Looking for more shapers to test drive my shaper’s communication tool: Surfboards Interactive www.surfboardsinteractive.com Looking for feedback. Thanks Steven http://www.surfboardsinteractive.com
like what youve done there man. used it to see what a couple of my “in mind” boards would look like. when you put in the dimensions though like nose and tail width for example they dont go to the nose and tail (the little + signs). thats the only thing i didnt like about it. otherwise pretty good tool man. thanks again. Josh
thats a really cool site. one thing though: i put in all the dimensions of a board i want to make and it plotted the “+”'s… is there a way to connect the dots and make an outline?
place the Flex Shaper over top of your keypoints and then work the lines to the keypoints…be sure to try out the “Save and Send” tool…not only can you send the shape settings you come up with to another shaper or surfer…if you want to come back to a shape and continue working, send the settings to yourself and then input the settings to start up where you left off. I’ve just started trying to get some sponsorships, that hopefully would give me the time to get “batten” curves to adjust to the keypoints like what you describe. And tha is a great idea for additional functions.>>> thats a really cool site. one thing though: i put in all the dimensions of > a board i want to make and it plotted the “+”'s… is there a way > to connect the dots and make an outline? http://www.surfboardsinteractive.com
Hey josh, if i understand what your saying some other guys from swaylock’s described that bug. I believe it means you have an old version of flash running. If you go to the Surfboards Interactive splash page (with the spinning dolphins) and hit the link that says “hit this if you DON’T SEE the dolphins” (even though you do)…it will load you the newest version of the flash player in a few seconds. And that will take care of it.>>> like what youve done there man. used it to see what a couple of my > “in mind” boards would look like. when you put in the dimensions > though like nose and tail width for example they dont go to the nose and > tail (the little + signs). thats the only thing i didnt like about it. > otherwise pretty good tool man. thanks again.>>> Josh http://www.surfboardsinteractive.com
i think it didnt work for me because my length was too small… i was trying to see what a 5’6 board i had in mind would look like, and after i got to a certain length (going shorter) it would start over at 9 feet
my bad brother…i feel dumb saying this but i didnt put in the dimensions for how far away from the tail and nose that the width was supposed to be. caught myself on that one. lol. thanks again for a good tool. Josh
is there a way to get a side view of the board so you can put rocker dimensions and foil also??? if not that would be cool also. maybe something to think about. like side view up top and then top view on bottom. also can you put the color on the board with the dimensions??? later bro. Josh
Well you hit one of the hottest issues for the next advancements I’ve been considering!The foil and rocker are the easiest one to do…but some shapers are telling me that to use this to take in board orders is great,… BUT to try to work from too many specifications is counter productive. I tend to agree. For the most part the actual shaping is left up to the craftmanship, style, and performance philosophy of the individual shaper. So I would envision that when a shaper receives the Surfboard Interactive specs as part of the order they would also receive via email or phone call from the surfer some general info about rail and contour preferences. This is still something we keep talking about and coming back to…typically the information Surfboard Interactive generates is just the info a shaper wants to start with. And is Surfboards Interactive trying to be a tool or a toy? We are definately a tool that wants to become an industry standard to use for communication. The ability to color the actual custom templates is the next logical step for sure…it’s just a graphics programming nightmare. If the air and water temp get below what I’m willing to put up with for more than a week this winter I might be able to get that one done. Thanks for putting up with an answer that is way to f’ing long but is something we discuss all the time.>>> is there a way to get a side view of the board so you can put rocker > dimensions and foil also??? if not that would be cool also. maybe > something to think about. like side view up top and then top view on > bottom. also can you put the color on the board with the dimensions??? > later bro.>>> Josh http://www.surfboardsinteractive.com
OK that’s an easy one…it sounds like you are just using your “Mid Length” scale button to shorten the entire board…use the overall length button in the lower right corner of your console to shorten it even further. You may have to tweak the nose and tail shape some after you do that but it shouldn’t be much.>>> i think it didnt work for me because my length was too small… i was > trying to see what a 5’6 board i had in mind would look like, and after i > got to a certain length (going shorter) it would start over at 9 feet http://www.surfboardsinteractive.com
i found it a bit confusing and couldn’t get your curves to fit to the points i wanted. also, i don’t quite understand what the end product is supposed to be. is it an actual template that can be plotted out and used to shape your designed board? or is it just a visual guideline to give to a shaper? i mailed myself an outline and wasn’t quite sure what i got. kirk
Hey steve, with all due respect I just find it curious that you are test marketing a tool to a bunch of guys who love surfboard dimensions and are contemplating whether or not to add rocker, foil and rail tools. We all know that these play MAJOR roles in the way any board will ride and to leave them out for someone else to come up with (once your product is accepted by various shapers) does not seem right, for your test market. I can see your point that you would not want someone who does not have a grasp of foil, rocker, etc. to design their own with your tool, only to be disappointed when it plows water, or whatever. But to exclude everyone from this seems a bit odd, incomplete even. Plotting out your planeshape is very helpful to get a mental image of whether you think your outline is functional, but you know as well as I that this is only one small piece of the puzzle. A design tool should be complete. I know you do 3D imagery. Imagine if your software allowed you to construct your wire frames but never allowed you to render them because they were afraid that you did not fully understand the process behind it. I know this is a stretch but I think it is a valid example. I would still like to submit some shapes to you, if I haven’t pissed you off with all this. Let me know when you come down to my neck of the woods and we will catch some waves.
Steve, On the flex curve function, it seems you’ve placed an 18-inch restriction on the nose width. I plotted my nose dimension at 20 inches (12 inches from nose)and tried to fit the flex curve shape to my dimensions, and I couldn’t get the shape’s nose width to fit my 20-inch marks. Is there a way I can make this work? Am I missing something? Also, I couldn’t seem to make a pintail shape with the flex curve shaper. When trying to match my tail width dimensions (16", 12" from tail) I could only get a round tail. What am I missing? All in all, you’ve got a great thing going! But I think it would be invaluable to have a batten curve function. Until then, can you suggest another way to get an outline to fit my dimensions? Thanks…deeb…
Great feedback…I really need you guys to break this thing to make it better. Let me look at it from your side and see if I can see what your saying. But you should be able to use the overall width scale to get the nose wider…but I’m just guessing not being able to see what your drawing (which is why I made this so we can send shaping ideas back and forth). But what you can do is get all your keypoints set where they need to go and get the shape as close as you can…then…use the “Save and Send” tool to send the settings to me. It will ask you for an email and project name… send it to . I’ll see if I can get it to shape to your keypoints or see where the program needs to be reworked. And yep batten shapes from keypoints is the key…I’ve got about 400+ hours of progamming and interactive graphics processing so far, but that’s where I am headed. I would like to get some serious sponsorship to free up some time from other projects to focus on this. Thanks so much for pushing the functionality of this…it is the only way to get it better!>>> Steve,>>> On the flex curve function, it seems you’ve placed an 18-inch restriction > on the nose width. I plotted my nose dimension at 20 inches (12 inches > from nose)and tried to fit the flex curve shape to my dimensions, and I > couldn’t get the shape’s nose width to fit my 20-inch marks. Is there a > way I can make this work? Am I missing something?>>> Also, I couldn’t seem to make a pintail shape with the flex curve shaper. > When trying to match my tail width dimensions (16", 12" from > tail) I could only get a round tail. What am I missing?>>> All in all, you’ve got a great thing going! But I think it would be > invaluable to have a batten curve function. Until then, can you suggest > another way to get an outline to fit my dimensions? Thanks…deeb… http://www.surfboardsinteractive.com
Actually I agree completely, the program is incomplete without those elements. And I go back and forth with my friends everyday on this. Do we make this for the surfer to send the shaper? And keep it basic? Or do we make it a total design tool…and just shudder when the kooks send shapers something really crazy. One of the reasons I limited the nose and tail configurations to the standard outlines and the transitions in between was to avoid a manufacturer being sent something crazy. The reason I put this up on Swaylock’s in front of guys that love to shape is that it seems every bit of feedback I have gotten from this sight has been valid, knowledgable, and useful. Really thanks to everyone in this craft I love too, for all the help moving this forward. Unfortunately I’m one of those guys that has been looking at shapes closely for 36 years…but everytime I shape I swear that “the 7’2” x 17" needle I shaped was on purpose…and that the 9’2" noserider I said I was going to shape out of the same blank just didnt appeal to me after I GOT STARTED"!>>> Hey steve, with all due respect I just find it curious that you are test > marketing a tool to a bunch of guys who love surfboard dimensions and are > contemplating whether or not to add rocker, foil and rail tools. We all > know that these play MAJOR roles in the way any board will ride and to > leave them out for someone else to come up with (once your product is > accepted by various shapers) does not seem right, for your test market. I > can see your point that you would not want someone who does not have a > grasp of foil, rocker, etc. to design their own with your tool, only to be > disappointed when it plows water, or whatever. But to exclude everyone > from this seems a bit odd, incomplete even. Plotting out your planeshape > is very helpful to get a mental image of whether you think your outline is > functional, but you know as well as I that this is only one small piece of > the puzzle. A design tool should be complete. I know you do 3D imagery. > Imagine if your software allowed you to construct your wire frames but > never allowed you to render them because they were afraid that you did not > fully understand the process behind it. I know this is a stretch but I > think it is a valid example.>>> I would still like to submit some shapes to you, if I haven’t pissed you > off with all this. Let me know when you come down to my neck of the woods > and we will catch some waves. http://www.surfboardsinteractive.com
i found it a bit confusing and couldn’t get your curves to fit to the > points i wanted. also, i don’t quite understand what the end product is > supposed to be. is it an actual template that can be plotted out and used > to shape your designed board? or is it just a visual guideline to give to > a shaper? i mailed myself an outline and wasn’t quite sure what i got.>>> kirk Make sure you check out the animated help demos if you haven’t already. The numerical values you got in the email can be plugged back into the web site to bring up the shape you saved. Open the “flex shaper” and the “keypoints consoles”…then open the “view and save settings console” input the number values from your email you sent yourself into the white boxes…then hit “input new settings” and you should see your shape. So far the purpose is for surfers to send shapes to shapers to let them know what they basically want. And with Surfboard Inventory, a place to present examples of a shapers portfolio for comparisons. I think after reading Mike D’S letter I might have to make to versions of this…S.I. light and S.I. pRO! fields along the save and send console http://www.surfboardsinteractive.com
hey mike, whatya think…do I need an S.I. lite and another version S.I. pro? I’ll see if I can get some test funtions up in the next weeks to let Swaylock’s test out interactive online rocker and contour. Shapers are such perfectionist, I get more relevant feedback from Swaylock’s then from any of my non surfing projects. Now I’m ready for some sponsorships to cut out more time for Surfboards Interactive. I’ll be down in New Smyrna in January to go over to the Surf Expo…you can snake me then. Right now I’m watching this low build and no waves in front of my house…doesn’t the ocean no it’s supposed to go off now?!>>> Hey steve, with all due respect I just find it curious that you are test > marketing a tool to a bunch of guys who love surfboard dimensions and are > contemplating whether or not to add rocker, foil and rail tools. We all > know that these play MAJOR roles in the way any board will ride and to > leave them out for someone else to come up with (once your product is > accepted by various shapers) does not seem right, for your test market. I > can see your point that you would not want someone who does not have a > grasp of foil, rocker, etc. to design their own with your tool, only to be > disappointed when it plows water, or whatever. But to exclude everyone > from this seems a bit odd, incomplete even. Plotting out your planeshape > is very helpful to get a mental image of whether you think your outline is > functional, but you know as well as I that this is only one small piece of > the puzzle. A design tool should be complete. I know you do 3D imagery. > Imagine if your software allowed you to construct your wire frames but > never allowed you to render them because they were afraid that you did not > fully understand the process behind it. I know this is a stretch but I > think it is a valid example.>>> I would still like to submit some shapes to you, if I haven’t pissed you > off with all this. Let me know when you come down to my neck of the woods > and we will catch some waves. http://www.surfboardsinteractive.com
I would like to get some > serious sponsorship to free up some time from other projects to focus on > this. Thanks. When I get some time, I’ll re-work my shape and send it to you. BTW, you should get in touch with my friend at Longboard magazine, Rich Richardson…e-mail: . He’s the Ad Sales Exec. there and I know he’s got tons of connections in the industry. If nothing else, he could probably point you in the right direction and give you a contact or two for possible sponsorship. Tell him Dave (formerly of Sport Truck mag) sent you. Hope this helps…deeb…
Thanks so much, I need all the advice I can get in this area.>>> I would like to get some>>> Thanks. When I get some time, I’ll re-work my shape and send it to you.>>> BTW, you should get in touch with my friend at Longboard magazine, Rich > Richardson…e-mail: .>>> He’s the Ad Sales Exec. there and I know he’s got tons of connections in > the industry. If nothing else, he could probably point you in the right > direction and give you a contact or two for possible sponsorship. Tell him > Dave (formerly of Sport Truck mag) sent you.>>> Hope this helps…deeb… http://www.surfboardsinteractive.com