During the 4-6 week process of having a shaper make you a custom board, how vocal are you about your ideas and how often do you communicate your requirements with him? I have all these ideas but I just want to let this guy do his thing.
Meet with the shaper, talk about ALL of my ideas then, maybe stay for an hour while he finds the right template for what i want, makes adjustments of the template on the blank, when thats done, watch him draw the outline so i can see what its going to look like, maybe stay and watch him cut out the outline. put down a partial payment, then wait for the "its done" call few weeks later. The time to communicate your ideas is before the shaping starts. Thats IMO anyway. Feedback after I've ridden it a few times, hopefullly while surfing with him.
bingo. go over it all w/ the shaper when you go to place the order, then let it lie. nothing worse than bugging the shaper for no reason when he's trying to work his magic.
I don't even want to attempt to be technical about it because I don't know squat about all the surfboard gobbledygook. I figured that I can probably let him know everything that I want out of the board right now, and let him decide what design features to incorporate. Learning a lot though, and just crossing my fingers since I haven't had the best of luck with custom boards personalized for me.
It is a fun process to point out exactly what you want to do, then have someone tailor a design for that. Just prepare to wait. Depending on what shaper you work with, it can be a couple weeks to a couple months. It's all part of having a custom shape and design.
All good advice so far... I especially appreciate the feedback part. Put all your ideas on the table at the beginning of the process. Sit down with your shaper with the blank catalog and pick the right plug, so there's a discussion about rocker, as well as template, thickness, bottom contours, etc. If you can be there when he shapes, particularly at the beginning of the process, that can be helpful. But trying to call or shoot your shaper a text during that waiting period is how miscommunications happen and mistakes are made. Better to save those ideas for your next board.
My recent experience was pretty convenient and simple. I communicated completely via email with Mike Daniel, and he and I exchanged several emails to get all my requests and specs dialed in, I put my $100 deposit down via Paypal, and then he went to work, I pretty much just let him do his thing, he knows a lot more than me, so being there to see what he does didn't matter to me, I trusted the opinions of so many others who had dealt with him and I got the same treatment as they did and it worked out perfectly. I didn't stress about the shape, the quality, or anything, couldn't be happier.
the best boards I've ever had custom made where when I didn't really say much to the shaper. All they really need to know is your height/weight, your age/paddling ability, where you surf and how you surf (aggressive/vert or mellow). They do their thing based on that info and their accumulated knowledge and make you the best board they can. The worst boards I've had made were ones I talked to the shaper a lot about how I wanted it like my old board, or specific rail shapes, or specific glass schedules, or whatever. If a shaper is well practiced in making his own designs and you bring in or start asking for something foreign to him to copy, your likely to end up with a POS. You also should be tuned in about what the shaper likes/dislikes. For instance, if he hates FCS for whatever reason, but you're adamant you want FCS, it may subconsciously affect his attitude when making your board (assuming he does the glassing). Be flexible and let him do his thing.
