Before my family headed out on our two week family Christmas tour, I had the opportunity to shape a new board for myself. The board will finally be finished up early this week and I'm super excited to get it in the water. I wanted to write up a little explanation of how I arrived at shaping this board for myself to maybe help you understand some aspects of ordering a custom board. As a word of advice, whenever ordering any custom board, I encourage you to talk directly to your shaper!
I've had this board designed in my head for a couple years and finally got to make a reality. The board is a 6'10" x 21.25" x 3" 2+1 winged swallowtail shortboard (I'm a pretty big guy... 6'2", 215 lbs. without a wetsuit on).
Ideas and Goals: Whenever considering a new board, it is a good idea to have an idea or goal for this board and for your surfing. When I was designing this board, I wanted it to be a versatile shortboard that could handle waves up to double overhead. I also know that my surfing style is not well suited for "conventional" shortboarding, so the design clearly reflects a different style of shortboard.
Where Are You Going To Surf This Board? If you're like me, you surf a lot of different breaks in your area. But also like me, you probably have a few favorites. This board is definitely designed with my favorite point breaks around Santa Cruz in mind. Knowing where you're going to surf your new board can affect aspects like rocker, rails, tail shape, and length to name a few.
Plan Shape: I moved the wide point forward 1.5" to put the volume more under my chest for easier paddling into slightly bigger surf. I also like boards that have a beaked nose because of the increased volume up front (and I think it looks sweet!) and this board sports a nice little beak. The board definitely has a bit of a "retro" feel to it, but I'm okay with that. The wings allow the tail width to be stepped down while adding a touch of "bite" to the rail (and, like before, it looks cool!).
Bottom Contours: For the bottom contours, I referenced a few of my favorite boards. All my favorite boards feature a tri-plane hull bottom going into a double barrel "V" off the tail. These contours fit well w/ the type of waves I was hoping to surf, especially w/ a subtle "V" running through the nose of the board (that aspect works well in all surf, but especially when the waves get a bit bigger).
We'll address fin setup and glassing in Part 2. Thanks for reading, and I hope this helps!
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