So I have no shaped and glassed my 30th board. I started about 2.5 years ago and have been shaping boards for myself and friends (more for friends which is a bummer). I have picked up as of late and just about six months ago I built a shop in the backyard. My garage and more importantly my wife and daughters appreciated this.
I was really happy with how my boards surfed and how they looked. Friends claimed they looked as if they were purchased straight off the rack! My problem is the last few boards I have shaped I have been kinda bummed on how they surfed. They looked great to the eye, but just had something about them that wasn’t quite right.
So, needless to say I got kinda bummed today when a friend and I surfed our local beachbreak (descent little south swell) and the board I just shaped him (5’10x21x2.5 small-wave board) just kinda seemed to be struggling. The surf was kinda funky at times and the board seemed to bog. I took out the quads I had in it and replaced them with a AM thruster set. The board seemed to work a bit better, but unless you were in the sweet spot of the wave the board felt like it was decelerating quite a bit.
Anyway…I know 30 boards aint shit. I know I have tons and tons more to learn. It’s just such a killer when you make something for someone and it’s just not quite what they were expecting. I’ll keep plugging away…
I've been building boards about the same length of time, and I'm on like number 10 LOL! Even pro's have their dogs - but remember, one man's dog is another man's magic. I do notice a lot of problems new shapers mention here seem to occur with quad boards - I suspect that the fin placement cant angle and etc. become more critical when there are four fins.
If the board bogs, too much tail rocker, or too thin tail, or too narrow tail, Width and thickness are easy to measure, the correct curvature of an arc isn’t
Sometimes it takes more than a few surfs to adapt to a new board especially if it differs significantly from previous models.
I had a board that I couldn’t get to work, much like you describe, no drive and boggy. Tried and tried but it just didn’t suit my style, I charge hard and bang out turns if I can stay upright.
Let a mate use it, took him 1/2 dozen surfs to get a feel for it then he loved it. It suited his style much more, tighter in the pocket and more finesse/control top to bottom with less speed.
I’ve also seen guys with their first fish/small wave board struggling as they try HPSB moves and bog on turns as they attempt the moves that they would normally do, “at that speed” but on a different style of board.
As huck said one mans dog is another mans magic.
If it’s got a lot of rocker or a flip at the tail, it will have it’s sweet spot, and it will have a lot to do with consistent foot placement as much as wave position.
It’s helpful to formulate a theory, make some measurements and compare with previous boards to see what you did differently, then you’ve really learnt something.
huck - I DO agree that one mans dog I another mans magic board. If worse comes to worse I’ll slap it on Craigslist for what it cost me and build another.
Ruckusman - I noticed the board worked but it had to be surfed a bit differently than a normal HPSB or even a small wave groveler. I told my friend not to write it off yet. I know fins make a big difference and hes gonna try some different fins in it.
everysurfer - I know what you are saying about rocker. I have been starting to measure rocker for the last 10 boards or so. Before I just eyeballed it. What I think is going on is that before my boards had very little tail rocker. 1.5 inches after going back and measuring them. So now that I’ve been measuring and putting a bit more tail rocker in them I think this may be part of the problem. It’s not a radical amount, this board was 2 inches I believe. I kinda thnk the problem may just be that the rocker is a part of the puzzle that is hard to measure like you said, and also needs to fit in with the rest of the board. Foil, concave, rails etc. to work well. Am I on the right track?
Rocker is sooo complicated. Much more than just the nose and tail measurements, but how you got there. I was measurung an old Channel Islands MBM that I save just for reference. In general terms, the rocker curve is greatest from midpoint forward, It is flattest from in front of the fins for about a foot. It adds a little more curve in the fin area, and bends just barely more out the back. I’m talking about just the slightest changes in curves.
Here is the rocker for my next, Notice that the curves are measured by their radius, The uploaded numbers are hard to read. If anybody is interested, p.m. me and I’ll e-mail the PDF
And just because the board is done, doesn’t mean the board is done. Don’t try to copy a board with a slight change. Re work the old one. I’ve posted this before. but her is a board where I decreased the tail rocker by stripping the bottom by the fins, adding d-cell, reshaping and re glassing.
I had the same experience. Started making boards again after many years. I had only done a few before I stopped, so I can’t say that I had it figured out back then.
When I started back, I seemed to pay a lot of attention to a lot of details like rocker, rail shapes, bottom contours, profile, etc. I used a lot of the boards I had lying around to compare these parts of the boards I shaped to. Some of the early board came out pretty good and I was very happy riding them. Then after some 10-15 boards I paid less attention to those things and did a lot of experimentation and really got out there. I noticed that the boards went too far on one aspect like too much belly, too much tail rocker, not enough rocker, weird rails like too thin or to fat.
Just have to get back to looking at the things that will work for the waves you want to ride, and make sure they are all put into the board right. I have found that a smooth flowing flatter rocker with a flat bottom or slight concave (mostly up front) will create a board that does not bog. The boards with lots of rocker will work good if you have small and rounder waves to do a lot of turns on.
In my opinion, for the waves I ride, the rocker shown above has too much curve in the nose, and would push water. I’d have a little less curve from the middle and then if needed a little more in the last foot and six inches. I like the Merrick Flyer for a short board.
After 40 boards I am noticing how important entry and exit release are. I’ve made boards with sticky front ends with a bad bend of rocker and too much concave. I have also made slow tails that claw water instead of flying through it. The magic boards let go of everything in the last few inches.
I agree with Shipley on the tail rocker. For quite I while I’ve seen boards with a bit more rocker in the last 6 inches or just behind the rear fin. Barely noticeable if you’re not looking for it, but if you do, you’ll see it. I’ve also seen boards with a generous amount of vee from the rear fin or from the center fin on longer single fins. These were from highly respected shapers here in Hawaii.
Anyone else want to take a guess on why this board is a slug? That's all anyone can do is guess. Might as well fart in a hurricain. To get some real feed back and some real advice on how and why you screwed this board up, They need to see the board. Photos and some detailed numbers would be the 2Nd best way to get any real feed back.
Your friends are your friends,getting honest critical feed back from a friend isn't easy besides what do they know? If you want to progress and improve be prepared for some verbal abuse. Within the heckling and derision,will be gems and nuggets of gold that have taken many years to find.
Surfed the board again today at the same beachbreak, except it was mostly rights. The board worked great in the small but wedging rights! The few lefts I caught were kinda weak and just rolling through. The board still seemed to struggle. But everybody catching the lefts seemed to be having the same issues, so I’m thinking it’s not the board, the lefts were kinda weird. It’s good to know the board isn’t a shit-stick.
Also, it works much better as a thruster than as a quad. I will have my friend try a different set of quads in the future to see if that helps. He’s in Tahoe now so he told me to ride the board and see if I could figue it out.