I started shaping my first board and figured I’d share about it. I haven’t been able to log in to Swaylocks until now for some reason. Anyway, I’m 48, 190lbs and been surfing 3 years on custom boards, and feel it’s time to ‘upgrade’ a few for more performance. That gets expensive so I figured I’d try doing my own. There’s a local shaper who started offering shaping lessons so I’m working with him, since I don’t have tools or anything yet.
I did the planform in a free iPhone app (I gave a donation) and it looks really good I think. It’s 7’10 x 22.75 x 2.88. It’s like a small wave travel board. The image shows a round tail but I gave it a wide squash. I slipped with the saw cutting the nose so it’s about 1/16-1/8 narrower at the nose.
so far the bottom profile is roughed in, the deck is shaped, and the outline cut (in that order.) I want to check the bottom before doing the rails. It has very slight single, to slight double starting around 50%, to a vee with no concave the last 8”. The idea is for glide under the front foot and clean grip under the rear foot.
I’ve learned a lot about surfboard design in general from this forum, so thank you for making this forum such a cool place.
Thanks! I was stoked when I printed full-size and the tail curve was virtually identical to my favorite board. I’ll get some pics when I’m back in the bay.
It’s going to be Futures thruster, I have a custom fiberglass copy of the Accelerator template. I have to learn about placement still.
It’s hard to get a good pic in the shaping bay - in general it’s hard to get good pics because of the perspective. We had it outside today in the sun, I didn’t have my phone but it looks really good!
The shaper I’m working with did the rails. It’s the first time he’s trying to teach someone and didn’t explain the angles very well, so I just let him do it. But the point is to learn, and I asked the right questions and now know what to do for the next board, and he knows what he forgot to talk about. But I skinned the deck, shaped the bottom and deck, cut the outline, and sanded laps. Tomorrow I’ll get to do the second hot coat and the final sanding.
I almost can’t believe how good it came out - everything about it looks like what I would expect ‘my board’ to look like. The deck is semi-flat with a nice taper to the rails. The bottom is fairly flat to about 3/16” single concave, to about max 3/16” double concave to vee. When the board is standing up the shape has a really nice flow to it. The tail is wide but doesn’t really look it.
I can hardly wait to do the next one!
I have a Torq 7’10 x 22.5 x 3.0 that’s corky but with a pin tail that sinks. This board was an experiment to try slightly wider, thinner, and a wider tail. I also went a little flatter through the entry, added more in the double and started the double farther up, to get lift under my front foot, and flattened things out at the tail to have a cleaner feeling under my back foot. It’s hard to show that stuff in pictures.
[I honestly can’t believe how good this thing is! It’s truly perfect, 100% what I wanted it to do in the conditions I made it for. I’m blown away and already in love with this thing on the first day.
Very cool. I rode a lot of boards in the 7’ range up to 8’2. A couple of them were pretty similar to your shape. Shaped and glassed a couple of them myself. Also a 7’6” by Doug Haut and an 8’2 shape by Steve Mussinger(sp) when he shaped for CCS in San Luis Obispo. Two of the best boards I ever owned.
Thanks! Yeah, I like the size. I live in Waikiki and have been surfing 3 years so it’s been mostly 9’0 and 8’6 for me. I tried a 7’6 in Costa Rica and loved it, but went a little longer since the waves here don’t break as fast. It seems like a really versatile size. I think this board with a rounded tail and a touch more tail rocker would really go everywhere. I specifically shaped it for small waves though, as an alternative to a longboard, so I went with the wider tail.
