I’m filing this one under My Story post 58. After doing a search I found nothing over 57…which was November 17 2013… a little over 7 years ago.

How ‘bout this… it was this time of year some 58 years ago that I had finished making my first surfboard. That board was made from a Dave Sweet blank so there was very little shaping involved. The second board I made was balsa wood, glass removed and cut down from a bigger balsa board. I did do some shaping with that one. After the balsa board I fully shaped the different boards I made. How many? Not many, but some. I glassed and finished them all too.

It was when I got a job at Ventura International Plastics that I shaped enough boards to say I had some shaping experience. That experience gave me the opportunity to get hired at Morey-Pope and was my first production shaping job. 

As a production shaper you really don’t do any design work. You just shape the different surfboards the company or person you are shaping for offers. You sure get an up close and personal look at surfboard design though. You see the boards you shape and get ideas on how to take what you see and modify or make it your own thing. That’s how I got started in surfboard design.

The ‘67 Model I make is from a board I made myself during my Morey-Pope days and came from thinking about how I could personalize one of the boards I shaped then. I’ve done that same thing with my other models too. Only deference is I imagine changing a board of my own and how I might create a new design from what I already have.  You can take an outline curve from one of your boards and change it in the hip area for instance. Modify the rocker curve to complement the change in the outline. And add or subtract bottom contours. 

Of course you can do all that to make a new model just to have a new model. I don’t make new models just to make new models. The process develops over time from a small thought that comes to mind one day. Then slowly develops into something I get interested in trying out. I don’t really think that process is explainable…. It just happens.

Because I recently made a T&G that design process got into my head. So I’ve been thinking about the creative element of making surfboards. The T&G got started from a customer that was interested in a new surfboard. After talking to him I got the idea of making a glider and remembered an outline I had from my Hawaii days. Thought about how I could elongate the outline into a nice long curve. Looked at some of my rocker curves and determined what may work nice for a 10 or 11 footer. Worked through a stringer arrangement that would give a good feel, not to stiff but not to much flex. Then just as if it was done over night there is was.

Designing and creating surfboards…. It’s an amazing process.

D.R.

10'6 T&G