(Not another) First Board

I know there are many “first board” posts here, and perhaps this forum doesn’t really need another one. However, from what I’ve seen, people are very encouraging and perhaps my experiences will help some.

By way of background, I live in South Africa, and I’ve been surfing for about 23 years. I started on a 5’2 twin fin when I was 13 in the mid 80’s (didn’t really getting it right at that stage); later borrowed a 6’8 single fin (stood up the first wave I paddled for, and hooked ever since); surfed shortboards through high school and university studies as a moderately decent local ripper in Port Elizabeth (closest city to Jeffreys Bay); moved inland to Johannesburg for a couple of years when I started working (as a patent lawyer); moved to Cape Town in 2004 (the water is frikkin’ freezing!); didn’t get enough water time to keep fit surfing; nearly gave up surfing until I gave in and got myself a longboard, which completely reinvigorated my surfing and I now surf nearly as much as I did when I was a kid (and occasionally surf shortboards again).

Like many others around here, I’ve been inspired by the films made by Thomas Campbell (The Seedling, Sprout) and, more recently, Nathan Oldfield (Lines from a Poem, Seaworthy). However, unlike in some parts of the world, classic longboarding is not big here in SA, and while there are great shapers spewing out shortboards and “performance” longboards in abundance, it is difficult to get a real-deal, old school log. (Some on this forum will consider it ironic, but my exposure to “classic” longboards has come via Surftech boards. I bought a Surftech Nuuhiwa Noserider, and its completely different from the kind of boards that custom shapers are making here.)

I want to experiment with classic (and not-so-classic) shapes, and decided to do it myself. I’ve lurked around here for months, reading everything. I finally cracked, and went out in a mad frenzy and bought tools and a blank and started last weekend.

I’ve gotten a little way along the process, but I’d better get back to work now. I plan to post some pics and comments on the experience so far this evening.

Tim

Tim, good on you! Feel free to ask whatever you want to ask, this is the right place! Try and start with a blank that won’t have too much nose rocker but a fair amount of tail rocker.

Tim, first board posts are what drew me to Swaylocks in the first place. Even after shaping and glassing four of my own I am still really interested in other peoples experiences, and I know I can always learn a lot more. Keep us updated on your progress and good luck. There are some really amazingly talented people here to help you along the way.

Thanks for the encouragement, Balsa and Rand.

Although I’m keen to do classic longboards, my local supplier didn’t have any low rocker longboard blanks in stock (as I said, “performance” longboards are the order of the day here), so I ordered 2 x 9’8 low rocker blanks, which should take about 3 weeks to get to me. However, I couldn’t wait that long to try my new kit, so I got a kneeboard blank for my first effort. The kneeboard blank was a lot cheaper than longboard blanks, and I figured that I could use a “longboarder’s shortboard”. I designed a stubby(ish) diamond tail quad using AKUshaper software. I’m attaching a PDF file (well, I’m trying to). It’s only really the outline that I’m planing to stick to. The design is just over 6’3, but I was wondering if I should cut it shorter, so as to have a wider tail pod (and make it a true stubby). Having since done a little bit of planing, however, I reckon that I should decide that later; at the rate I’m going, I could have a 3’1 board before things start looking right :slight_smile:

Tim, I think that you could go up in width a bit, like 21.5". I’ve shaped a few quad stubbies recently (a bit shorter, in the 5’6"-6’00" range) and I started cutting out a 6’2" x 21.5" just this morning. The quad set-up allows for width and a knee-board blank must have plenty of, so why not use it?

There should be “first board” posts (with pictures) daily!

OK, I now have some pics of where I am now, and so I continue…

I bought the following equipment:

1. A Ryobi electric planer. It has a big cut depth adjustment knob, which is infinitely variable between 0 and 2mm. When I tried to skim the top of the blank, I discovered that the front shoe is too long for doing the front of the deck of a shortboard - it doesn’t fit into the concave, even when positioned at a large angle to the stringer. I’ll have to sand/surform the front of the deck.

2. Wooden trestles. I know these aren’t the best racks, but they’ll do for right now. They’re easily stored.

3. Hand plane.

4. Surform.

5. Various gauges.

6. Dust mask.

7. Safety goggles. I first got open sided safety glasses, but soon found that they were no good. The foam dust flies around the side, and slashing at a blank with your eyes closed cause you have foam particles imbedded in your eyeball sockets must be the fastest way to trash a blank!

I’ve probably left some things out, but that’s basically it.

I printed the template from AKUshaper. You obviously have to put several sheets of paper together, and there aren’t clear marks for aligning them. I did the best I could, lining up the edges of the pages with the edge of a floorboard to keep it straight.

(Incidentally, I printed another template from Shape3D, and it printed with guidelines indicating measurements along the length. This is very helpful when trying to assemble a template from multiple pages. However, that was a longboard where the width went off the edge of an A4 page. For some reason, the tail printed beautifully until the outline went off the page, but then the outline for the front never reappeared. I haven’t figured it out. Anyway, I’m working on a Mac at home, and Shape3D seems to be PC only.)

I then traced the outline onto the bottom of the blank. I drew the template onto the bottom, 'cause its flat across the board, and also because I figured that accuracy on the bottom is more critical than on the deck. With a down-railed board, the apex of the rail is closer to the bottom, hence if you saw a little bit skew it’s going to have less effect.

I cut the blank with a fairly big cross-cut saw, a bit off my outline. I found it difficult to follow the outline. I then cut almost exactly on the outline with a smaller hand saw. I think I was fairly accurate, and I only touched up a few spots with the surform. The bottom edge of the outline cut is better than the deck edge; there are a couple of spots where my cut was a little off vertical.

When you see the blank cut with the outline, you see the flaws - there’s a bit of a flat spot in the middle third of my outline, and the curve comes in a little suddenly about a third off the tail. However, I’m reluctant to smooth the curve by taking off width. (Balsa already suggested that I could have gone wider than I did, and I’m very well aware that you can’t put it back!)

Then I cracked out the planer… I started on the bottom, cautiously with a very small cut depth. Too small actually, and I’ve got a bit of thickness to take off. At that stage, I made grooves in the blank deeper than my cuts by carelessly dragging the back corners of the planer over the blank. So I increased the cut depth to the max - 2mm. I tried to angle the planer, and work with the shoe over the uncut surface, as I’ve seen here on Swaylocks. I had patches where I got it right, but for the most part it was harder going than I expected. I then turned the blank over to skim the deck, and ended up with problems on the forward end, as described above. All in all, I’ve skimmed a little off the top and bottom, but not very evenly. I’ve now got to figure out how to even it up and remove the little bit of twist I’ve put in. Fortunately I haven’t gone too far, and I’ve got a little thickness to play with as my “learning space”.

This is the present state of affairs:

[img_assist|nid=1030461|title=BottomNose|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=75]

[img_assist|nid=1030461|title=BottomNose|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=480]

[img_assist|nid=1030462|title=BottomTail|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=480][img_assist|nid=1030463|title=Deck Nose|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=75][img_assist|nid=1030463|title=Deck Nose|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=480][img_assist|nid=1030464|title=Side|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=480][img_assist|nid=1030465|title=Ryobi planer|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=480]

My favorite threads are not necessarily the first boards , but the step by step (WITH PICTURES). Without a doubt Oldy’s “Journey of a Quad” and Bert “Vacuum forming” were my favorites. I really wish more step by step (WITH PICTURES) would be posted, especially by the pros…

Keep sharing Tim, that’s what this place is all about.

Tim, that’s not bad at all for a first try; Most of us wouldn’t dare to post our very first efforts.

But I suggest you “regularize” that curve before going any further: remember that soon you won’t have any pencil line to follow, just your eyes. if you start with something perfect, there’s no reason that you can’t get it perfect at the end of the line. But if you start with bumps and straight lines, they are only going to get worse and worse at each stage. I suggest you use a long (at least one foot) sanding block and gently follow the curve with the bottom of the blank up untill you get a continuous curve. Then use a metal square to visualize that bottom and deck are perfectly square.

Not being able to plane the nose on the deck side is usual when you are not familiar with the power planer, don’t worry about that. You will take it with a small block plane or a surform.

Also, don’t work for too long: the longer you stare at your blank, the more “mistakes” will seem to appear. Forget it for a while, go and do something else, come back later with a “fresh” eye.

Looking good so far mate!

Ive always loved (and still do) first board threads. One thing that you hear on 90% of them is that they hurried through each step to acheive a finishd product. Learn from this and make the best effort possible on EACH step. I would agee with Balsa and recommend taking a look at the outline again and lightly “tweak” any imperfections before you shape the rails. The goal being a nice smooth arc with out wiggles. You have a beutiful board in the making…Make it you best board ever!

Bob

I second that.

Thanks. Seeing Oldy’s thread here after watching Seaworthy was pivotal in getting me started. It also made me realise what an incredible community Swaylocks is.

Balsa, I have to say that I nearly didn’t post this, and I considered trying to take pics that didn’t show the flaws; but then I figured that it wouldn’t serve any purpose - I’m a complete beginner here, and everyone who knows can see it a mile away.

I’m going to put a little effort into regularising the curve (while not taking too much width off) before I do anything else.

One thing I didn’t mention in my long post with the pics, is that I don’t have an imperial (ft, inches) tape measure, so I’m converting from metric measurements. The surfing world works in imperial units, and that’s just how it is. I’m trying to find an imperial tape measure, but my local hardware store only has metric ones.

I’m not going to be able to do anything for 2 days, but I’ll post the next installment when I can.

THanks again everyone for all the encouragement and advice.

Tim, please understand that I’m not trying to put you down in any way. As I said, some of my first attempts at shaping were far from what you’re doing right now. But I did progress a lot the day I decided that the most important thing was to start as perfect as possible. Again, after the first pass with the planer, you won’t have any pencil marks left to help you, just your eyes. Shaping (and glassing) are made of phases. The natural trend is to think “Well, this is good enough. I will take care of the small flaws next phase.” In many cases, it will be very difficult or even impossible and “flaws” will actually get worse and worse as you progress. Just my two (Euros) cents.

Balsa, I don’t take your comments as a put down at all (although I am obviously itching to get on with converting my hunk of foam into a surfboard, and truing up the outline cut a little further involves another step before proceeding).

Practically though, I’m not sure exactly what to do.

I think that the bottom edge only requires a minor touch-up in one or two places.

The top edge isn’t as good, because I cut according to the outline drawn on the bottom, so cutting off vertical caused deviations in the curve. In some parts I went slightly off the vertical the wrong way - i.e. I cut into the board side of the outline. Therefore, in order to true this outline I’d have to take off a little width all round (i.e. move the rail inwards to inside my exsting cut) - which I’m reluctant to do. However, as I’m planning to have down rails through most of the board, the top edge of the outline cut (where the problem is worst) is going to be cut away anyway.

Anyway, I’m going to try to true it up a bit without taking too much off.

This has gotten me thinking though: generally speaking, each cut serves as a guide for the next cut, and so a kink in the top edge of the outline can be carried through to the top of the rail if one isn’t careful. However, it’s clearly possible to true up lines that are wrong (for example, a straight board can be shaped from a twisted blank if the straight board “fits inside” the blank). I take it that it then becomes a matter of very careful measurement, and one has to be far more deliberate about cutting the unwanted blank off your intended board, as opposed to just following the lines in front of you and mowing the blank down until you get your board. And far more difficult if one’s lacking planing skills!

Hi Tim, fellow Cape Townian here. Good to see another local keen on making and surfing their own boards. I started shaping for the same reasons; the boards and shapes that gets me interested just aren’t available here.

When cutting the blank, you want to cut outside the outline, then you can true up the edge using the line as your guide. You could use your template and redraw a line about 2-5mm inside the original, to give you a guide. You’ll only loose about 1cm all round, but you’ll have a symetrical and clean outline. I don’t use any powertools. You could use your planer, but I use a Surform to true up the edge if it’s rough, then a sanding block to finish it off. Don’t worry too much about getting a perfectly square edge, just do it by eye and feel; you’re going to be taking those edges off for your rails later on anyway.

Good luck and enjoy the process. The first one is all about learning and getting a feeling for your tools and how they interact with the foam.

sine.
~

Here’s my 2 cents-

I’d put a line about where you want the apex of the rail to be. Then sight down the board to true up that line.

I think what you need to do to clean up the outline is take a long sanding block, like Balsa said, and take passes starting at the nose and go all the way to the tail without stopping, and then back again, tail to nose, the whole length. You will feel the bumps.

Another helpful technique I learned while working at a boatbuilder was to use X’s and O’s. Eyeing down the rail line, mark an X on any high spots and put O’s in any hollows or low spots. Then work the X’s down a bit and go back to those nose to tail passes until you can FEEL that there are no more bumps. Someone on Sway’s used to sign off, “the best eyes a shaper has are his hands.” You can feel the bumps. Then eye it again and put the X’s and O’s on the highs and lows. Eventually you’ll get it to where you can’t see the highs and lows. Or feel them.

Have fun and remember no matter what you end up producing , it will surf!

Hi tim -

Looking good! One technique I use to help myself is to trace the template outline on top and bottom. There is going to be a slight length difference but you’ll be close and the overall curve drawn on the deck side makes truing the outline easier. By shifting the template a bit, you can get the outline on deck and bottom to line up fairly well.

For the longboard blanks, try flipping them around and positioning the nose of your template on the tail of the blank. Trace it out and see how it looks. If there is excess length, shift the outline towards the tail end as far as possible. You might find the reverse rocker more traditional if you do your outlines like that. Lance Carson and others were sometimes known to do it that way.

I do something similar… I’ll check my outline cut with a square placed on the flat bottom of the blank. Where there’s a high spot, I’ll make a pencil mark. the higher the spot, the darker the mark. I’ll true it up with the surform. I like to pull the tool rather than push it, for some reason, and on my return (push) stroke I’m feeling the shape. On my pull stroke I’m cutting. As the tool glides over the shape on the smooth push, you really feel the bumps and lumps because the tool amplifies the contours of the board… kind of like a see-saw… if you hold the tool at a 45 degree angle.