Surfing Waves

Ok so i ride a 10'6 noserider made by Ken White here in St. Augustine, FL. THe waves here dont get very big but they are decent for me. Ever since i started to surf 2 years ago ive wanted to shape my own board. I have a 7'6 shaped by Pat Madden and it just doesnt fit what im looking for. Im 6'4 and 225 pounds. Im wanting to shape something that will catch this small mushy stuff when i dont want to bring the log. Ive been looking at retro fishes and thinking about shapeing one myself but making it ove 3inches thick. What deminesions would yall suggest for me? i want it to paddle like a log but be faster and more agile of course. Also if yall could point me to some good instructions on how to shape with out power tools that would be great also. Thanks for yalls help.

I shaped with a hand saw, hand plane, surform, sanding block and sandpaper. It's the same as using power tools... just more work It's really tricky to make a shorter board that paddles well. It won't ever paddle as well as a longboard unless you are talking about a poorly designed longboard. There are many types of drag that affect how a surfboard paddles. Profile drag is that drag created by the profile of the board moving through the water and this is what affects paddling the most. Profile drag can be estimated by looking from the nose toward the tail of the board in the plane that it would be when paddled. You can think of it like a 2"x 4"x 24" piece of wood (a 2 foot long piece of 2 by 4). If you look at it from the 2" x 4" end it presents a profile of 8 square inches that need to be pushed through the water but from a side view it is 2" x 24" or 48 square inches that need to be pushed through the water yet that board could be 100 feet long and still from the end on view only have 2x4" dimension and the same profile drag. What they do with shorter boards is to make them thicker and wider and both of these increase profile drag. I guess that going wider rather than thicker adds less profile drag but the exact amounts of each is beyond me. I would find a board that you like and get close to that in dimensions or else just figure it will be a good learning experience and maybe not so good of a board.

My only clues to hand tooling it is be careful around the stingers because it is easy to take off too much foam and have to whack the stringer back a bit. Also The main tool for me was surform which is kind of like a rasp and I used one about 10 to 12 inches long. This was for PU blank if you are using EPS then maybe not a surform. Not sure I haven't worked with EPS foam much but it may not be a good tool for that type of blank and a sanding block and more work will have to do for that.

ok awesome. Well i was planning on going a lil wider and keeping it over 3 inches thick. Was thinking a more rounded nose and making it a retro fish and twin fin.

Now how much did you spend all said and done?

Mohawk918 wrote: how much did you spend all said and done?

It depends who is going to glass your shaped blank. Are you going to do it yourself or bring it to a glasser ? You need to check their prices. Some go by feet ( 6-7, 7'1"-8'0', 8'1-9'0" ), some go by 6 inches. That might help you determine what length of board you should shape.

How are you going to engage a 3 inch rail into the soft wave face ? Fishes need to be ridden on rail, not on it's flat bottom.

Mohawk918 wrote:ok awesome. Well i was planning on going a lil wider and keeping it over 3 inches thick. Was thinking a more rounded nose and making it a retro fish and twin fin.

Now how much did you spend all said and done?

I spent around $80 but that was back around 1973. Prices might have gone up a little since then A new board was $125 but I got my first one for $90 because the blank had a gouge in it maybe about 0.5 inches wide and deep so it had a cosmetic defect and probably the shapers wife made him give me a discount because I helped her out once.

waikikikichan wrote:

Mohawk918 wrote: how much did you spend all said and done?

It depends who is going to glass your shaped blank. Are you going to do it yourself or bring it to a glasser ? You need to check their prices. Some go by feet ( 6-7, 7'1"-8'0', 8'1-9'0" ), some go by 6 inches. That might help you determine what length of board you should shape.

How are you going to engage a 3 inch rail into the soft wave face ? Fishes need to be ridden on rail, not on it's flat bottom.

I plan on doing everything myself, even glassing. I dont plan on haveing a 3 inch rail that would be nuts.

Mohawk918 wrote:I plan on doing everything myself, even glassing.

1) how many boards have you glassed before ?
2) if none, how many ding repairs have you done with resin and catalyst ?
3) if none, have you worked with UV curing resin before ?

4) how are you going to sand down the glassing without a power sander ?

You can take a look at http://surfersteve.com/introduction.htm where the author explains how to shape without power tools for beginners. It can be done, but if I were to shape one, I'd pick a blank that's very close to the final shape and dimension and I'd probably at least use an electric planer.
As for glassing, wkkkchan has all the great questions. You really need to be able to repair dings properly before glassing the while board. Ive done a fair amount of repairs myself since I started 2 years ago, between buying used boards in not-too-good conditions and having 3 surfers in the family, latest one being the delamed deck. And glassing and then polishing to perfection is not easy. I'd budget the glassing to be outsourced if I were to shape myself. I'm guessing $200-300 for a typical job for a mid to long boards in the US. Of course coloring, pin lines, and different types of cloth would cost more. It'd be a nightmare to see the resin gel when you've only covered half of the deck or something.

ive repaired a lot of dings on my boards and on friends. Ive been told im very good at it. I have even repaired a fin box on one of my longboards and had to reglass it.