Adventures in Backyard Shaping

 With the shaping out of they way it’s time to start glassing. This is when it really starts to come together and transform from a piece of foam into a surfboard. After taking the time to change the stands over for glassing and setting up the work space it was time to get busy. The board had been finished off with spackle and sanded the night before, so a quick dusting off was in order. Once the board was dust free it was time lay down a layer of 4oz cloth on the bottom.    Time for my 1st pour of resin. This is obviously nerve racking the 1st time you do it. You don’t want to end up not having enough resin to do the job properly. You don’t to get the wrong ratio of resin to catalyst, and you want make sure to get a good bond between the glass cloth and the foam. The bottom lamination came out way better than I expected. It looked like the spackle that was applied to fill in the micro gaps between the beads was coming up as a milky mix of resin and spackle with each pass ...

My 1st attempt at building a board was an epic failure. The plan was to build a stubby, wide grovler with a 2 and 1 fin setup. Shaping the board wasn't that big of a deal. Things went smoothly, aside from some minor inconsistencies in the the rail and bottom curves it looked good.  I was so stoked on the way it came out. Then it all went to hell.

Why make your own board when you can get one off the rack made by a renowned shaper, or get one from your local shaper that knows your local waves?  Why not! Surfing is an adventure. Trips to far away lands, finding a new sandbar, the good times and stories. Shaping your own boards seems like another stop on the adventure.  Why? Because I don't feel like spending $800 on another Merrick.