post your modern day sickness

[Davros]

I have had a couple of customs from NPJ and they are exactly what I asked for. Are they hand shaped? Probably, but I care less about this than his designs, they are different board designs basically with a shed load of R&D from him in all types of waves. I have really enjoyed the 2 boards (2+1 and Quartet), both bought years apart and the 2+1 has been OS a few times, hammered on rocks and a little dry reef and thrown around the back of cars and is a soldier i know I'm going to really enjoy every time (and think why don't I ride this board more often). Get your point but who kinda cares if the board goes well.

[Drailed]

As I said before, both boards are beautiful and like you say the R&D into both is massive. Including the hand foiled fins for the 2&1...

I was mainly a bit weirded out at first as per my initial post about the lines running up the rails in the foam... Haven't seem those before and made me wonder wtf they are.

[Yuke Hunt]

Get your point but who kinda cares if the board goes well.

Yep ... its a fcukin surfboard for fcuks sake just surf the fcukin fcuker.

[Drailed]

Fck off womble...

[packa]

Hey derailed, I can understand ya being bummed having folked out over $1,000 for a board that still has the machine lines showing ... at that price point, I'd be expecting a top quality finish ...

But, as far as the performance goes - it's more about its affects on your mind, than it's ability to interact with the flow of water.

As for all this 'custom' talk and 'handshape' vs 'machine' ... each to their own, I guess, but, as an old school well known shaper said to me a few weeks back:

why should I stand in a room filled with foam dust, breathing that shit in, having it on my skin, just to make a surfer feel better. The board sure won't go better because I did ...

We then went about discussing the cost to fully outsource the production of a board. It's costing me $330 incl GST (for a short board, say 6'4"), and he gets them done for $275 incl GST ... he has volume too, doing about 10 boards per week. So, I was pretty happy with my costs, for the volume I do ...

BTW, if I glass them myself, cost is about $200, plus my labour

[batoes]

i doubt very much mine or yours (derailed) were machine shaped. No idea what the lines are? Boards go great. But if i want to get piety (and i do), the thing that bugs me is the grubby hand prints under the glass all over the rails!

[Yuke Hunt]

darn off womble...

Look Loofy, its like this ... for a start there is absolutely no reason to take your frustrations out on others, especially when they are trying to help.

Secondly ... would you mind heading straight over to the TOTY's ... don't dilly dally ... given the evidence at hand you most certainly deserve a position on the dais and a distinguished mention. If andy doesn't go mega-tard after the grand final ... you've got as good a reason to take out the title as any ... best of luck.

I mean you've just purchased a surfboard ... sight unseen for over $1000 ... with very little thought going into the process. Your expectations were based on assumptions ... and to top it off you've wandered into the "post your modern day sickness" thread and started asking ill thought out questions about surfboard manufacturing that any diligent student of surfing should make it their business to know.

I think you should give that board back to Neil ... someone more deserving would appreciate it I'm sure.

[Cpt.Caveman]

They're called speed stripes

Cutting edge technology coming out of underground expiermentation. An accidental flick of the wrist while holding the broom, left unnoticed, actually improved performance by 22%.

They're now a mainstay of design. He chose to not name them, as the true name "broom stripes" doesn't fit in marketing priciples. To keep free of ancumbering labels he left it out.

[Drailed]

Womble, don't be a tard mate.

I am discussing a surfboard in a surfboard forum. It's exactly the place where I should be discussing it.

What are you on about grateful blah blah?? All I wanted to know was what those line are ffs.

[ctd]

Secondly ... would you mind heading straight over to the TOTY's ... don't dilly dally ... given the evidence at hand you most certainly deserve a position on the dais and a distinguished mention. If andy doesn't go mega-tard after the grand final ... you've got as good a reason to take out the title as any ... best of luck.

I mean you've just purchased a surfboard ... sight unseen for over $1000 ... with very little thought going into the process. Your expectations were based on assumptions ... and to top it off you've wandered into the "post your modern day sickness" thread and started asking ill thought out questions about surfboard manufacturing that any diligent student of surfing should make it their business to know.

I think you should give that board back to Neil ... someone more deserving would appreciate it I'm sure.

I think its entirely reasonable for someone purchasing a custom board to assume that, you know, its custom made. Which means by hand or at least hands are involved. Off the rack means machine made (or not personalised); custom means someone has personalised it for you by the shaper using his hands.

That said, most shapers I've 'dealt with' or visited get their blanks machine cut to about 90% done and then hand finish the balance - whether thats smoothing out the lines, making the tweaks from their standard model (more rocker or harder rails or whatever). That is the personalisation part, its not starting from scratch but its still there.

Most of the price isnt paying for the labour, its for the intellectual property. But its also for someone to check the machine shaping and making sure its correct and matches the agreed design and things like shaping lines arent left visible.

Oddly, the lack of work by the shaper himself means that the glassing guy is probably the most important guy in the physical process of making the actual board, once the design has been created and put into the machine file. Or, of course, the spray painter.

[marauding mullet]

Hand shaped or machine, doesn't matter to me in a custom, as long as the dude takes some pride in his creations and finishes them properly. Unless there's some structural advantage to leaving the lines there, a few minutes to remove them would at least differentiate the board from an Asian cheapy at resale time.

[PeepeelaPew]

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[Drailed]

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[cedric]

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[Drailed]

Ok, so the final word on the NPJ - the man just called me himself and we had a good 15 minute chat.

The board is 100% handshaped , the lines are from a fly screen gauze he uses to finish the rails off. Neal doesnt always fine sand the rails as he believes the slight grooves allow the resin to sink in and adhere to the rails better.

Neal hasnt used machines for a number of years, when he has in the past he has always just had the rails cut square for him to finish himself.

Absolutely top bloke.

[el rancho]

I actually thought it could be gauze. i tried to find a picture showing it to compare.

[el rancho]

machine cut lines I think are a little wider normally

[Drailed]

Thats exactly what Neal said, squarer and about 10mm apart.