GREAT NEWS

I picked up the planner today and cut in a aggressive single into slsight double out the tail of a blank Ive had lying around.  It felt so nice to finally do some work in the bay, the noise of the planner, the foam dust, the smell, the sanding and smoothing out. 

Its time I grabbed another blank and complete my mates board, I know where to go and what we are looking for, the template has been perfected after many adjustments, the rocker set after a few goes, the first few just didnt fell right, the last board I was making the rails werent perfect, so I just put that one aside, I mean it would ride well, but that not what I look for in my boards, im searching for oh my that feels just right, just what Im searching for, this is what gareth wants,  I love being a backyarder, no rush, though wellsy will now start to disagree cause its taken so long, i should of had it to him by christmas but then I feel really ill.  It put a massive stop on it. 

SOON GARETH, REALLY SOON.

Getting there

Im still to sick to be doing any shaping, its dissapionting but a reality for me at the moment, I dont want to talk about health so I have nothing to really add to my blog, sorry it hasnt been updated for a while.

I will shape again, i have many dreams and things I want to make, im even dreaming of setting up a 20 foot container on a property I may be buying and eventually also setting up half a garage as a little store to sell my boards from, or just to store them to look at, lol.

I hope everyone is well and is having a fantastic start to the year

Slow Recovery

Its still a very slow recovery, still not able to get stuck into making boards yet, I reckon not for another 2 months the way I feel.  Its killing me I tell ya, very demoralising.  The little 5'6 im working on for aaron can be worked on because I dont need to pick up a planner for that, though it would make it easier.  Ive sort of finished the deck, just need to do another primary band on both sides.  I need to add a deeper single then just because Im going to add a shallow double leading to flat out the tail, maybe a little v but I doubt it.  The reasons I want to go down this track is to make it easier going from rail to rail, keep it loose for junky surf.  I will post up a video of the board when I can, hopefully for tommorow

dreaming and longing to be back to health soon

Im longing to get back into the shaping bay, back to work,and producing sticks that are fun to ride for my friends, and eventually for sale as well.  Am even thinking of sending a board around the sunshine coast for feedback, get people to ride it and tell me what they think, might be going a bit far there and might not be able to afford to do that, but who knows what the future holds.

 Heres hoping Im back to work at Network in the next month or so and back to shaping hopefully in the next two months.

Still unable to work on boards

Im still unable to complete any boards, plenty of projects, just the health with the back isnt there.  Doc says no shaping yet, cant even get back to work.

So what have I been doing, been mucking around with the fup fairy logo and finally nailed it, I will post a pic of it on this blog Im doing now at the end.  Ive also been thinking a hell of a lot about the boards I want to make and sort of thinking on stock boards I want to produce to sell on ebay.

Here are my ideas.  Im at the moment got a stick a mate is going to help me finish, I will guide him, it is 5'6 x wide x thick.  Short board for a biggish bloke, Im going to muck around with this, the one im trying to finish with a friend will have a very deep single into double.  This one will a twinny, should be a great fun small wave board, something that you wouldnt think of riding but will have plenty of paddle power and squirt to boot.  The rocker in it is a bit aggressive at the tail so the single should flatten that out and leave her easy to snap and flow nicely on the flat sections, thats the hope, a test report will be done on that and pitures will follow, but who knows how long it will take to complete in my condition.  The other version of that will be a flat bottom, slightly flatter rocker, quad or thruster.  Will trail it to see which performs the best, both will have boxy rails.

Ive been working on two sort of 6'4 round tails for quite a while now, on about 19 and one 20 wide, different nose widths and tail widths, one aimed as a step up board for hollow waves, and one a bit of a experiment that I will keep under my hat until completed, test rides and reports will be done on both.  With these boards I want to learn about rockers and be able to scale them down to make a 6'0 but much the same board.  Its a aim Im looking at for sure.

I will also be making eggs for 1st time boards, glassed in single fin, great for kids to learn on, fun to make, will be looking at 5'11 or shorter if need be.

I will also eventually be making deep channels, they have always driven me nuts with the beautiful design and speed, ive been hooked on them ever since I rode on.  One day I wish to make a eight channel single fin just for fun, anyone wanna sand it.

Anyhows, heres the fup logo, it was a bit of fun, it wont go on every board I make.  Hope you all like it

Nothing New

I havent posted for a while due to dramitacally slowing down with my shaping due to my back accident, the error on gareths board has stumped me and stalled future projects as im not happy to pass that board on to him, im to much of a perfectionist to allow that no matter what.the situation I take pride in my work and hobby.

This weekend I hope to paint gareths board, then the following weekend I need to purchase 4 litres of ready mixed uv resin then glass the sucker, the following weekend attached the fcs and start sanding, so that takes a month by the looks, Ive slowed down cause I can only do little bits at a time and dont want to hurt my back, sorry gareth, so sorry mate.

My plan for my mate is a step up semi type gun anyway due to him already having a fish, so will be ready for those perfect off shore winter swells.  Its dissapionting how long its taking but cant avoid that with a bad back. 

I cant even start on a board for me, have to shelve my board due to stuffing gareths, but i will keep his, you never know, it might be a great board for me, haaaaaaaa,

more on gareths surfboard

Well, I stuffed it peoples, I lowered the apex on the rails for gareths surfboard to far, oh well, to be honest I was seeking a lower apex on the rail and just took a few to many cuts, thats the way it goes.  I will use this board for testing and start again, will shape the same shape and I will keep this one.  I have posted a video on my facebook page which is diggersurfboards.  The email on facebook is scottssurfboards@westnet.com.au if anyone wants to see the error.  I have nothing to hide in my surfboard making adventures and want to share all with you, the good and the bad.

Cheers Guys

Scott

Addiction

ah the addiction of shaping, even though I havent finished gareths board I already now what Im making next, just got to source a blank for it, havent come up with a rocker yet or fin placements but she is going to be a bonzer with a difference, this one will be all for me when I get back to surfing agian, will use her for encouragement to do my excercises.

 The dreams of what ive been wanting to make have kept me up at night so I had to draw it out the other day and it looks pretty good, will look at the full scale drawing for a while just to visulize it better. 

Have a great new year everyone and hope its better than last year for you

Another Setback

Over Christmas I have damaged my back, ive been laid up since the 25th and have not been able to shape at all.  The frustrating part of this is all I have to do for gareths board now is to screen the rails, final sand, spray paint white, then all done.  After that its glassing time, I hope one day soon to get back to it, sorry gareth.

too tired

Its so hard to find time to finish the little tasks on this blank, im just to tired to try to attack it tonight, I know what i have to do, Ive gone done tonight again and looked at the blank just to check it out and imagine my next step, visualize my task and visualize myself doing it.  Now its time for bed.

next few days

tommorow night I really hope to get the rails completed on gareths board, cant stop thinking about them and the fin lay up, cant wait till I can find some time to get this done, getting harder to find the time.

first rail band on gareths board

Today I completed the first rail band on my close mates board, it came up a treat, same angle all the way along, no bumps, no dips, just beautiful, I could have got a slightly better line at the top of the deck for the rail band but overall cant be happier, the next rail band will be completed tommorow and if I get time will do bottom rail band and then roll the bands over and screen next weekend, then  organize glass, fin plugs, paint.  Hey mate she is getting there and looking the goods at the moment.

On the 18th I couldnt sleep till I completed the 2nd rail band, so waited till everyone in bed and asleep, slipped down stairs and cut in the second rail band.  Now all that needs doing is the bottom rail band then roll the top rail band down, then blend her all in and its done, yeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwww, I love shaping gareth, such a buzz

More on Gareths board

Checked out the blank last night and noticed a few bumps under the better lighting on the deck, need to smooth that out.  I think this board I will keep now, test out the concave on her and the rails.  A bit of r&d work on her and make gareth a better one straight away.  Its taking a long time to make this one but the next will be done very quickly.  Gareth your board will be done soon, it will come out better if I road test this one and then do some slight adjustments to her to get you a real craker mate.

the fup fairy

Love this little logo, Im going to use it between the fins on certian boards for fun

Just a little play in the bay

Today I went down to my bay, rechecked the sides of the blank, ran a square over them to make sure they were square, moved some foam on the deck and played with the deck line, generally fussed around with it.  Very enjoyable and relaxing, how lucky am I to have this hobby just waiting for me when I get the chance.

I put a very slight single concave from just passed the middle of the board to the deepest point in front of the fins leading out to flat at around the back fin of a thruster.  To do this I set the depth to 1ml and run the planer down the board, changing the depth as I went then moving it back to zero to fade it out.  Its a very shallow concave but will do the trick with it.

More work needed on the deck yet and rails need to be cut in yet, just going slowly and carefully.

Rest Time

Its been a while since I have done anything on gareths boards now, Ive mainly been going down every night before bed and just staring at it and thinking on the next step.  I have a plan of action now and hopefully this weekend if I find time I will finish the blank and look to shape the rails next weekend.

It will certainly be interesting to see how she comes out, the outline is so nice, the blank is awesome to work on and I think I will have a flat bottom this time.  still undecided on this. but it just looks so right the rocker that I sorta dont want to touch the bottom with concaves.

Two weeks ago I set up my air guns properly and look forward to starting to use them again, I want to muck around with some different colour paints as well.

Hopefully this coming monday I will have more to tell

Where it all began with fong

At the very beginning a close friend of mine called fong had a old snapped board that we decided to try to do something with, he came over to my place and he drew up some simple curves, brought his jigsaw over and attacked the plank,  it came out okay and I was left to strip the glass and see what I could do with her,  also we laid down my 6.6 quad on a bed sheet, copied the outline and came up with my very first template, crude, but effective.  I dont have that template anymore but it was a good day, lots of fun, and the addiction began from here.  What should be noticed in these pics is the rabbitos cap fong is wearing, if ever there was a rabbitos supporter it is him.  I lost my passion for league when the bears got kicked out of the comp a long time ago, but I know have a soft spot for the rabbits.

So what did become of that board of fongs, I think I ended up cutting channels all over it, thanks to that blank I learnt how to cut in a straight channel, use a tool to get a nice cut and worked out the best way to get a nice even channel.  Dont need to much more pratice on cutting channels, I can tweak my method a bit more and will pratice again soon, ive got plenty of snapped boards under the house to pratice on, its the glassing that will be the trick to learn.  But I cant wait to do a 8 channel single, one day, one day soon, watch this space.

Thanks for the day fong, and fot the kick off on a life time hobby

Day off today

Im feeling pretty under the weather today, sore joints, bit of a temp, I reckon its just bad hayfever, back to bed to get more rest and early night tonight.  I popped down to yorkies to say gday and it was great to see him.   I need to just think a bit on gareths board and visualise how im going to remove some foam from mid point to nose, and how much foam to remove.  Step at a time a board build is, and with a backyard for a mate there is no hurry, each step takes time and care.

I checked the board this morning and it actually looks better the second time around, sometimes Im just to hard on myself.

Brians grandsons board

I made a egg for a 10 year old kid.  Its for the boss's grandson.  I really enjoyed this process and learning curve, the board is not perfect, but pretty bloody good.  The laminating turn out well and only had to cut out two air bubbles.

What I learnt on this board was you need to be more aggressive with the glass when tucking under the rails, you really need to stretch it, no mucking about with it, rather stretch the glass till you can see the resin coming up through the glass.   This will leave no hope of air bubbles and give a nice tight glass job, cant wait to do my next one and apply what I learnt.

Also when I glassed on the fin I took to many precautions in trying to keep the board covered and neat, next time I will cover half the board in plastic and do my set up there rather than the whole board with a circle cut around the fin to work on.

With the rovings when you apply them, you need to continually push them down to the base of the fin and not let them rise up when you lay glass over the top of them, this was much better than my first job, I swore I would never glass on another fin after this one, but now since its been a while I wouldnt mind applying what I have learnt so I can it do better.

Im also keen to try to do a fin box under the glass and this is the next step for me I believe, I really want to aim for a 8 channel single fin one day, but I think that is at least 20 boards away yet.

Enjoy the photos of my first customers board.

Let me tell me you a little bit about this board I made, it has soft rails all the way around the board, very forgiving and good for a beginner.  The tail is nice and fat and the plan shape which was designed by Huei is absolutely beautiful.  The rocker on the board has a nice even flow.  Its a single fin, why a single fin one might say, because i reckon that is the best sort of board to learn on, easy to paddle and catch waves on and will help the guy riding it seek the nicest line, thereby helping him understand waves a bit better..  Then he will need to make a step up, but not yet, not yet.

Friday night at Porkies, oops, I mean yorkies

Drop over at yorkies factory a few months ago on a friday night.  I use to go there regulary just to watch and learn.  Ive been very lucky that I have been able to watch and pick up tips from yorky just by watching him shape and glass.  The guy is very humble and I consider myself lucky to be able to call him a friend.  I hope to catch up with him soon for a surf or a beer.

In one of the photos you can see me sitting down in his bay, in the dust.  Funny thing was that yorky asked me to sit down there with the calculator to do some some math and to have a better look at the board from a different angle.  Bloody hell, im still gullible even though Im 45, it was a great night.

Thanks Yorky for the laughs