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,
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
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