So you want to make a surfboard post 4

There are important points in the shape of a surfboard that are sometimes overlooked in the process of actually shaping a board buy the inexperienced. But if you start with a decent blank the end result will be something that will work good enough. And, since the close of Clark Foam the blank choices are better.

I’ve personally gravitated to just a couple blank companies because my needs are met with them and there is no need to look further. Most of the plugs that are used to make the molds that blanks are made from at the new blank companies are better because they were machined. This means they have even foam distribution and are free from uneven spots often found in the molds of the past. An important item for the beginning craftsmen because shaping a surfboard without lumps and bumps is hard enough. If you have to clean up an uneven blank before starting your shape job… will it does make the process more difficult.

So if you start your shape job by outlining the blank or skinning and milling the blank to thickness is not important. What is important is getting a good outline on your blank. It should have an even curve with out flat spots, unless the flat areas are intended like might be seen in the tail area of some with soft wings.

The way to get a good outline is to start with a good template. Taking great care and time in getting your outline clean and without flaw is the first step in getting your blank outlined well. Once you’ve got your template perfect lay it on your blank and scribe the template outline with a soft lead pencil… a nice neat line. Then cut to that line with a saw leaving just enough foam outside the line to clean up with a sanding block so all you see is the pencil line with no flat spots at anyplace on the blank.

Rule number one in the shaping process is.. no flat spots in the outline. If you have flat spots in your outline when you band and screen in your rails later the flats spot will reflect onto the deck in the form of low spots. So not only will you have a flat spot in your outline but you will also have a low area in the deck crown.

Assuming the blank has the rocker you want in it, after you’ve got the outline dialed you can cut the blank to thickness and then band the rails. As well, if you’ve got a blank that is close to the size board you are making getting to thickness and banding in the rails is a pretty straight forward process with a planer or hand plane.

When you’ve gotten to the final stages of sanding and screening the next important thing is making sure the stringer has a neat clean curve to it…. No flat areas.

Rule number two in the shaping process is… no flat spots in the stringer curve on the deck or bottom of the board. Because the stringer is wood and harder than foam if you have a lump or bump in the stringer it will leave the outlying area of foam with a lump or bump too.

So basically shaping comes down to good outlines and good deck curves and bottom curves. If you look at any of your favorite boards that’s most likely what you will see.

D.R.

‘This used to be a peaceful little town…’ A line from one of my favorite westerns, Silverado. It’s in the final gun fight at the end of the movie where Brian Dennehy and Kevin Kline are about to shoot each other.

Ventura has often been called a sleepy little town. For the surfers of Ventura that was a good thing. My friend Peter would come by at dawn, throw rocks at my upstairs window to wake me for an early morning surf… he wanted someone to surf with, at pipe no less. In 1967 hardly anyone surfed up there. Imagine that!

For the second weekend in a row I went to the beach at around 8 in the morning only to find no where to park. Inside point was full, the free lot was full and the fair grounds 2 dollar lot was full. Geez, and I have a year pass for the $2 lot that cost 75 bucks! No place to park. Well, I could pay $5 and park in the fair grounds main lot.

Last week there was a swell forecast, this week there were two surf events going on at the same time. One at pipe and one at the point. Last week I thought I’d go for a surf but gave it up for the crowd. This week I went to hang at the annual “C” Street contest for the finals. So I parked at Wave Front and walked back to the point. Honestly I never thought that one day there may be no place to park at the point because so many people would be going to the beach to surf…. or in today’s case, hang at a surf event.

There were some 80 contestants in the “C” street contest that included guys in their 70’s. Another thing… I never thought about guys in there 70’s surfing. Another 10 years and it will be me… that’s scary.

I wonder if there will be any places to park in 10 years? Maybe I could get one of those electric carts that I’ve seen a guy run up the promenade with. I could rig up a surfboard rack and putt right up to the sand with all my gear. Yeah, I won’t need no pickin’ parking space.

D.R.

This year each contestant at the "C" street contest was entered in a raffle for the board I made below.

Lists, the best of this the greatest of that. I usually find them interesting, and they usually ruffle some feathers… like why this guy over that guy? Or no way is that guy better than the other guy.

Well Surfer Mag. has a new list… The 50 Greatest Surfers of all Time.

List are seriously subjective, they always have some good stuff and some questionable stuff. You really need to take them with a grain of salt. What’s cool about the Surfer list is that each person on the list has a little write up, story or commentary. I’m taking my time and going through all fifty.

My guess is there are plenty people that have not heard of some of the names on the list. So of course the question would be who’s that guy? how come he’s on the list? I never heard of him. What even a body boarder?... who by the way, has long been considered one of the best surfers on the planet.

The short write up about the list says it was compiled by experts that voted their choice of the top 50 then they got the comments and stories together for the names on the list from the different people that voted. There is lots of history and information well worth reading and looking through.

D.R.

My story post 39.

My first car, bought it from a friend with the money I made from the sale of my high school surfboard business. The year was 1966 the car was a 1961 VW bus… the ultimate surf car.

When you’re a surfer but don’t have your own transportation sometimes you can get really stuck. You can hear of great times at the beach but you weren’t there, or even worse with comments from the guys that got a ride when there was no room for you like, gee you really missed it…. To bad. But after getting my first car, and a surf car at that, I could go to the beach anytime I had enough gas money. Hey, I could take a friend and get them to pay for gas, even better.

Talk about gas money… you needed 21 cents for a gallon then.

So the first thing you do is take out the back seat so there is room for a couple surfboards. Then you lay down some carpet on the floor and make a little area you can lay down in for surf trips. And of course you’ve got to have tunes, so I bought a four track tape player. The car had a radio, the AM kind but having a tape player was cool.

I don’t know where the RIAA was back then, maybe nonexistent because the thing to do was go to a place that made custom tapes, pick out a list of your favorite hit songs and have a custom tape made for a couple bucks. You could buy commercial tapes but the custom ones with the songs you liked… that was better. Nothing better than driving up to your favorite surf spot in your cool surf car and you favorite tunes blasting in stereo. Stanley’s was good for this. Sit there checking the surf, turn to your friend riding shot gun and say ‘let’s go out!’

Yeah, with my new surf car I could do all that and more. I could spend the weekend at Hobsons Park. Motor up Friday evening, surf until dark, build a camp fire, have some grinds, crash in the back of the bus and then surf at first light.

A surfer with wheels.

D.R.

I’ll have to find a picture of my first surf car the next time I visit my mom. The last surf car we had before moving to Kauai below...

Sitting in front of my old shop

In use on a surf/camp trip.