Board Shaping?

[tomcat360]

i'm trying to get into shaping boards, but i wasnt sure if i am ready to start on a big project. i saw some place with plans on making skimboards. i know they are rather different, but its all still foam. yall think this is a good way to get the hang of it, or should i suck it up and start on a board?

thanks
-tommy

[deathfrog]

whatever you want man, they're both just as hard just in their own ways, and one costs less.

there's only so much you can screw up, and if you do something like a 6'6 egg single, it won't make much difference on it's performance, just keep it simple and keep the flow, that's the most important thing. Foil it well, don't do any huge foiling to make super thin rails, fidy/fidy rails, low rocker, thick and chunky.

If you want to use clark blanks, try a 6'9A, 6'11A, 6'11R, or if you want to try something longer try using the 7'5A. Most of the A blanks are versitile chunky blanks, and remember to try not to take alot of foam from the deck, because it makes it weaker.

Try making a 6'6 x 20.5 x 2.75 single eight inch flex fin, thick 50/50 rails all the way around, rocker about 4.5"n and 2" max tail (all of this is changable for your needs) so go with custom rockers on all of these blanks, you can ajust it in shaping but I wouldn't recomend it at this point. Glas with 2 six ounce plus a six patch, and a 1six plus tail patch bottom, blue or green weight blank to get a good classic board.

www.swaylocks.com will help EMENSLEY so go check it out

Good luck with it, let us know how it goes if you go for the surfboard, if you decide on a skimmer there's a thread somewhere about it...

[tomcat360]

im really hoping i wont have to resolve to clark blanks, since the shipping cross-country is through the roof. any other companies (east coast?) or other ways to get blanks?

-tommy

[tomcat360]

forgot this-

how much harder would it be for a big thruster or fish? i think i would get more out of those than an egg.

[deathfrog]

Thrusters and fish are fine, it's just that your mistakes will show more in the ride of the board, but it doesen't really matter that much, and there's just more things that can go wrong (breaking off tips on the nose and tail, especally with a fish, and it's harder to get the crack of the fish right(especally on the steve lis types, the actual fish))

I know what you're talking about with the shipping, try to go find a big local shaper and see if you can either try to buy some blanks off him, or hitch an order with him. Or, you can try using EPS (expanded poly styrene; styrofoam) foam and get a blank from home depot, or Sfoam.


Sfoam is like clark, they cut their own blanks out of EPS foam and glue in stringers for you, so you can get blanks either cut to a surfboard looking blank shape or just a big rectangle with rocker. You can also get them stringerless, and lots of other stuff.

I have actually only used EPS, I haven't used Sfoam because of shipping also, but go to home depot, buy some foam, and glue up my own blanks. I'm currently doing a project with my dad to try and make my own urethane blanks, but actually making any will be a long ways off.

Do you want some general dimensions for a fish or sb?

the sfoam blank catalog isn't quite as hard to choose from as the clark because it's an even density the whole way though, so you don't need to worry about getting one close to finished dimensions, just the more foam you get the more it will cost, and the more you'll have to take off. here's the site, http://www.sfoam.com/ you can take a look and decide if you want to use it yourself.

But with EPS, you gotta use epoxy, or else you'll melt your blank. I highly recomend Resin Research epoxy, it's the best stuff. Their site is http://www.resinresearch.net/

if yous till have anymore questions, ask away

[tomcat360]

buyin off a local shaper is a good idea. i think i might start lookin for openings helpin out with a shaper, so he can point some light on it. only thing is there probably arent many near me, considering there are no waves for a 2-3 hour drive...would you mind sending me some demenisions on a shortboard or fish? by the way, whats your personal opinion of epoxy boards? i havent ridden any but ive heard some negative things about them....

thanks,

tommy