Do you prefer to shape outdoors or indoors? Ive heard that some famous surfers often like to shape and glass their stuff outdoors. Thats pretty soulful.
May be soulful but I wouldn’t want to be the guy living down wind…
I shape outdoors, under a big canopy. Partly because I have to, (not enough room in the garage) but that being said I like it… I have glassed outdoors too but try to do it when the neighbors aren’t home.
I shape on the brick patio infront of my sliding glass door; I glass in my garage between a 72’ Mustang and a wall full of tools and parts; I spend my free time dreaming about having my own indoor area to shape and glass in… soulful or not.
I’m using the attic of a garage. Windows at either end have fans in them to create air circ. It’s about 90f when it’s 75f outdoors. The fans get it down to 80. I have two stations side by side made of those threaded steel pipes from Home Depot. 11\4inch with flanges on all the tees and heads(2x4’s) for easy interchanging. While shaping, one becomes a waiste high light and shelf and the other becomes a shaping stand and likewise for glassing. The space limits auditors and longboard construction which I can’t do anyway so I guess it’s not all that bad. ropes from rafters hold my closet rod glass roll dispenser while I pull. One 5 board rack. 1 large trash can. And a hundred cashed 2.5 quart plastic mixing tubs. Do I smell like resin?T
I’ll bet you do. Keep a fire extinguisher handy? Sounds like an OSHA field day up there…
I enclosed half of my dear old mum’s garage and ended up with an 8’x14’ room about 8’ high. It was thrown together rather hastily so it needs a contrasting blue paint job. I was doing just 7’6’ mini tanks when I started so I put up 4’ flourescent sidelights. Now that I’m up to 9 foot longboards I really need to get some 8 footers. I have a vaccum set up for my planer which helped a LOT. There is some ventilation on one wall, but it still gets hot, which forces me to shape late in the day or evenings. I send all my work out for glassing.
I work in a cabinet shop and my boss let me build a full on shaping room in the department I work in. It’s realy cool to be doing my regular job and be able to peer over to the shaping room and see the works in progress.
I shape under a big ol chestnut tree in the hills behind Monteceito, with the sweet smell of sage bush floating in the wind.
maybe that will work?
Use to shape on the beach under a guy’s deck. That was O.K. for a while untill I started glassing. Sandy hotcoats. Like sanding sandpaper with sandpaper. Finally built my own place. And man was it worth it.
My backyard has a nice room built by a surfer/construction worker on top of a concrete floor base since ‘87. A famous shaper showed me the build setup cause he really liked shaping out of his rental backyards throughout the eighties then transporting shaped blanks to local glassers!! Working out of a messy stinky shithole of a over-burdoned factory never appealed to me although transporing shaped blanks is somewhat stressful in rush hour traffic also. It allows convienient shaping in a garden atmosphere, with cool dogs that love you, and the groms clean it for me, all attitudes are in check!!! Now that it’s warm, i can shape in a bathing suit then turn the garden hose over my head for instant cooldown while watering plants when done with a shape!! Most name shapers i know are either burned out or headed that way already this summer from the seasonal grind…I’m thinking about glassing occasionally again just to avoid the stress of dealing with factories of overworked hardworkers with deadlines…Glassed a 10’ version of a Con Ugly last week while my glasser was in Hawaii just on a whim. The laminating was so easy it got me thinking of the whole backyard soul thing that all seventies builders including myself dabbled in. IT’S IN MY BLOOD!!! While sanding it last night in the middle of my backyack with a sheet of 80 grit it(sanding) wasn’t that bad with the breeze and dogs…wide eyed groms watching/poking around. It won’t be the purdiest noserider, with a doghair or two. But I made it with my two hands and I’m as stoked as when I sanded my first hatchet job in '71 on my Dad’s front lawn on my hands and knees with a 2x4 sanding block and scrap used sandpaped…I needed this…years of lame attitudes at local reefs, unhappy sometimes violent behaviour’s, ego’s, stupid longboard clubs with fat smoking kooks glaring with jealousy and banding together with phoney competitions to promote their disfunctional, divorced, unemployed, punk-a@ses. Anyways, i will go on outsurfing these clowns independently on self-made hybrids and fishes and LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!! The energy of making your own board in itself makes it ride better, it’s a spiritual thing only a surfer would know(my wife thinks I’m nut’s sanding a board i could have done for $20. by a pro!) Anyway have fun surfing, don’t hate a fellow surfer, god knows we all need our wave drug.
I also shape outdoors during the summer/early autumn “inside” those cheapie “screen houses”/tent deals (in my backyard) to cut down on the intense sunlight, leaf, and bug factor. (jab my u stands right into the earth). I glass outdoors, as well. (better for the 'ole lungs) NOT great for the environment, but I’m low volume and I have exceedingly cool neighbors who are supportive. (AND quiet). still use the vac…try to plan things on low humidity overcast days where the light is more diffused (can see bands better than the glare of the bright white). Used to use the garage, (flourescents navel height) but I believe I’ve got several leaks and it’s starting to get REALLY humid in there…Looks like I’ll be doing a lot more roofing than shaping this summer…if it ever dries out. weather has been extremely rainy all winter and spring. (and cool). miserable! Usually, my skin tone is pretty dark by mid june…Ironically, now I REALLY LOOK like the hard core shaper. (in Hawaii, you could tell the career men in the line up by how pale they were…god bless 'em).
Surfhungry, I’m confused…“stupid longboard clubs with fat smoking kooks glaring with jealousy and banding together with phoney competitions to promote their disfunctional, divorced, unemployed, punk-a@ses” then shortly followed by “don’t hate a fellow surfer”, what’s up with that? Sorry, maybe I just took it wrong cause I mostly ride longboards. I don’t belong to a club, not fat, don’t smoke, not jealous, don’t compete, might be slightly disfunctional, happily married for 19 years now, employed and my ass might be getting a little flabby or maybe it’s just my pants that make it look that way. But back to the subject, I shape in my buddies small converted barn, he’s got a couple of shaping racks, he glasses his own, but I send mine out.
Come on guys, let’s be clean. Shape indoors and ispose of hazardous mats. properly.
Yeah your right, i just have a issue with tribes of knuckleheads, no problem with longboarders at all in general, just venting about a major problem clogging up my local spot, i ride long and short, short fuse yesterday, it’s all good now, ugly weather making me obnoxious i guess!!
first, in my mind and then in the real shaping room.
holy mackeral! I feel guilty sometimes for not being completely hygienic with my foam dust and such, but some of the places described in these responses are kind of scary. Some sound really organic and cool but whats happening to the nieghbors, kids, pets, vegi gardens, etc. all around. i would like to think we are better than the backyard mechanic that dumps his oil in the gutter. after we create these masterpieces we ride them in the ocean where most of the crap we humans discard ends up eventually. what would happen if severe limitations were imposed on the materials we use in our backyards because of misuse. I may be wrong but I think you used to be able to buy all the things you needed to paint your car in your backyard, but no longer. keep youself and everybody around you safe and healthy, ill try and do the same. Cheers!
I shape in my lock up garage in ‘Old London Town’ in England, miles away from the sea. It’s the smallest of lock ups, and my stands bolt into the floor, kinda of like some sort of Inspector Gadget contraption. When I finish on an evening, I have to put the boards on cars roof racks. It’s a real pain in the butt, but I love it. The biggest laugh, is when people walk by. I mean, alot of English people, in the middle of a big city, have never seen a surfboard, it’s completely alien to them. They just stand there, with their mouths open catching flies!!! I dream of being closer to the sea (like on a beach front). Laters Peaman
When I was living in London last year. I used to catch the train down to Cornwall on my days off. It took 6 hours and the train went through these fully out there country towns in the middle of nowhere. People just could not get their head around the fact i had a surfboard, one of the classic conversations i had with this old English guy in a tweed jacket, he asked me where i was going kayaking. I had a 6’8’ double board bag so maybe it looked like a kayak.