Surfing Waves

Looking to try making my own board. I saw some of the insulation foam boards that hobbiests talk about at Lowe's but it gets pricey pretty quick, $60 just for the foam before any other components. Anyone know a better source for foam?

After you shape the "foam", how are you going to glass it or skin over it to get it water tight ?

Making surfboards does not have a great return on investment in general. However the parts will cost you less than having an expert make it for you but then you will get a board made by a non expert. If you are already a surfer then it is perhaps a good thing to do. It gives you appreciation for what a shaper does and lets you try out whatever kooky designs you may have been pondering but have no doubt that whatever board you can make would be much better made by an expert.

waikikikichan wrote:After you shape the "foam", how are you going to glass it or skin over it to get it water tight ?

Depends on the material really. Certain foams need to be fiberglassed, others need to be coated in epoxy and vacuum bagged.
If I do a fiberglass it it's as simple as cutting strips of fiberglass to the right length, laying them out in the correct pattern, coat with epoxy and let cure.

Other foams will burn with the epoxy used in fiberglass, so you have to use a different epoxy, which you have to set with a vacuum bag since there's no matrix (cloth) for it to bond to. The vacuum pump doesn't have to be real powerful and you can use stuff from home Depot to make your bag. I had a class on composite materials, it's pretty simple concept but tedious. I've got an article about the different foams here somewhere, I'll send you a link when I find it

oldmansurfer wrote:Making surfboards does not have a great return on investment in general. However the parts will cost you less than having an expert make it for you but then you will get a board made by a non expert. If you are already a surfer then it is perhaps a good thing to do. It gives you appreciation for what a shaper does and lets you try out whatever kooky designs you may have been pondering but have no doubt that whatever board you can make would be much better made by an expert.

Ya I'm mostly doing it because I want a board with a certain set of features, and I like experimenting with stuff

Sounds fun SnakePlissken! I'd love to hear how it goes. I've thought about trying to make my own board but I know I'd probably just make a crappy board and spend $300. But I bet you'd learn so much about what makes a surfboard work. And you could get really creative and make a wild design. I dig this shaper here in LA called Critter Toy Co. He makes awesome boards. If I made surfboards, I'd want them to look like his... Another reason I don't buy a blank!

Ratfinksurfer wrote:Sounds fun SnakePlissken! I'd love to hear how it goes. I've thought about trying to make my own board but I know I'd probably just make a crappy board and spend $300. But I bet you'd learn so much about what makes a surfboard work. And you could get really creative and make a wild design. I dig this shaper here in LA called Critter Toy Co. He makes awesome boards. If I made surfboards, I'd want them to look like his... Another reason I don't buy a blank!

I've been reading on surfscience.com about shapes and rocker and stuff and it seems a lot of it is counterintuitive. So I'm taking a step back. I still plan to make my own board, but first I'm going to take a class. I found this neat opportunity in my area (Virginia) where you can either take a group class with a board shaper, or you can do a one on one lesson and shape your own board. It works out that it's about as much as any other board from the shaper, but you get to make it and learn. So I think I'm going to do that, and then work on making my own after that. Either way, it sounds fun. I'm sure someone does something similar in la. The site for the guy out here is marsurfexchange.com for reference.
If you get into it let me know!