anyone here shape?

I love doing some shaping...2-3 boards a year for about the past 15 years.

I ride this board all the time....the 5'7" Cookie:


6'4" five finner I rode a few times and sold. Seemed stiff to me.


5'9" EPS/Epoxy round nose fish ...Lost copy
Great board for waist-chest high waves. Made this one about 5 years ago and still like it a lot:


4'11" Square...there is nothing better in one - two foot mush...catches up and passes longboards!




my 5'11" copy of ...Lost. The "Boh" fish. this was a good one. EPS/Epoxy

 

Made about 8. Gave up after the 8th haha. My experience is that I never thought of shapers on the same level as master craftsman or draftsman but afterwards I have a gained a new level of respect. I mean a table or cabinet has to look good and be level, but it doesn't have to perform. You can probably see why I gave up after 8!

 

Mitchell I like your square, were you riding it on small beachbreaks?

 

Will try to remember to post pics later. But one of the most important things I learned on my first boards was to try to learn one thing at a time. Simple shapes with single concaves and 50/50 rails once that was down I moved on to more cocaves different rails/interesting outlinnes ect. Also if you want your early boards to come out nice do most of the work with hand tools... it's much more forgiving

 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/CJ-Custom-Surfboards/179607818847854

 

I shaped my fish. I have helped design and glass most of my own boards for about the last 10ish years.

I'll goof around and shape my own fishes, or weird boards. But when i want a board i know is gonna work for sure i'll have my buddies with more experience shape em up.

 

I've shaped about 12 boards. Gave it up about three years to ride "real" boards. Still see some of the boards that I've sold around the beach from time to time. This year after seeing Mitchell's square and trying it, I shaped a version for myself. 5'1" of pure speed. Found out last swell that it kills in waist to chest high clean mush.
the bottom shot is just after lamination.

 

I think everyone should build at least one board in their life. Not just shape... but build a board, start to finish. I think it would be great if everybody rode their own boards. I think it actually helps your surfing, because you begin to understand how and why different elements of design do what in terms of performance. Plus.. it brings it all back to the DIY roots of the surfing culture.

 

This will be hollow wooden surfboard #4 for me. 6'0" fish. Single concave to V out the back. Going to try the same template and bonzer it out after this one. Longboard is my winter project.

 

I love the square. I don't shape but I feel like you could make a sick kneeboard if you modified that dimensions a little.

 

Fun looking boards Mitchell and Zippy. I assume these things are pretty flat rocker-wise? I made something fairly similar-looking out of the middle of an old longboard.

What blanks did you guys use?

 

yeah fairly flat rockered. A busted up longboard would be perfect.

Cool story...Zippy had an old pigeon-pecked 6'0" blank that was so torn up his birds that the back foot of it was destroyed. He hooked me up with it, and I figured if I've got to make something under five feet long, why not something like a boogie shape. Turns out its a blast to ride in knee waist high mush, so he wanted one. So I returned the favor and gave him a 5'10" U.S. Blanks Rich Pavel blank and within three weeks, he was done shaping and glassing his (which I've ridden and dig a lot!).

 

When I move and get a house with a garage and backyard I think I'm gonna invest in some tools and try it for myself, see if I like it.

 

Nice, I guess circumstance was the mother of invention in this case. They look like a hoot to ride.

 

Correction, chicken pecked. For some reason my chickens loved pecking that blank, lol. It never made it to the pigeons. Mine was from a round nosed/square tailed template that Mitchell had traced out on the pavel blank. After riding his board, and I swear it was no more than two waves, I had to have one. We talked about it a bit then agreed I should take a saw and hack off over a foot of foam (6inch from the nose, same from the tail). The one thing I would have done is taken off more foam, there is a ton of width so it could have been thinner with no ill effects. It's still a great board and gets a lot of attention when I paddle out and get written off as a body boarder, then get longer and better rides than most of the people out there.

 

Paralysis by analysis is real. All you need to do is make sure it floats and you'll catch a wave.