Foe abstracts or color swirls I prefer to do it with resin.
Just richer and more vibrant.
Paint looks kinda weak and thin.
Needs to be sprayed to look solid.
On the foam, I hand paint with paint to get the “Hand-painted look”.
I can’t function without music.
My tastes vary.
HPSB’s require something fast. Could be Metal or Punk Rock.
Longboards could be Blues.
Retro boards classic rock.
Sometimes Rockabilly gets me going.
My past has a lot of old school Punk Rock.
Still influences me today.
I’m a 50 year old Punk Rock kid!
I’ve been a SD guy my whole life.
Went to L.A. alot to see shows though.
Saw lots of bands there as a kid.
I remember seeing a lot of Carl’s boards up there.
I vaguely remember the Screws.
So many good bands during that time period!
Dave’s a crack up. Was Gott’s painter on Maui. Went out on his own at the Cannery in Haiku. SUPs(lol). I rented a shaping room from him for awhile. Haven’t heard what he’s doing lately. I painted my first two shapes that Gott glassed. After that Dave did 'em. Lowel
Barry,
Is it true that shapers always get the best looking chicks?
All kidding aside. Thanks for doing this. Mike
I hope I am not too late to this?!?
I currently started thinking about building my first own board and have been reading this forum up and down for weeks to get an basic understanding of what I want/should do.
There is 2 areas that still have me confused that you can maybe shed some light on for me.
-
Should I stick with a flat bottom for my first board? It is for smal, mushy waves and a light rider with beginner/intermediate experience (the wife of course) and is going to 5’10" long and 22" wide. Or would any other contour make more “sense” (if making sense makes sense here)?
-
How do you foil a board properly? And I don’t mean the technical side, but rather the conceptual side?
I hope these questions don’t sound too much like nonsense…
Thanks in advance,
Sebastian
Cbass,
First boards fall into that "K.I.S.S. category.
If for a beginner, bottom contours make no difference.
Flat is OK.
Unless you plan on ripping on it.
Just don’t do some huge concave at that width.
Never a good combo.
Vee in the tail if it is wider than 16".
Buy a blank close to what you want the finished board to look like.
Foiling is just a transition of thick to thinner.
Thickest @ center thinner at the rails and nose & tail.
Most newbs leave the tips rather thick.
Easier for glassing.
Just not pretty to look at.
Look at a picture of a rocker profile to see a foiled board.
Hey Barry,
I don’t know if this thread has an expiration date or if it is okay to keep the questions coming?! If I handle this wrong please let me know… Since I am about to start on my first board as I mentioned I have a couple (hundreds) questions remaining.
-
The Board is 5’6" (yes I went even shorter) and 21.5" wide. It will be about 16" wide in the tail ( 1foot in?). Does it make sense to put a vee in for performance? As mentioned the main use will be for mushy beach or small point breaks in Sri Lanka.
-
The wide point of the board is forward by 2" I think and as I read here this has an effect on turning. What kind of fin set up would you recommend under these circumstances? I thought 5 fin so one could choose between thruster or quad. But does that even make sense?
I appreciate all the help I get here and hope I don’t ask to silly a question…
greetings from cold Germany,
Sebastian
Good stuff Barry. I hope others will take the seat in the future. How bout Ambrose???
roger
Sebastian,
Mein Surfbrett Gebäude Freund, (I hope My German is correct).
I build a few Wide Point Forward style boards.
That is a fairly wide tail.
However I do utilize Vee in those models regardless of tail width.
I don’t know how wide a nose you are going with but, Multi-fin would be safe.
Curvy outline would probably be fun as a Quad.
…
thanks for this , Barry ! […great idea , Huck ! ]
can you talk me through how you would do a ‘fake wood grain’ effect on either a foam blank , or a fin panel , please ?
I ask , because at the surfboard meet here that I recently went to , there was a really nice hawaiian board , with foam inlay stringer bits , that had been given the ?“faux wood” ? finish , on the inlay parts.
cheers mate
ben
… and , yes … Ambrose in the chair next , Huck ?!
Ah yes, Faux wood grain technique.
Been doing that effect for years.
I’ve done them and fooled people into thinking it was real before I told them it wasn’t.
Taken years of practice and trial and errors to make it look just right.
Grains, knots, color gradiations, glue lines, joints, even done some nails for authenticity.
Ben, PM me sometime.
30+ years working on that.
Not quite to sure about telling the world.
I charge big $ for that.
fair enough , big baz !
here is the parrish I saw it on …
[ 900 bucks might be a bit steep , though … it had taken in water , over the years …]
… sorry to double up ,
but
you mentioned airbrush jobs …
… do you have any shots of any ‘cosmic’ sprays / your 1970s work , a la peter st. pierre [and j.p. st. pierre , carrying on the tradition …]
here’s a marty worthington one , from the same surfboard swap/sell meet
I WAS hoping for more of these , but I think people hang on to / hide from the public’s view , the old hot buttered’s… that said , there WAS a ‘drifta’ that a young guy had on show [unfortunately , no spray , though !]
Found a couple.
If I ever make it to Cali again can I just sit in while you shape and pick your brain until you can’t stand t anymore?
- Barry,
- I'm a huge fan of how you keep it real in every aspect of the board building process.
I’m sure you’ve mentioned it before, but while we have you here, What’s the best glue for glueing up blanks? and How are you changing the color of it?
Lastly, when talking with a potential customer, what is the best way to bring up the price? Everytime I quote a $ amount, I regret it immediately, bc I should have asked for more. I was thinking a custom order form, with a base price, then a list of “add ons” extra fins, color, carbon, etc. with a price beside each, so the customer could check off what they want. My latest thing is asking, “what’s your budget?” and I tend to get a higher number than I was gonna ask for. I’d really like to turn this aspect of the process to my wife. She’s a shark and has no problem asking for money.
Thanks and I love how you beveled the rail on the square nosed boards from the bottom. That solved alot of issues I was having with those type of boards. I’m gonna be borrowing that design element for sure.
g
Glue.
That is yet another method I have been working on for 20 years.
Sometimes resin.
Sometimes wood glue.
Sometimes polyurethane glue.
if it’s water-based, you can add paint.
Resin requires pigments.
Depends on the application.
Regarding customers, stand firm.
I charge a fair price.
Industry standard.
Some of my project stuff, I charge accordingly.
Sometimes I throw in in some added bonus. Maybe a pinline or something to make them feel like they scored.