I live in Cape Cod, MA but go to school in VA. The boards I ride are down there leaving me without a board for roughly the month I'm home during winter break. The one board I do have here is an old board i used to step down from a funshape to a short board that's far to big now, a 6'2"x 20.5"x2.5" Kechele UFO, I'm 5'10" 165 lbs. I've never shaped a anything before but I was thinking about stripping the board and reshaping then glassing it, I figure why not try it for the first time on a board that pretty much has no use anymore. I have all the tools necessary for shaping, and I'm pretty capable with all of them, so thats not a problem. To anyone with shaping experience, does this seem plausible to you, or would I just be better off buying a blank and starting from scratch?
You could do it, I did but if I was you I would just ride the board as is. I mean it's only a month and you might get 2 maybe 3 days on it before you have to go back. Not worth ripping it apart in my opinion.
ive done it before. its not that hard but its very time consuming. and striping the board is a huge pain. also, glassing is a lot harder than it seems... especially wrapping the rails
I did it and wasn't pleased with the result. I'd recommend selling it on craigslist and calling it a day. If you must do it, an easy way to delam it is to drill a small hole into it so you can insert a needle that you would use to inflate a football or basketball. Seal any holes on the board and at the needle and hook it up to a compressor or some other type of pump. You'll hear it popping and cracking as the bonds are broken. Eventually you'll be able to pull most of the glass right off. Another idea is to completely go against the grain with the fin configuration. Get some plywood, foil a fin or five and glass them on. Try to resist the urge to destroy the board.
That board is not too big for you at all. You boosting 360 airs? Leave it. Try it another day. You have your whole life.
I live in MA next to ri I have some shortboard blanks I could sell you cheap, or I could shape you something pretty quick if you wanted it soon. PM me
I could see it being a little tough on the duck dives at 165lbs 2.5" thick and 20.5" wide is a lot of volume for a larger board like 6'2" I'm 190 and I would ride that width and thickness in the 5'6" to 5'10" as a Sims inspired or fish or small wave machine.
I have a 5'11 that does not preform well in over chest high. It's too buoyont I always think, damn if It was a half inch thinner it would be my all around goto. Not saying this isn't a bad idea, not saying it is. But I will say... A half in. Can make a difference, undoubtedly, in some cases.
The thing that makes it is its thicker than most for his size and wider through the whole board there's a little more total volume than he needs I don't know how wide/thick the tail is but if its too much then he could have a whole other problem by having a "shortboard" that floats on the waves instead of cutting through them which when it's bigger with push you want to be able to cut through
Down at school I'm riding a 5'7"x19.25"x2.37" that works great, the thing about the Kechele is it's got a lot of volume throughout, so it's real hard for me to duck dive and rather tough to maneuver. @Paperplate, I mostly surf down in Newport so I'll let you know if the blanks are the decision I go with
