SHAPEFEST

Our first longboard takes shape

2011-06-07T20:46:00.000-07:00

We made a jig for the 10" fin box. After we figured out how to hold it still we had pretty good results.

After the last hot coat the board gets a thorough inspection.

More pics from the weekend

2011-06-07T20:37:00.001-07:00

Ari sent some photos he took over the weekend. This is a typical scene early on. Lots of foam and racks everywhere as we rough shape the blanks.

One of my favorite parts.....picking out the blanks.

This year we were treated to a great surf movie out back by the campfire. The shaping shed doubled as a movie screen!

2011-06-06T20:53:00.000-07:00

Derek finishes up his first board.

Ben shows off his work before packing up for the flight home.

Meanwhile, back in the shed Greg puts the first hot coat on the family longboard

Alaias

2011-05-31T20:35:00.000-07:00

Mark planes out the hull on his alaia.

These boards do not have fins. What little control you have while riding comes from bottom contours like this and a lot of skill.
A little bit of stain and it's almost done.
Zoe masked off a small logo of her own design.

Here are the finished alaias. They should be ready to ride in a week or so!

Glassing the boards

2011-05-31T20:11:00.001-07:00

Scott made his first board with us about 3 or 4 years ago and returns every year to help out with the glassing. Here he helps Derek put the bottom layer on his board. Derek is going with an all white board.
The glass job on Derek's board turned out great.

Mac and Oli decided to add a yellow and red tint to this board. With a little bit of resin mixed in they were ready to paint.

Before we began laminating, the boys laid down their colors on the bottom of the board.

As always, the laps are a critical part of the process. You want wet laps, tucked under clean with no folds or bubbles. As I finish laminating, Mac follows behind making sure the laps are taken care of.

We have a great time with the laminates. This is Ben's board with his new logo. When he makes it big time I hope he sends us some T-shirts!!

Saturday Morning

2011-05-31T19:55:00.000-07:00

Each year we try to add something new to the process. Here we have rigged up a broom stick on hooks to unroll the fiberglass on the blanks. It's not as fancy as the pro shops but it sure does make life easier in the shed!

Ben was the first to start glassing on Saturday. Here he signs his board before laminating the top. He did a resin tint on the bottom using a mix of purple and yellow. By the time it all mixed together he had a deep green that resembled the water color in Ari's hometown of Santa Cruz.

Meanwhile, outside the shed the Mark and Zoe are hard at work on their Alaia's
Zoe applies alternating bands of light and dark stain to her board.
Mac was nearby taping off the rails for the resin tint that was going on the bottom of this board.

2011-05-31T19:38:00.000-07:00

Ari, Ben and Derek started working on Friday to get a jump on the weekend. Ben had flown in that day from Daytona Beach for the weekend to join us. This will be his first board. He has a flight home on Sunday at 5:oopm so he had to get going!

They started skimming the board with the planers to get the glue residue off the blank.

Go-Pro cameras are pretty popular right now and Ari was right there with his new toy. We hope to post a few videos of all the action.

Friday was hot but everyone was in good spirits for the event!
Once the boards have been cleaned of all the manufacturing residue we were ready to lay out the outline. Here we used a 1/4 template I had saved from an older longboard.

With a hand saw and a little bit of WD-40 we started cutting the outlines.

One for the record books

2011-05-30T19:27:00.000-07:00

Shapefest 2011 will be another event for the books! We had a busy weekend, great weather and even a little surf. For the first time ever we completed an entire board in one long weekend. Stay tuned for more photos and all the details.

2011-03-21T20:53:00.000-07:00

Get your planers ready - Shapefest is almost here!

#4 - Done

2009-06-21T20:52:00.000-07:00

The first two shots were taken just after the final sanding. We used a 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper and a spray bottle filled with water. We turned the polisher down to about 1000 rpm and went over the entire board twice to rub out all the sanding marks.

There's a swallow tail down in the grass..

..

Now we just need some surf...........

Swell on the way.....

2009-06-18T20:23:00.000-07:00

The reports are calling for a little surf later this week. I think I will stay up late and sand.......

MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE SHED

2009-06-18T19:43:00.000-07:00

I began the final sanding of my board last night. All the imperfections in the hot coat have to be removed here to prevent any sort of turbulence (and cavitation) as water passes over the board. Cavitation will not only slow the board down but make it harder to control. All those little bubbles coming off the rough or improperly foiled edges are imploding and creating suction behind the board. For all you tube riders out there, its like riding on the foam ball.........all the time. On a side note, several years ago I was down in a dry dock below an aircraft carrier here at the Shipyard. I took a look at the propeller and was blown away. It was 2 stories tall and had grinder marks from a small hand grinder all around the blade edges. (These edges were sharp enough to cut you.) When I asked why they went through all this trouble an engineer told me that submarine sonar can pick up the sound of cavitation bubbles imploding behind a propeller.
I had better not screw this up...........

I guess I shouldn't have closed the window while I sanded the board.....We use a polishing grinder to do the final sanding. We start off with 60 or 80 grit at 1400 rpms and decrease the grit and speed from there. This board will have a sanded finish so I will end with a 440 wet paper at about 1000 rpm's. The wet sanding is nice....not so much dust.

FINS

2009-06-18T19:25:00.001-07:00

After laminating both boards Skip puts the finishing touches on the fins. The boards will have a pair of these mahogany fins as a twin fin set up. The picture below shows him laminating the fins with a layer of fiberglass.The resin brings out the wood grain patterns in the fins. These are going to look great on those surfboards! Stay tuned.....

Glassing the fishes

2009-06-16T19:45:00.000-07:00

With the laminating coat on and sanded, Skip started preparing for the hot coat. He will use fin rope to create the leash attachment point and locate it in the crotch of the swallow tail. These boards are taking shape and should be ready for fins in the next day or so. Stay tuned!

HOT COAT

2009-06-16T19:30:00.000-07:00

I had a problem with the hot coat on my last surfboard. For some reason the resin pitted while it was setting up. The result was a deck that resembled the surface of the moon. For a while I thought it was because of the ambient heat but I now think it had something to do with dust on the board. On this board I made sure the deck was clean by wiping it down with a rag and blowing any remaining dust off with a compressor. I ended up with a smooth hot coat that needed very little sanding.

The inspection crew stopped in before school to see Dad's handy work. Never satisfied they pointed out 2 bubbles and 1 brush hair that was in the hot coat. (You can see this in the first picture - next to the stringer.)

Ready for the leash plug....

Glassing

2009-06-16T19:05:00.000-07:00

Everyone had a laminate on their board with the Shapefest 09 logo. The kids made their own laminates and had them glassed into their boards. It will be interesting to see how these graphics evolve over time.

Greg sets up to glass the bottom of his board. This year we are going to route out the Futures fin boxes after we glass the bottom. ( Last year we placed the fin boxes prior to glassing the bottom.) We will see how this works out.

Laps are better wetter......

The better I get at soaking the laps, the better the boards seem to turn out. These laps were long but they were clean and easy to lay up on the deck.

GREG'S BOARD IS TAKING SHAPE

2009-06-01T20:22:00.001-07:00

Greg has started to work on his board. Here are a few shots of the finished Biofoam blank with a little yum yum yellow (typically striped) paint job. Glassing should take place later this week.

JASON'S FIRST BOARD

2009-06-01T20:15:00.001-07:00

Jason finished his board this evening. This was his first shape and I must say it was an all around success. Technically and artistically he did a fantastic job. This board is intended to introduce a shortboard feel to a longboard surfer. Good luck Jason!

Stay tuned for more......

BIOFOAM

2009-05-30T22:31:00.001-07:00

BREAK TIME FUN

2009-05-30T22:09:00.000-07:00

Time for a little skate break for Mike!Will decided to sharpen his longboarding skills with some bricks and lumber we had laying around.

When bricks aren't enough, sawhorses will do.

It wasn't long before the kids caught on and we ended up with Will's School of Longboarding

SHAPING CONTINUES

2009-05-30T21:58:00.000-07:00

After watching Mark and Jason, the little guys start to lay out their own rails.

Meanwhile, Mark is helping the girls with their smaller alaias.

JASON'S FIRST BOARD

2009-05-30T21:39:00.000-07:00

This is Jason's first surfboard. After cutting out the blank he begins squaring off the rails.Mark helps with the first rail using the planer and some reference lines

Jason begins cutting in the other rail with the surform planer.

By mid day the rough shaped blank emerges!

After some fine tuning with a sanding block and some sanding screen it starts to look like a surfboard!

TEACHERS

2009-05-30T21:27:00.000-07:00

Having the younger kids learn from some of the more experienced shapers is one of the greatest attributes of Shapefest.

Skip and his older son clean up the outlines on the fish.

Mark is giving a few pointers on tail design as they refine the stinger.

Skip and his younger son refine the dimensions on the smaller fish.

TIME TO START SHAPING

2009-05-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

Skip begins laying out the first fish.

Shaping isn't just for tall people.....

Squaring up the outline.

Cutting in the rocker

Using the planer can get messy. Always wear your safety gear!

SURFBOARD MATERIALS

2009-05-30T20:50:00.000-07:00

Time to pick up the materials.

Mark's polonia wood arrives for his alaia.

TEMPLATES

2009-05-30T19:56:00.000-07:00

We started with the templates from our last Shapefest. New outlines were drafted from our existing stock of templates based on the type of boards we were after. This year we are expecting a few fishs, one hybrid quad taken from an old single fin template, a shortboard and a couple of wooden alaias. The foam boards will be shape from either polyurethane or Biofoam.We started by drafting the outlines on kraft paper based on board dimensions.

Transferring the templates to the foam.

SHAPEFEST 09 BEGINS...

2009-05-26T21:12:00.001-07:00

Shapefest 09 has begun - stay tuned for more images of our weekend long surfboard shaping adventure.......