Thanks Marlin!

Nothing like getting bamboo fins in the mail to make your day. Here are some shots of the bamboo Speed Dialers, Twin Keels, and thruster glassons that I ordered from Marlin at 101 Fin Co. They're super light, and smooth. Great craftsmanship. Truly works of art. The glassons will go on my #001 this week when I glass it. I hope I don't f*** up the install!

Top row: Pavel Speed Dialer quads
Bottom row: Twin Keels


Thruster glassons...


Check the weave...


Do yourself a favor and order some fins from Marlin. He's very cool and you'll be supporting a true craftsman/artist.

kc

Works in Progress

Even though there haven't been any updates in some time, it doesn't mean I have been slacking off. I'm currently working on three boards, and my friend is also working on one. The two big ones are twin 8' funboards, the shortboard is my "practice" blank turned #001, and the fish shape is my friend's 6'0" Mandala clone.

I hope to have these finished by next week. Thereafter I'll set up for glassing. Gulp!


Here's my new planer. The depth adjustment knob on this one is much easier/smoother to turn than the other one (which was stolen). Now I can actually make depth changes during my cuts, something I was unable to do with the previous planer. In fact, this ability has helped my planing tremendously! Guess having the "bad" planer stolen was a blessing in disguise :)


I dunno what you call these things, they're like giant spherical snowflakes that float around in the spring/summer. One of them landed on this blank while I was working on it the other day. I heard they're supposed to bring good luck...


...unfortunately it didn't help when shortly thereafter I dug my fingernail into the blank while surforming....


D'oh!

kc

Spinning

Since the temperature is 1000 degrees outside, and working in my garage-turned-shaping room would be like shaping in a sauna, I decided instead to soak up the A/C and try making a spin template for an 8'0" funboard a few people have been requesting. Here's how it went:

First, I cut out my taped-together outline that I created and printed from the AkuShaper program...




Then, I traced half of the outline onto cardboard, then spun it around and put nose to tail and drew other side of outline opposite the first outline (does that make sense?)...


Cut out the resulting shape, and this is what you get...


So here's the big question...which side is the nose and which is the tail??? Pretty close actually. Hmm, I wonder if I could make a "spin" board with finboxes/leash plugs on both ends that could be used forwards and backwards

kc

Lazy Summer Daze

The summer heat is making movements difficult...let alone trying to shape in a garage when its 95 degrees and humid. Not to mention, weekend before last, my planer was stolen from my shaping room! My landlady offered to pay for a new planer, pretty generous of her. I've put up a partition door and wall to secure the shaping area...should keep those pesky burglers out! Anyways, my new planer just arrived in the mail so I'll get back to shaping again this week. Updates and pics to come soon.

In the meantime, check out these videos. I'm not trying to endorse Proctor in any way, but I thought these clips captured the essence of summertime fish surfing pretty well...

Fish Frenzy 1
Fish Frenzy 2

God bless air conditioning!

kc

Fried Fish & Chips

If you have any interest in custom surfboards and love looking at board porn, then do yourself a favor and check out the pics from the recent European Fish Fry held in Devon, UK. Its nice to see the faces behind the names...

Mr. Richie Pavel (what the hell?)...


Mr. Chris Christenson, Pavel, and M. Caro ("you da man, no, YOU da man...hey anyone wanna order food?")...


Mr. Manuel Caro and friends (Uhh excuse me, Mr. Caro, where's my board!?!?) ...


Of course, there were some cool (or 'sick' as the groms say) new designs...






...along with some innovative concepts. This one has a power assist turbine engine that provides a 3-second push just at the right moment. Almost like having your own personal surf instructor push you into every wave!


In the end, looks like some good fun was had by all...


Hopefully one day in the not too distant future I'll be at the next Fish Fry skipping around like a little teenage groupie stalking my favorite shapers. HeeHee!!!!

(BTW, I stole these pictures from the SurferMag Design Forum. The original thread and zillions more photos here.)

Enjoy!
kc

#001, Part 2...

Its still a bit "fuzzy" and needs some finish sanding, but shaping for numero uno is almost done. Its not without its flaws, but it sure was an eye opening experience. For the most part, I think I did an ok job, but I got a little carried away with the planer and surform here 'n there. What can I say, I guess I was just having too much fun! The thing is like 2" thick and the rails and tail feel super thin. I think my concaves are too deep and lack the smooth transition that I envisioned in my mind. Guess thats what I get for trying to do too much too early. Nonetheless, it should be interesting how these "mistakes" feel in the water.

Started off the night by making some rail bands. Here's a shot of post-bottom band, and post-first top band...


Not sure if the nose needs some tuning, I don't want to make it much thinner than it already is...



Here's my attempt at bottom contours. For my first board I probably should've kept things simple, but I'm glad I gave it a try. I figure its better to get some experience with these things sooner than later. Single concave under front foot...


...double concave under back foot...

...and vee out the tail...


Adjusted the lighting to bring out the concave shadows. Ooops!...a bit deeper than I intended. Will try to smooth out the concaves later.


Looking pretty ok from afar...




Just need to wait for some resin and fiberglass in the mail, and I'll attempt to glass the sucker. BTW, I'm terrified of glassing...

kc

#001, Part 1...

Ok, after almost two months of talking, I'm finally gonna make this happen. It took me way too long to get here, but I've finally begun shaping my #001. I decided that I'd use my practice blank and turn it into a real board. That being the case, I needed a template and so I cut out the outline of my 5'10 JC SD3 onto a piece of cardboard from the box that my KingMac blanks were delivered in. I know that cardboard isn't the best material to use, I would rather use masonite, but I couldn't be bothered to be too picky at this point. In fact, it was rather convenient because I cut the template in two which made it much easier to transport on the subway. Maybe next time I should try making a spin template?



Anyways, back at the shaping bay, after taping my template back together I was ready to begin. I took my "practice" blank and measured the thickness. It was just over 2.5" thick but I decided I wanted to take it down to about 2.25" when all was said and done. I also made some lines across the board and compared thicknesses at various points to see how the thickness compared from one side to the other.


Having my new exhaust system plugged in and ready to go, I turned the planer on to start taking the thickness down. After a few passes, I realized that the exhaust system had one slight drawback - as I stretched, tugged, and pulled against the exhaust hose, it resulted in my planer tilting and planing crooked. Deeeaaamn!! Well, at least there was no mess on the floor, instead the mess was on my blank, check out these nasty lines and ridges...



With all due respect, I don't care what Jim Phillips says in his Master Shaper videos, as a complete newbie I needed the security of a crutch tool....my trusty Surform. With crutch tool in hand, I proceeded to Surform my way out of trouble. Learning from my previous mistakes while Surforming my practice blank, I made certain I would not catch the Surform edge thus tearing the foam (didn't matter...I still made the same mistake anyways). After about ten times the amount of time it took for me to create the problem with the planer, I Surformed the mistakes out and was left with a respectable result. Now it was time to find the "true" center line (not necessarily the stringer) to use when aligning my template. This I did by snapping a chalkline down the middle just like my old friend J. Phillips suggests. Sure enough as you can see, the stringer wasn't perfectly straight...



After aligning the template, and tracing the outline, it was time for the only tool with which have any prior experience - the handsaw (not that my prior experience helped any). At first the saw skipped and jumped, but after relaxing my grip and taking longer strokes (ahem, get yer mind out of the gutter) the saw cut like a lukewarm knife through lukewarm butter - albeit crooked...



At this point I noticed that my shaping rack was too wide and the board kept falling into the gap between the uprights. I had to balance it on one side of the rack to prevent my saw from hitting the "T" part of the uprights. Guess I'll need rebuild the damn things. Grr!!!

Again, I depended on the Surform (this time the little one) to clean up my crappy outline cutting job. I tried using the planer, but I couldn't get the board to sit steady on the rack (see previous paragraph) so I didn't risk it. I also took this opportunity to knock down the stringer with the hand planer. Dunno if its just me, but why does it feel so satisfying to use the hand planer to cut the stringer down resulting in those curly wooden springy shavings?...


Next challenge...bottom contours. Stay tuned.