Was wondering if there were any shaping rooms for rent in the San Diego area near Mission Beach that anyone might know about. I really want to get started on shaping my first board but I have no where to do it. Any help would be apreciated.
Thank you for your time.
CH
I thought Channin has a room they rent out on The Hill, as long as you glass the board there.
I was talking with Kawika yesterday and he mentioned that might start renting out his room. You could check with him if you dont mind heading to Carlsbad/Oceanside.
Yeah,
I should have it back up and running by Feb. I have everything you’d need. However, I’m a bit of a neat freak, so I like to keep my shop organized, swept, and clean. I’m one of those “pick up a tool and put it back where it goes” guys. As long as you respect my shop and take care of my tools, you can come on up (gee… I sound like my dad).
I have to charge $40 an hour to take care of my overhead, wear and tear on the tools, and replacement of paper and sanding screen… unless of course your name is Bill Thrailkill or Jim Phillips… then it’s free.
While I can understand and respect the need for the $40 an hour for the shaping room that is more then I can afford. Especially due to how much it’s going to cost me to get the glass job I want. I very much appreciate your replies though and I will definetly keep you guys in mind.
The shaping bay and board building is all me. I’m not partnered up with anyone (used to be partners with Jerry Ingham, but had a falling out… just search for older posts, and you’ll see why). My “shaping bay” went from a garage in Michigan in the 1980’s, to a pole building in Indiana in the 1990’s, to little underground back yard shacks set up in Veracruz and Puerto Escondido in 1999 just to make a buck or two for surf travel, to my dad’s garage in Cassopolis, MI in 2000, to my back yard in Bay Park from 2001-2002, to my back yard in Clairemont from 2002-2003, to a backyard shack at Jason Gerkin’s in Carlsbad from 2003-2005, to my garage in Oceanside until about a week ago when I started moving it to where it is now on State Street. I used to glass my own boards, but now I don’t do any glasswork or have any chemistry going on at my shop… I have two children ( Gavin, 8 years and Bella, 10 months) who need their daddy to be around for a long long time, so the chemicals had to go… It’s strictly the shaping of foam and wood for me these days.
I just rent my new space from Jeff Warner who owns Legends Surf in front of it. He lets me display what I shape. I don’t own Legends… just Artisan Surf Designs & Falkenau Surfboards.
Since I’m NOT a big name board builder producing hundreds of boards per month, but building only what orders are placed by students at my school and repeat customers, and the occassional “new experimental design”, the time I’m not in there is costing me money, so I have to pay for it by charging a rental fee. Hopefully that helps clarify my situation.
There’s always Pravda Surf in Huntington Beach… $25 to rent a bay per hour… $50 with instruction…
PM me and perhaps I can work with you on something fair.
Dave
While the clarification is appreciated it was not needed. I completely understand the need for the $40 per hour fee for the booth. I hope you don’t think I was digging on you for charging in my last post as that was not my intent.
Got to try and get somw rok done so I will post up later.
No worries… and no clarification needed. I didn’t take it as digging. I was just informing you, so you didn’t think I was trying to “gouge” a newbie.
Like I said… PM me and perhaps we can work something out. I’ve been helped out a lot by other shapers while here in Cali. and I just want to return the favor.
Dave
I decided to bite the bullet and go through the local surf shop since it’s within walking distance. Only going to do the first one there and see if shaping surfboards is even something I have a talent for. Shooting for trying for this Saturday. Any pointers you can give me before I start hacking away at the foam?
I think for my first board I am just going to keep it simple and try and shape myself a 6’6" squash tail so that I don’t have to worry about to many contours.
I’ll have the glass shop install the leash plug and the fins (thinking about making a quad). I’m starting to get nervouse already so anything you could give me a heads up on would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your time.
Don’t be afraid of the planer. If possible, grab some scrap foam chunks and see what the planer does. Then visualize your line, and go for it!
Long smooth passes.
Don’t bother measuring rail depth, just visualize it and go for symmetry on both sides.
I plane down to about 1/8 to 1/4 finished thickness. I do the deck first and bottom second. Then I visualize the rails, and plane them (top first) and blend them into the deck with a surform or sanding screen or block. Keep bringing the stringer down with your hand plane. Do the bottom last. just count your passes and remember the pressure you put into each pass.
Just have fun with it and know that there is no hand-shaped board out there with PERFECT symmetry. Some are pretty close, but nothing is perfect.
Then go ride it, keep what works, refine what doesn’t, and move on to new realms.
Dave