Custom virgin?

[benjl]

a downpayment has now been made!

We left the dims as is but he is going to add 0.2l more volume in the chest area and move the quad fin boxes a smidgen towards the rail.
Time to wait 2.5weeks..

[benjl]

3 days left!!

[dtc]

3 days left!!

A shaper who delivers on time? I'm not sure that is allowed by the shapers guild

[benjl]

Haha!

He said 2.5weeks so I emailed him last week asking if we were still looking at this coming Friday and he said yes!

I've just brought a new Kelly slater tail pad and some Creatures of leisure carbon 'arc' fins in preparation.

The shaper reckoned that more drivey / carvey fins would be better for this board than really pivotal ones as it's quite short anyway. I happened to have the Nat young 'vert' fins off another board so at least I should have a fin quiver for either open face or tight pocket surfing to fit!!

[waikikikichan]

Are you going to paddle it out the first day you get it ? is it PU or EPS ?

[benjl]

Probably not the first day (it will be Friday afternoon with a crappt surf forecast and I also have mates coming on Friday night to head to a music gig) but probably going to take it out on Saturday and Sunday.
A guy wants to buy my FireWire dominator in raglan so I might drop it off to him and try out that area. The NZ rip curl pro was held there last week.

It's an eps board, with carbon stringers and internal rail system.
Check out the below link: I've also asked
For extra strong glassing
http://www.primalsurf.co.nz/futurelite/

[dtc]

You are meant to let a PU board cure a while aren't you? I think for Ben maybe 5 weeks would be just enough


(To drive him crazy)

But 2 weeks is the recommended period. Minimum

[benjl]

1 more day!

[Big H]

Just to be clear; this is all new to me.....

New PU boards need to cure for a minimum of two weeks; is that right?

EPS do not require a curing time?


I am also a custom virgin....

[Lebowski]

Not that I'm a shaper, but that shape looks more like a groveller to me. At the end of the day, a shaper will make whatever you ask them to, whether it will surf well or not. So if you give them a fairly rigid set of instructions, you could end up with a dog of a board.

I agree with BigH on the custom vs. off the rack debate to be honest, but if you really want a custom board perhaps you should tell your shaper what kind of waves you want it to surf, your weight, what your level is etc. and then ask what they suggest, rather than stipulating tailshape, length, volume etc. Use their knowledge to tell you what is best.

[benjl]

Not going to be ready until Tuesday next week now!

[Lebowski]

Oops, my last post just above was made after only reading the first page of this thread. I didn't realise there were 3 pages! Nevermind, I stick with my statement. But I hope your new board rides well!

[benjl]

That's all good, the template the shaper has used is apparently a 'tried and true' model called the 'disco fish' which he has just tweaked to better suit the length etc that I was after.
He was very confident that the board would perform based on years of testing from his stock standard dims. (I also bumped in to a guy while buying a new tail pad for it that had ridden the disco fish in 5ft and said it ripped).
It's also very similar dims to a lot of other 'good wave' / hybrid boards out there like the mini driver, lost v3 etc.

I've asked if I can at least get a photo of it curing to curb my enthusiasm for the meanwhile

[benjl]

I just thought I would give you guys an update and let you know that I'm still waiting..

This is torture.. Nearly a week behind schedule

[dtc]

“Patience you must have, my young padawan”

We did kinda warn you in a roundabout way about the shapers union....1 week is nothing, its a rounding error in a shaper's schedule

[waikikikichan]

Shaping was done on schedule. It's the log jam at the glassers that's causing the wait. What's the ratio of shapers to glassers ? Like 200 to 1 ? You also have to figure in the airbrusher, fin set up guy, sander, polisher, etc. But most important is if there's Waves, "cause if got wave, No Body works".

[benjl]

Haha- apparently he's waiting on the sander to 'finish and spray'.

They were hopeful to have it tomorrow

[drowningbitbybit]

I had a shaper say 'two weeks, max' to me once... the board arrived 8 weeks later...

To be fair, to make up for the delay, he did make my next board for half-price!

[dtc]

I organised to meet my shaper where he lived, down the coast where I usually go but not where I live (2.5hr drive). On the morning of our meeting he rang me and said 'I've hurt my back, I'm in hospital but still come'. I was pretty hesitant because I've been through back injuries, but he was insistent

So I turned up and sat next to his hospital bed for an hour. He was on massive pain killers but I think welcomed the distraction. I left and about 10 days later got a voice mail saying he had been emergency evacuated to Sydney by chopper and was undergoing surgery. He might not be able to shape ever again but if I could wait a month he would let me know.

Well I was ok with that, so waited. Fortunately surgery was a complete success but rehab would be 3-5 months. Was I fine with that? It was just the start of winter and getting the family to the coast is hard the , so I figured why not - I had picked this guy after much thought

So it was actually close to about 8 months maybe before I got my board, but I had a call at least every month to tell me what was going on

Actually, the day I went to pick it up I went to his house but no one was there. No phone calls or anything. I tried to call him but nothing. Finally got hold of him - he had gone surfing that morning but on his way home there was a front end collision about 100m in front of him and someone was killed and the road was blocked. He had his phone but it was flat, he had to talk to the police then find a mate and find a charger and charge, then he was able to call me...

But finally got the board and it was all worth it!

[benjl]

So what you're telling me is that there's no way I'm going to get it today?!

Here's an example of my shapers work- pretty cool to copy the Vader!
https://touch.trademe.co.nz/listing/view/1081036684