Preview of Henry's XL Mush Buster Convertible 5-Fin

Kawikas Custom Hand Plane

Kawika stopped by the other day and shaped this cool hand plane. Came out killer, contrary to how simple this looks, there is much more time and effort into this small honed out shape than a normal shortboard. More difficult to shape than a standard tri fin shape with the same amount of detail. There are many micro tweaks in such a small area it's mind boggling. Simple ain't easy. Pretty Cool. I think we might have a shaper in the making....

Insights of Creating Rocker Templates

8/19/10 UPDATE: The new rocker template in the first photo being cut on the CNC was delivered today. Everything was fine but one critical thing was wrong, the rockers were glued-up in the blank backwards! The nose/tail rocker was glued in reverse. Classic, it was hilarious. Check your rockers!!

Occasionally I have to scale a shape beyond the usefulness of the original master rocker template. At this point a new scaled master rocker is needed for a different blank size. To maintain the integrity of the shape the rocker is isolated from the program and a new master rocker is created from the scaled file and cut on the CNC with the exact rocker of the new scaled version.

There are many different methods of measuring and making rockers templates. Most outside of the shaping arena (and a lot of shapers) have a difficult understanding how critical it is to maintaining and utilizing master rocker templates for maintaining accuracy and consistency. I feel it is one of the most critical aspects of the designing and shaping process.

Most shapers rely on the blank manufactures to deliver the blanks with the correct rockers. Most don’t bother to check before they start the shaping process. I just recently had a shaper show up at my door with a blank with the incorrect rockers and wanted me to shape the blank. I could tell immediately the blank was off and it would be impossible to shape his “model”. This after he just sent me two blanks previously from another shaper that was marked as the same two rockers that should have been identical but both were completely different from each other and the master shape. Much to his chagrin, he didn’t appreciate it when I asked him if he bothered to double check his rockers.

Contrary to many shapers I am mainly a "deck rocker" centric shaper. I prefer to design and shape the deck rocker as the foundation to my shaping methods and the process begins with an accurate deck rocker. All of my designs originate from hand shapes that are digitized by 3D scans. I do not use any of the surfboard rendering software.

Greg's Super Dyna-Glyde glassed

Greg's Super Dyna-Glyde dims 9'4" x 23.5";

For comparo; Jims Dyna-Glyde 8'3" x 22.5":


Bottoms;

Chris Wells and the AST team trip to Nicaragua

UPDATE 8/27/10; Latest video of Team AST trip Nicaragua. Fun beach break action. Chris is on his "Grovelor" modge. After viewing these vids I have some new ideas for a new tweaked version in the works.

Episode 2 from mike pagan on Vimeo.

Chris sent me these vids from his team trip with the AST crew. Check out the sick left they scored. If you plan on booking surf trips to Mex / Central Am / Carib check out Adventure Sport Tours


Photo of Wellsy by Dave Hall from the channel.

Episode 1 from mike pagan on Vimeo.

Episode 3 from mike pagan on Vimeo.

Jim's custom 4+1 Dyna-Glyde glassed

Update 9/22/10
Hi Wayne,
I thought you might like to see some pictures of the Dyna Glyde in action (Hurricane Igor). If you can't tell I love this board !!
Fast, loose and paddles great - makes surfing more fun for old guys LOL
Thanks
Jim N

UPDATE From Jim 8/30/10 Jim, thanks for the update! Send me some pics!

Hey Wayne - Just lettting you know this DG is great. I've had 4-5 sessions with it now. Love it! Paddles and catches waves like a LB - great speed, blows through sections and holds in on steep drops - turns like a much shorter board. Really glad I took a leap of faith and had you build it for me. We've got a bunch of swells setting up here on the East Coast so I will get to knnow it better over the next 2 weeks.Can't thank you enough - time to sell the old boards LOL

Jim N

Bob's Convertible 5-fin XXL Mush Buster glassed.

This wave is for Mom! Thanks Mom!

Preview of Greg's custom Super Dyna-Glyde