There was an interesting thread on one of the forums this week about shaping. The main question was ‘how long does it take?’ to shape a board. The response was straight forward at first but then like most threads that get attention it began to develop its own direction. It went from how long it may take someone to how many boards could be shaped by hand in a day.

Of course production shaping is not done any more. My last production shaping job doing hand shaping and cleaning up machined blanks both ended in 2005. I think production shaping now days is mainly thought of cleaning up machined blanks, which is in no way the same as shaping as many boards as you can in a day by hand.

Production shaping is really hard work. It takes a lot of physical stamina as well as strong focused mental attention. It’s one thing to do hard physical work and another to work on something that is mentally demanding. But, doing something that requires both?

Basically what happens in the production environment is you focus in on all your moves… a hand and motion thing. At the same time you concentrate on what moves to make, how much or how little of a move you need to make at a certain stage of your process with what tool and or abrasive. But, you can’t just go hacking away. You have to have the completed picture of what you want to make in your head before your first move. And know when, how and where to make any move you make.

After shaping hundreds and hundreds of boards you begin to develop a procedure that you follow, continually getting more efficient. Eventually almost everything you do in the process becomes second nature… you literally don’t think about what you’re doing, you just do it. The ultimate robot… arms and legs the mechanism controlled by your brain, the computer. The interesting thing is you get very good at repetition, as good as any machine.

There is no demand for the production shaper now, and never will be again. So where does that leave me? With the knowledge, experience and ability to shape any kind of surfboard I’d like. All be it in a much more relaxed mode.

D.R.

The ultimate test for me as a production shaper was shaping a Yater spoon in 2 hours. I got going at such a good clip that I was tossing my block plane from hand to hand. When I saw this short video I laughed out loud!

My story post 46

Finding something to surf in summer can be difficult. When all surf boards were long I think it was a little easier to be happy with small slow junky surf… the kind we see a lot during summer months in Ventura. But as boards got shorter the week or 2 weeks or 3 weeks that could be pretty small around my home break would be frustrating.

We do get some wind swell stuff so you’d have to make yourself happy with that. And actually you could have some fun when the wind swells would get about waist high.

There was Stanley’s, but that went away. There was Oil Piers, but that went away. But what’s still around is Over Head beach break. I don’t surf there now but plenty guys do. In 1969 not many guys would go there looking for surf. It became a regular spot to check when looking for surf in the summer… any time really, but it was the summer months of ’69 that the spot really started getting noticed.

One of the other places I used to surf during the summer was the north side of Ventura pier. The first guy I remember surfing there was my friend and work mate Richie West. We worked on Front street and he lived in a small cottage around the corner from the shop on Kalarama st. He didn’t have a car so was unable to go hunt surf after work. Being hungry for surf he noticed some ride able waves at the pier… even if they were small. I followed him there and often would have a good time on the small short period swells and short rides on that side of the pier.

The south side of the pier can get a nice peak working with the summer south swells, it well shut down for years at a time… then start working again. But the north side seemed to work good enough when ever we’d get those summer wind swells.

For a period there I didn’t have car either so going down to the pier was what I did. If there wasn’t a south swell running that I could surf the point on then the north side of the pier was the spot to get some surf. The nice thing was that if I didn’t go down there with Richie, I’d go by my self. No body surfed there so you’d have the place to yourself. I liked that.

Sometimes people would gather on the pier and watch…. ‘Oh, look at the surfer’. Usually though I was by myself. Back then I didn’t really have any responsibilities so after work that’s what I did. Go look for surf, and in the summer months the north side of the pier was one of the spots you could find me at.

D.R.

Rights, wrongs and weights. What a surfboard weights post 2.

This past week I got into a discussion about board weights with one of our lam. shop customers. It all started when the customer was saying the fresh batch of shaped blanks he’d just brought in were to be laminated in epoxy.

The boards were shaped polyurethane blanks, usually laminated with polyester resin. So I asked why he wanted them laminated that way. His response “ because they would be lighter.” I asked “ how much lighter…. Compared to what?” He didn’t have an answer… well actually I think he said something like “you could tell by lifting them”. Maybe, Maybe not. But in reality if you don’t actually weight a board you really can’t know for sure if one surfboard is lighter than another.

So we started talking about the variables that may make one board weight more than another which lead us to two of the four blanks he’d brought in. He said, “ check this one blank”… as he picked it up… “it’s lighter than this other one.” I suggested we weight them, which we did. Sure enough one weighted 5 ounces more than the other. Funny thing, the one that was 5 ounces more was shorter. The lighter one was a 5’ 11” the other was 5’9”. Both made from the same foam and both had the same wood stringers.

So “see, I can tell by feeling what weights more”. He says. Ok good, but why would the shorter board weight more than the longer one? Reason? Foam volume. The shorter board was wider and thicker. The boards were machined so it was possible via the computer file to access the volume measurements of both blanks. Sure enough, the over all volume of the 5’9” was more than the 5’11”. With a little math we proved that the blanks were almost exactly the same weight per liter of foam. But, even though the one that weighted more was shorter it had more foam over all, as well has a wee bit more wood over all so that’s why it weighted more. I think it would be safe to say the over all girth of each board is different as well so the skin that is applied over the foam will add a corresponding weight increase. The finished weight of the 5’9 could end up being 10 or 12 ounces more than the 5’11”.

So what’s the point?

There is no mystery why one board weights more than another, there are reasons. If you want to know why one board weights more than another in your quiver you can find out. If you’d like your boards to have a certain weight pick the shape, core, shin and finish that would have the weight outcome you are interested in. And in the end, you need to weight the board to know the real weight of your board.

D.R.

The core and over all shape is where the weight thing starts.

To the surfer a well shaped wave is a thing of beauty.

We had a nice 4th of July here in Southern California. The forth is always a good day but when there’s surf it’s much better. The sun busted through the gray this afternoon in Ventura, as well we had light winds at the beach which means the surf was good all day.

I knew a swell was forecast but was busy at the house most of the day. Not until making a run to the beach around 4 this afternoon did I get a chance to see how nice the surf was. I watched for about 5 or 10 minutes then went straight back home and got my gear.

When you see nice looking waves it’s really hard not to want to surf. And surf I did. Even though I caught some nice set waves just being in the water and seeing these nice head high plus waves hitting the reef looking so good. Sure you want to ride them, but seeing them march toward the reef, standing up and spilling toward the beach with such a clean face peeling down the line…. The waves looked so good.

After a couple hours I took a wave down inside and called it good for the day. I climbed out of the water and up toward my car. Then just stood there with my board in my arm watching clean set waves breaking up and down the beach… many not ridden… though I knew I wasn’t going to go back out, I thought about it. The beauty of the waves stopped me in my tracks.

I really doesn’t matter what kind of wave you see… Clean peeling point waves, nice beach breaks with A-frame peaks popping up and down the beach, a wave standing up and bowling over a reef. Left hander, right hander, it just doesn’t matter, when the surfer sees a clean ride able wave it is a thing of beauty.

D.R.

Photo by David Pu'u