so a couple questions. what do you guys think about having your boards glassed? is it worth it to do it yourself? whats the additional cost of having it glassed at a shop? second anyone have any reccomendations for santa cruz glassers? thanks for any info
I like Mark Brown of Paradise(722-7111). His shop is in Wastonville. Good guy, excellent work. I don’t know what it cost for a board now since I’ve glassed all of mine the last 2 years or so. It saved me 100 to glass my own then. Enough money to buy another blank and fiberglass or a gallon of resin. Prices have changed a bit with the epoxy-eps(he does that, too). I do my own primarily for the pleasure of building and riding a board I made with my own hands, start to finish. I think you it’s good learn how to laminate even if you eventually just stick to the shaping at some time in the future. Mike
Fletcher and Ralph Hedrick both do great work. They’re on the east side. Contact Fletcher through the 41st ave. shop. Ralph through Freeline.
I’d learn how to glass the board yourself. I’ve never had someone glass a board for me, so I can’t speak too heavily on that matter, but I do know that the glassing process is a fun one and worth at least trying. I really do look forward to glassing the board after spending hours shaping it. Each step is so different from the last (designing to shaping to glassing to sanding); it provides a good amount of diversity in the board making process to keep things really interesting.
I’ll also second rooster’s point of how nice it is to know that you made the board yourself from beginning to end.
Ryan
I think it depends on what your goals are. As a garage shaper, if I shape, glass, and sand a board myself, it seems to take about 7-10 days for me do get the job done, if I’m motivated.
I can shape a board in 1-2 evenings and send it out to be glassed and have it back in 1-2 weeks. It takes longer and costs more, but I can shape 5 boards in the same time it takes me to shape, glass, and sand one.
For shortboards or for boards for myself, I usually glass them myself to save money. But if they’re to have tints, pinlines, or gloss coats, I let my glasser do them. I can’t match him when it comes to the fine details.
That said, I use Strive Surfboards on the westside, behind Safeway (Tony has more expreience laminating than I’ve been alive). Haut also does excellent work, as well.
All aspects of surfboard manufacturing comes with experience. Even the best laminator can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear. If you’re a good shaper and a bad laminator, or you don’t have the tools to lam. and sand, send it out to be glassed. If it’s your first board, glass it yourself. It will have all of the flaws in it from your shape, plus a few hairs, specks of dirt, and bubbles. It will ride the same, either way. Plus, you’ll get the experience of doing the job and having your neighbors complain about the smell and the thrill of scraping cured resin off of your garage floor when I…I mean you forget to put a drop cloth down.
Just remember, adding fiberglass to a shaped blank is like adding a magnifying glass to it. Every mistake made or bit of contamination on the blank will be magnified by the glass job…unless you do a resin swirl. 