Sydney Shaping course?

[Scroty]

Anyone know if there is a Sydney equivalent to the Gold Coast http://www.surfboardshapersworkshop.com.au ?

I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd be keen for something like this, shaping a board with guidance from someone who knows what they are doing. Not looking to become a shaper, just make something for myself - one off.

I know a lot of you guys do it in the garage, but I have stuffed up enough DIY to know that trying one on my own is sure to end badly for the blank.

Scrote

[Cpt.Caveman]

A lot of its trial and error I've found.

Its quite doable to just watch the Shaper 101 DVDs and read on the internet. First run you expect to learn from plenty of mistakes and the board to come out pretty shocking. Its hard to know what are errors if you never make them. Second run you have a chance to expect where the bad mistakes will happen, and how to avoid them.

After that it sounds like plenty of practice to and slow careful attention to detail. Digger is a great example of taking your time to be careful and pay attention to the detail. He spends lots and lots of time on each part of the blank shaping process and doesn't rush a thing.

Ask digger and Beerfan I reckon. They've stuck with the home shaping thing a while now.

[diggerdickson]

a shaping course aint a bad idea, but I can tell you that you wont be able to stick to shaping just one board, its bloody addictive. Ive gone to shaping one board for my boy, which I completed to now making up a shaping bay and a glassing bay under the new house and plan to do 12 a year at the least, with six boards for mates allready lined up, 2 have to be completed before christmas.

There is heaps of information around, swaylocks is a awesome site, there are some really good guys on this site as well which will help out if you ask. YOu gotta try mate, never know till you try. Just dont expect to make a ripper first time, but you can get something good that will be all yours and no one elses, if someone laughs you can tell em to stick and do better if they can.

Take your time, relax, enjoy the beers that go with making a surfboard out of a blank and watching it come to fruition, its a absolute buzz mate, a total buzz

[diggerdickson]

by the way, once yourve completed your first board, if you go to bed dreaming of how you could have done the rails better, and dreaming of better ways of adding a concave and what would work best out of the tail then welcome, your bloody hooked for life

[purple pyramids]

i just picked up a seconds blank for my first board. just waiting for work to finish up for the year.
one site i saw suggested starting out on mini boards (30cm long). do the full process, make a template...through to glassing your little fins on. sort of seem like a good idea. but i don't really need a lot of little boards. well, not since the 70s when i lost action jackson in a diving accident in sydney harbour.

the blank i bought is three-quarters of the way shaped. it's even rockered. no doubt the devil is in the details.

[ric_vidal]

one site i saw suggested starting out on mini boards (30cm long). do the full process, make a template...

f*ck that, sometimes the smaller the board the harder it is to shape.

the blank i bought is three-quarters of the way shaped. it's even rockered. no doubt the devil is in the details.

You are most of the way there. If it turns out alright it might be worth getting it glassed professionally. Or if you want to have a dig yourself, use UV resin for at least the laminates, that's the fiddly bit.

[diggerdickson]

i just picked up a seconds blank for my first board. just waiting for work to finish up for the year.
one site i saw suggested starting out on mini boards (30cm long). do the full process, make a template...through to glassing your little fins on. sort of seem like a good idea. but i don't really need a lot of little boards. well, not since the 70s when i lost action jackson in a diving accident in sydney harbour.

the blank i bought is three-quarters of the way shaped. it's even rockered. no doubt the devil is in the details.

post pics mate, please

[purple pyramids]

...

post pics mate, please

will do. nothing like the threat of public humiliation to make one try harder.

[Beerfan]

Give it a go scrote, its so much fun having a good surf on a board you've made. Digger is right it's addictive!!. I don't think i'd try a shortboard, or a longboard, but fishy small wave boards and eggs, go for it. Keep it simple first.

[Scroty]

You blokes have talked me into it, along with my brother in law who is hooking me up with a cheap seconds blank.

Expect questions.

[Davros]

Scroty,

I have shaped 1 board from reading old shaping excepts and books from the net, and the lads above gave me some great advice (as did others here and Swaylocks), also you dont need to go out and buy a ton of expensive gear I think, I used a Sureform, saw, a few grades of sand paper and borrowed a router for the fin plugs (but i didnt do my own glassing i would have r**ted it for sure). I would have made shaping racks but used and upside down ironing board that was so freaking ridiculous I got a laugh every time I walked into my make shift shaping bay but it worked well.I will be buying a planer though to save on the Popeye forearms next time.

My next board in October I'm going to have a go at a quasi Ritchie Pavel Speed Dialler (quasi in that a vee under the nose, double concave in the middle and a single out the back may be a little advanced for a second board, need to be into to win it though and may look at modern Mckee quad placement for fins as he publishes his specs as well........there ya go..getting all carried away.....).

Mistakes on my last board - got lazy foiling the nose its a little thick, started my double concave to early up the board and while it flys over flat sections and is a good fat wave board it could do with a little more lift but it still goes pretty well, pointed the fins towards the nose but could have slighly angled in a bit but ride this 2+1 as a Single most anyway.

This will consume you in a great way, I had to go cold turkey to focus on surfing for while.

Enjoy the dust.