Ascent Surfboards (Calvin Chau) Creates a Finless Bat Tail Gem!

1. Your Name: Calvin Chau

2. Your Brand name: Ascent Surfboards

3. How did you hear about us? From the strong onshore winds after work… and Sacred Craft!

4. How was your initial experience at Foam E-Z? Very helpful without being intimidating to a weary first time shaper. Brad and Grant set me up with the right tools and more importantly, the right knowledge.

5. Why did you want to build your own board? This is my first finless shape. I wanted to understand the subtleties in board performance by applying different design elements.

6. Shape of finished board? A finless bat!

7. Size of finished board: Length 5’9” Width 20” Thickness 2 1/4”

8. What blank did you use? Marko Foam 6'1" Pescado Fish Blank

9. How was your board building experience? Channels are a new challenge, but also fun. Grant recommended using the rounded surform blade which worked very well. Placement of the channels was the toughest part but I finally decided on where they should go and just started working away. The shape was Derek Hynd inspired.

10. What videos, books, web, other did you use? JC’s Shaping & Glassing 101, Greg Leohr’s Epoxy 101, Swaylocks Forum, YouTube,

11. Do you recommend these resources? Yep, the dialogue in JC’s Shaping 101 is helpful for learning.

12. What do you wish you knew going into this project? Cutting out a U-shaped spreader to use for the channels while glassing.

13. What would you recommend to someone else for their first time? Don’t be afraid to try shaping. The initial investment may be steeper than you’d like, but the accomplishment you’ll feel afterward is WAY worth it. Don’t expect a perfect board, it’ll look something like a surfboard and it’ll be surfable. Watch JC’s Shaping 101. And wear a respirator; you don’t want this stuff in your lungs. Use slow curing resin when glassing for the first time.

14. What tools did you find most useful? Electric Planer, Rounded Surform blade, Sanding Block, Calipers made from scrap plywood

15. Where did you run into trouble? Glassing the channels.

16. What kind of fin system did you use and why? NONE! (I’ve been waiting for this question =P)

17. Did you glass the board and what was that experience like? Yep, Grant challenged me with using R&R Kwik Kick and it didn’t prove to be too tough. Hardest part is blue tinting on EPS with 4 deep channels. The bat tail another difficulty to add on top of it all.

18. Where did you shape and glass your board? In my garage via a homemade shaping stand.

19. What type of board do you want to make next? A twin fish? A quad? A longboard? We’ll see.

Matt's Wisconsin Masterpiece!

Hey Foamez,

I just built my first board and got it out on the water a couple of times. I was hoping to get some advice / constructive criticism.

That being said...this was my first board I've ever made (all hand tools, from FOAM-EZ, represent). I realize it's far from perfect and has many mistakes (which are visible). I took the approach that more foam is better than less when it came time to hack off more to fix mistakes.

My nose and tail are to thick and the outline has a few small kinks. I tried to keep my rails pretty standard, round 50/50 and was fairly successful. My goal was to make a great lake board that was thick and wide as possible. It's about 2 3/4" thick in the center and about 22" wide. I kept the rocker pretty standard to how it came, so I don't think there is a lot of issue there.

It drops in real nice and grabs real small waves..but once underway it loses power and is hard to keep going. It turns great though. A lot of it I'm guessing is from small closed out waves we get most of the time.

Being in Wisconsin, I didn't exactly have a lot of resources to use, so I did a lot of things on a trial and error system, if you know what I mean.

My real question is: the overall outline/proportion of the board. I wonder if there is to much board in the bottom 2/3 area or more board should have been pulled towards the top? Or maybe not, I was wondering if I could get your advice on the overall shape and proportion of the board.

I appreciate you taking the time very much. I attached some pics of it and in the water to try and get a better idea.

Can't wait to start on my next board. Any idea when you'll get some marko 9'6" blanks in?

Thanks again for everything,

Matt

First off, congrats on building your first board all the way through, that in itself is a huge accomplishment that you should be proud of!! It's always difficult to give constructive criticism through pics/email but I'll try. Regarding your outline, you gotta remember that it all starts with the plan shape. If you start with a nice flowing outline without kinks and bumps then you set the tone for the rest of the shape job and vic-a-versa. In surfboard design there is no right or wrong because it is up to the shaper to design a board for specific conditions, the surfers experience, and weight/size. So if it looks like there is a bit too much volume in one area of the board then you're probably on to something. The thing to remember is that you learn from each board, try not to make the same error twice, and to have fun with it. I think you're on the right track. Thanks for sharing this with us and let us know if we can help you out in the future.

Grant