I took your suggestions from the first board on board.
Big changes: Used a masonite template which honestly was much easier than cardboard, cost 9.99 and just worked beautifully. So thanks for that. Worked much harder to level the blank at all points and focused on symmetry with the shapers square remeasuring about 300% more. The foil turned out great and the rails feel good in my hand
New questions have emerged:
The nose portion of the rail- Am I supposed to just continue my rail bands up to the nose and just join it all up with a dowel? Is the rail marking suppose to gradually move upwards so to preserve volume in the nose or do I want to essentially keep the 50% of the entire nose for volume and the other 50% goes for the rail as it is in the rest of the board.
Tail portion of the rail- I had read that you want to preserve your tail volume as much as possible so basically I faded the tail rail out to flat at 12 inches from the tail. Is this correct. I think it looks sick!
3)Fin boxes- I have tried to find any consistent advice on how to do a twin fin setup but the links are all dead. Seems like I basically want something between 11 and 16 inches up from the tail to the back of the fin box? Any guidelines for how you decide where you personally are gonna put your fins other than “it just seemed right”?
Please criticize the shape as it is right now. Still has lots of room to smooth the rails (has only sheen a bit of 60 grit so far)
What’s the distance from the template edge to the pencil line for the first band? Template looks good. Just keep in mind what you want for a final rail. Most sub six footers are set up with a flat deck and a full boxy rail. In fact blank manufacturers like Arctic and Millennium are producing stock blanks that carry thickness to the rail. The same blank can always be thinned out from rail to deck and center if that’s the preference. The boxy rail is an attempt to maintain volume. Most of the time I back off with the planer at the nose rail. I do this to avoid accidents. My nose and tail thickness is determined before I shape/turn my rails. On a shortboard like that, I take a small Surform and a sanding block to the rail at the nose. Once you have planed your bands you can blend them with a piece of 80 grit and a cupped hand (fingers and palm.). Finish them of with a piece of foam rubber( 1") or a piece of Yoga Mat and Screen(gauze). Lowel
The distance to the first pencil line was 1.75 inches and the distance to the second rail band was 3 inches. I basically carried it through the entire deck but the nose was giving me troubles because I was trying to remember what my nose looks like on normal boards.
Sounds good I was planning on hand sanding with the 80 next But the nose was giving me grief.
How far back do you usually start tapering your tail rails or do you carry them all the way through the whole length of the board?
Any guidance for fin box placement as this is the next bastion for us haha. I want this to be a twin fin for some reason but might be better as a thruster. At present was probably just going to eyeball it and then match the other one by duplicating the measurements. Don’t know if you have any wisdom?
I don’t think you’re doing badly at all. You can get rid of that overly straight curve at the nose point in the nose by cutting 1/4" or 1/2"off the tip and rounding the last inch of what’s remaining. You’re shooting for a somewhat rounder curve right there; a continuation of the curve in your front quarter. Lots of shapers leave that nose tip 1/2" or even 3/4" wide when the nose widths are at 14" or more.
The rocker in the blank looks really flat for that type of board, which I personally favor and would also do if it were my board. Next time when using a flat rockered blank you might consider bringing your foil in from the bottom instead of the top, just to give yourself a little more curve in that first 4-6" of your bottom rocker.
For fin placement for a performance twin type setup and given the rocker you’re using I don’t think you want to go too far forward. Maybe 9"-10" at the most, unless you’re adding a tail dragger to stabilize the tail a bit. One veteran shaper who does a lot of twins with flat tail rockers puts his twins at 5" from the tailblock with the idea that you’re going to use a heavy rear foot to surf it like a thruster, but most of the shapers don’t seem to be going any further back than 7". Traditional keel fishes also tend to go at 7" or so, about even with the buttcrack.
Ok ill try and trim my nose a bit. I like that idea.
For the rocker, I kind of decided to leave a super low rocker based on that we are surfing the sloppiest lake swell you can imagine. To be honest I didn’t really know what would have been ideal so I decided to leave it really straight haha. I think my next board will be an ocean shortboard and for that puppy ill try and do something flashy with the rockers.
This is a stupid question but the fin dimension you are giving me is the farthest back point of the fin itself right? So basically if Im gonna use some gargantuan keel fin I would need to put the box forward by the difference between that fin and my dummy fin which is not keeled. Is this correct? Sorry. Stupid question
Honestly, very appreciative for all of the guidance. I am learning a ton. My eyes are starting to see things that are wrong which I wouldn’t have noticed before.
Thruster set up @ 3 — 3 1/2 " from center tail to back of fin(not box). 11 – 11 1/2" for side fins. Using these standards you would put your Twins somewhere between the front of the rear fin and the back of the side fins. Probably somewhere in the 7 – 7 1/2" thru 8" or 8 1/2" range. As mentioned above; This placement determination would also have to take into consideration the depth of the “butt crack”.
by no means an end-all-be-all, as stated on the page, but certainly a helpful reference until you can ride a few of your own creations and make your own observations:
That’s a good reference. Didn’t know they had that up. Fiberglass Hawaii does a good job on their videos too. Don’t even remember who taught me measurements for a Thruster. May have just taken them off another board. I figured out the Twin thing on my own I guess. But I did ride a Twin for a year or so that had double foiled glass-ons with no toe. 1969/70. Brought it up to the Central Coast from Pacific Beach. Had the sweetest soft 60/40 rail I had seen on a surfboard.
At this stage of your progression it would probably be better to stick to doing one board at a time. If you do, board #4 on that list will probably turn out a little better than board #1.
Ahh but you see. Each step requires completely different skills. Where I am we can’t glass until its warmer. So basically by shaping all 4 first I work the shaping skills. The fin skills require a router template which I still need to 3d print. So in order to be most efficient I have to do it this way!
I figured you’d say that. But consider this: At this stage you’ll probably learn something about your shaping during glassing and vice versa.
Besides that, you shouldn’t even be looking at the clock during this stage of your progression. It takes as long as it takes, which you might not be as inclined to do when you get to thinking that you still have 3 more boards to go. You’ve got the entire rest of your board building career to ramp up your productivity. For now you should be focused on perfecting the step you’re working on before moving on to the next step.
If you were coming up in a production shop they’d still have you pushing a broom and maybe setting fins. It would take you a long time before they let you do a clear freelap lamination or sand a board.
When you’re watching the pros knock out a shape in an hour you need to keep in mind that it took them hundreds and thousands of shapes to develop those skills. Their eye, their speed and their control are skills to which to aspire, not attributes anyone was born with.
There’s no need for you to be overly critical of your own work. You’re just starting out, the same as we all did at some point in the past. Nobody expects your boards to look like you bought them off the retail rack in your local surf shop.
The first thing you’re going to learn when you start surfing your own is that a board doesn’t have to be anywhere “good” in shape or finish to be fun. The second thing you’ll learn (if you haven’t already learned it) is the utility of adapting to the board instead of expecting the board to adapt to you. You’ll learn to enjoy the board for what it does instead of hating it for what it doesn’t do. and so on.
There is considerable merit, in the post above. Read it with care, and learn from it. Remember that the board you have in your minds eye, is trapped in the blank before you. Your goal is to release it.
