The Beginning

And so it begins, my first day as a shaper. Well, technically I haven't shaped anything yet, all I have is an empty garage that I've rented in an alleyway behind some brownstones in Harlem, NYC. Thats right, NYC baby! Surfing in New York is a relatively new concept to most people who stare at me on the street, walking with board in tow. But, shaping surfboards in New York -- err, Manhattan to be exact -- is almost unheard of considering the lack of space and (relatively) small number of surfers who have enough interest, patience, and time to invest in such a mission. This is not to say that there aren't shapers here in the NYC area, there are several very good ones in Queens, Brooklyn, and Long Island. I've even heard of some shapers shaping on the roofs of their apartment buildings in the East Village! In any case, I've decided to throw caution (and a bunch of money) to the wind and attempt to join the ranks of those who mow foam for no apparent reason except for the pure thrill of riding your own board (cause there sure as hell isn't much money in it).

BTW, I have no real experience with carpentry, woodworking, or anything of the sort except maybe a year or two of wood/metal shop in high school. I don't even have the courage to do renovations on my own apartment! The result will likely be some wasted blanks, wobbly lines, asymmetrical shapes, sloppy sanding, and most certainly some embarassing (but hopefully amusing) moments. So stay tuned...

As a guide, I'll refer to the gurus over at the Swaylocks.com discussion board. Undoubtedly the best place I've found so far to ask dumb questions only to find that they'd been asked/answered before. The amount of knowledge archived on that site is scary...all accessible for free online. Gotta love the Interweb! I also have a few shaping videos I ordered online. Pretty good falling-asleep-in-front-of-the-TV-material actually...entertaining, yet somehow sleep-inducing at the same time (kind of like those old Bob Ross 'Joy of Painting' shows).

BTW, here's a pic of the space I'll be using as my shaping bay...



Its about 9ft. x 22ft. Not a bad space actually, it has electricity, concrete walls, and a lock on the door. Downsides include no restroom (unless peeing in the alley counts), no running water or sink, its the middle of a dark spooky alleyway, no window (which eliminates the possibility of adding an A/C unit), and...did I mention its in a dark spooky alleyway? My only protection is the black alleycat (superstitious?) that lives somewhere near the garage. As you can see in the picture, the landlady still hasn't cleared her stuff out. Its a two car garage, I'm renting one side of it, and some other guy is renting the other half to store really expensive motorcyles or something. I hope he doesn't beat me up when he finds a clean layer of EPS dust on his Ducati...teehee! Actually, we already discussed making some kind of partition to contain my mess. Plus, I'll have some kind of tube hooked up to my planer leading to a shopvac. Still, with all this considered, I anticipate severely underestimating the amount of dust I'll produce.

I've got tools on order from an online shaping store. An electric sander, electric planer, some hand planers/surforms, respirator/dust masks, and some other miscellaneous items that I probably could've built, but was too lazy to have to think about. The delivery should arrive in a few days, mind you this doesn't include any materials like blanks, glass, or resin since I haven't a clue what to order along those lines. I'll figure it out later I guess.

So with introductions out of the way, the first thing on the menu is putting together some shaping stands. Wish me luck...

kc