapy”. Windowpeeping was a national sport in the 60’s…now its a felony.The worst thing that ever happended to me one night was being tapped on the shoulder by a fellow voyeur…I screamed…he laughed…and we both almost got busted by the subject girl’s dad who was a full colonel in the military police.