As mentioned in my post of 7 December 2015 there are 2 types of finishes for surfboards. The sanded finish and the gloss and polished finish.

Either way surfboards get sanded, which also fits into the labor not the creative part of making surfboards. Sanding is typically done with a grinder spinning up to 5000 rpm. And depending on how a board will be finished the grinder pad will have between 60 to 320 grit sand paper one it.

Grinding a surfboard takes finesse. It's pretty easy to ruin a nice glass job while sanding it. Good surfboards sanders have pretty secure jobs in the industry for that very reason.... As well, because it's possible to change the shape of a surfboard in small ways while sanding, the high performance guys rely on sanders to dial in specifics of their boards.

It's a dusty dirty job, can irritate your skin and lungs. Many people also don't  know that  sanding dust is flammable and an explosive. So don't go walking into a sanding room with a lit cigarette, or toss a fire cracker into a sanding room as a practical joke.  Yeah, how stupid... but it did happen to my son while he was working through a stack of boards to sand one day, a guy tossed a fire cracker into his room. 'Bout scared him to death,  fortunately the only boom was the fire cracker.

Each step in the process of making a surfboard is important. The guys that sand are specialist and pretty much go unnoticed. That's ok because a well made surfboard you don't notice the sand job, no, it's the poorly sanded boards that you see the sand job.

D.R.   

With a soft pad and board on rail the sander makes things smooth.