First Longboard

Howzit Swaylocks,

After lurking on this site for quite some time I finally decided to post. I am looking to shape a longboard with lots of glide for small and rolling waves, with the potential for nose riding. (I am not very good at nose riding but would like to learn). I have been surfing about twice a week for 2.5 years, landing somewhere between intermediate and kook on the skill range. I’ve shaped 2 boards, one as a gift during a shaping lesson at Foam EZ, the second was a fish I shaped and glassed on my own.  The largest board I have is a 7’2" Egg with very full dimensions, I would like a board that picks up where the egg leaves off in terms of wave catching and glide. There are certain days where the spot and conditions (and people I am surfing with) just seem to call for a massive board. I probably won’t ride this in any sort of heavy surf, if the waves are bigger than 3 feet or pitching, I am likely going to grab a different board. Here is what I am thinking:

Size: 9’6" x 23" x 3" I am 5’7" 160lbs. Having ridden a few friends’ long boards 9’6" seems about right (very big range though, open to shorter but not under 9’0")

Blank: US Blanks 9’8" Y Triple stringer: I think I can get a 9’6" out of this and really like the look of triple stringers.  https://www.foamez.com/product/us-blanks-9-8y-triple-stringer-long-board/?wccf_qv_conf=1

Outline: Wide point slightly ahead of center, with a full but not quite completely round nose. Something like a Bing Levitator Levitator - Bing Surfboards

Rocker: Somewhat flat, I want lots of glide and don’t plan to surf this in pitching waves. Although I do have a bad habit of pearling longboards so I don’t want super flat. I plan to just go with the natural rocker of the blank without trying to change it much. I have no concept of long board rocker numbers so open to advice.

Bottom Contours: Concave in the first 3rd, Rolled belly in the middle, transitioning to a V in the back. I think I have read a few threads that mention this and the justifications seem make sense. And recommendations on the depth of contours? I did about an 1/8” on my fish and was thinking the same for the longboard. How do you normally fade from a concave to a convex contour? Fade concave to flat and then start the convex or have the convex “pierce” into the concave?

Rails: Chined in the front to maybe a 3rd of the way back, 60/40 in the body, 50:50 in the back, no hard edge in the tail.

Tail: Not sure what to do here. Square most likely. I see lots of pictures of long boards with either square tails or pin tails, but not many squash tails, why is that?

Glassing: Light orange tinted top & bottom with epoxy resin, couldn’t stand the fumes of another polyester board. 6+6 bottom with a 4oz tail patch, 6+6+4 top. I want a fairly durable board but don’t want it to weigh 100lbs. My plan is: layup 1 tinted lay bottom, 1 tinted layer top, then come back and do a clear layup bottom and a clear 2-layer layup top. I am worried about doing multiple colored layers since you would see the staggered 1st layer that doesn’t reach the cut lap, or you would have 2 layers at the cut lap which doesn’t seem good either. Is this an excessive number of steps for glassing a board? How are multiple layers in colored laminations normally done? 

Here is a picture of the 2 boards I have made so far, the green board is the one I glassed.

I appreciate any feedback.

 

 

The boards in the pic above look good and by your writeup it’s apparent that you’re putting a lot of thought into it.    About the only suggestion I’d offer is that if you’re trying to do a dedicated noserider then it might work better with a little lower nose rocker than is stock for that blank.  I wouldn’t worry about pearling in mushy/slow waves.  You’ll figure it out.     One way or another you will learn to surf the board.     

As for glassing, if you’re new to glassing and you’re thinking of going with epoxy, there are some considerations:

If you’re into doing pigments or tints or high gloss finishes then that’s tough to do well in epoxy.   

Laminating in epoxy is less forgiving in certain ways and requires a somewhat different approach than laminating in PE or VE.   There’s less room for error in almost every step.    It’s definitely worth learning, but probably better to start that learning curve on a smaller board and doing it in clear.  

If you do decide to commit to glassing in epoxy then definitely get back to us on that before you even buy any resin because we can give you some tips you won’t see in the instructions or most of the videos.  

Reconsider your blank choice stringer wise.  First longboard, I guess that you have not heard that the degree of difficulty in shaping a Three Stringer is quite a bit more than a single stringered board.  Three stringers require a different approach.  Chances are you can screw it up a lot easier.

“rolled belly in the middle” - why?

I would shape it with a flat bottom, leave the foil a little thick in back, then shape in your concave up front & v in back.

If i were relatively new to glassing and to epoxy, I would also consider painting the foam before glassing and glass it clear. 

That’s just me, trying to improve my odds of success & still have an attractive, functional board. Not trying to discourage you from following your own path, just putting it out there.

I’ll also second what mcding said about triple stringers for a new shaper. 

The pics are my first foam shaped board (after building a few wood boards), single stringer, flat bottom, no concave, no hard edges, no chines, v in the tail, catches waves great, plenty of fun for an intermediate surfer like me, and still a blast after 10 years and lots of ding repairs.



Thank you all for the feedback

I will look into different rockers for that blank, I hadn’t considered ordering a custom blank to be honest. Are blank manufacturers accommodating for 1 off backyard shapers? I live pretty close to Millennium and US Blanks so that is pretty convenient.

For Epoxy, I have heard it is trickier than polyester, but don’t quite understand how. I have worked with it a few times repairing buckled boards and for some projects in college, however neither of those were as sensitive to aesthetics as laminating a full surfboard. I actually found switching to polyester quite stressful since measuring the correct amount of catalyst for small batches was difficult to do accurately, and the work time seemed much shorter. I was hoping for MORE room for error with epoxy since a lot of the imperfections on my fish were from the resin kicking while I was still working.

As far as the triple stringers go, I was expecting the rails to give me trouble and read some old forum posts about it. It seems like it’s down to good technique and fiddling with a micro plane or other weapon of choice. Would shaping more single stinger boards really set me up that much better for success on a triple stinger? Or is making a few mistakes on a multi stringer board the way to learn how to do it?

Huck, that board looks great. That is painted foam?

I don’t have a great reason for the rolled belly verses a flat bottom other than that’s what’s on my egg and it seems to work. I guess its more stable? But with a board this big I don’t know if stability will be an issue. I thought the chined rails would help release water off the nose and prevent it suction cupping down (if that’s thing)

My general thought process is to jump in the deep end with the more advanced techniques and learn from my (many) mistakes. My first board I decided to do a colored lamination and while it came out far from perfect, I think the color highlighted a lot of my issues with the layup that might have been less glaring in a clear board. The blue board I made for my brother and had professionally glassed, but for the boards I am making for myself I figure I should experiment with a bit.

Epoxy seems more difficulty to work with, when you have refined working with PE, which in many ways is forgiving, reliable, and much more production friendly than epoxy.

Proper epoxy resin hardener ratios, by weight or volume, and thorough mixing of both, removes much of the danger, but achieving precise and accurate ratios by volume is problematic, and precisely adding hardener do the tenth of a gram, without going over, is time consuming.

Proper room temperature, or at least not falling below the ‘minimum’ during the initial hardening, and preventing excessive humidity during, is a huge consideration/ potential limitation which can greatly affect the result…

Much depends on the epoxy itself, its pot life and resistance to blush/imprecise ratios, and when curing in humid environments at less than ideal temperatures.

Jumping in the deep end for maximum learning ASAP, through mistakes, is fine, as long as you can tread water for a long time, and do not get too irritated at $imple mistakes, requiring tons of effort and time to remedy, as best as possible, which might fall short of acceptable, and be forever embarrassing and regretted.

Once hardener hits resin. the clock is ticking… how do you know how long you have, without experience?
Seems wise to minimize the risks and time consuming add-ons like pigments, without having gained experience first.

Shaping chines, blending them into the rest of the rail, then glassing and sanding them, without sanding through your lamination at the edges of that chine, on LB number one…
Well, good luck with that.

Don’t try for too many bells and whistles when you are doubling the surface area needing to be shaped laminated and sanded compared to previous limited experience.
Save’m for number 2, and number one has a much better chance of not being a throw away.
In my opinion.

No go ahead on.  Make a few mistakes on a Three Stringer and waste $200.  No big when you got $$ to waste I guess.  You can order custom thru a dealer like Foam EZ, but you’re not gonna walk into US Blanks or Millennium in Gardena and by direct.  Millennium is doing everything out of their warehouse in O’side now anyway.

^^^ Brutal but ultimately true.    

Here’s another brutal truth from the same source: shape comes first.  That’s what you’re actually surfing, not the cosmetics.   Ideally you want to focus first on getting the hang of the shape itself and the integrity of a basic lamination and finish.   Especially when you’re working on a surfboard type and surfing style that’s new-to-you.   

Even with epoxy there will be dings on a longboard so there will be repairs.  And when it comes to doing a repair that doesn’t look like crap it’s easier to do that on a clear glass job than on a resin tint or opaque or an airbrush.  

There ain’t nothing wrong with basic.  

Especially when your shaping experience consists of two boards… 

Clear is mo betta for repairs …

No its not painted.

Chines, concaves, triple stringers, buttons, bells & whistles. Yeah we like to click a buncha boxes when we’re starting out. 

On my first longboard I just concentrated on a good planshape, decent foil, and functional rails. Stuck with the given rocker of the blank I had.

I had glassed a few boards with epoxy, so I did try color tint and resin pinlines. I saved the bells & whistles for later, and it worked out fine.

Your finished boards look good!

Thanks for the input everyone, I will consider dialing back some of the fanciness and possibly glass a smaller epoxy board before attempting it on a long board.

Huck, the color on my fish didn’t turn out nearly as even as that. I think my issues were it was too hot in my garage so my resin kicked faster than I had expected it too, my tail patch got wadded up, especially in the curves of the swallow tail, and I was sloppy with the resin during fin box install, so the foam didn’t soak up as much color and left light patches.  

 

Hey everyone, before starting the longboard I shaped 2 smaller boards, a 7’3" mid length for myself and a 6’3" short board for a friend. I glassed the 7’3" earlier this week with epoxy and I am pretty happy with the way it turned out, haven’t finished sanding it though. My biggest issue was lots of tiny bubbles in my hot coat, is this due to contamination on the board? or mixing the resin too agressively? I have read several threads and there didn’t seem to be one definitive answer. It seems like they are sanding out ok and no leaving pot marks.

For the long board ordered a custom 9’8"Y blank with -3/4" nose rocker. Just finished laying out the template tonight but it was a bit too late to use power tools to cut it out. I decided to go with a template for the middle of the board, ending it at 12" from the nose and tail since my material is only 8’ long. The body and tail were laid out with battons and the nose is 2 arcs.