Surfing School - Shaping - Cutting The Outline

After the desired outline is finished, use a jigsaw with a larger tooth blade, and while lightly pressing down, cut the blank just outside the drawn line. Make sure the blade does not bend in or out while cutting as you need an edge perpendicular to the blank bottom. Once cut, use your middle sanding block with the blank placed on edge and rough grit sandpaper to carefully sand both edges down to the outline itself.

The board is now ready for shaping. It is difficult to describe how to create art in words. Therefore, only some general information will be provided leaving an actual design to the shaper. You need to know how thick the board will be and the deck contour so you can plane to the approximate shape. You also need to know if there will be a fin box as this determines how thick the tail section can be.

The top of the blank is contoured first using slightly curved passes from end to end as shown in Figure 01. Adjust the cutting depth for deeper cuts (or make more passes with light cuts) along the outer edges. This leaves larger buildups in the middle. Don't touch the bottom of the board until the very last as the bottom outline must be maintained until the rails are shaped.

The top taper should support your intended rail design. Use the planer with your hand (closest to the board) on the trigger to make the passes until the approximate deck form emerges. Eyeballing from the nose and tail every few minutes will ensure the deck is uniform on both sides. You might also want to look at the board with the overhead light on and off as the difference in shading will somewhat highlight any unevenness. Also note that any unevenness from the lighting may cause you to put dips into the blanks surface.

When planing is completed, use the large sanding block with passes from end to end to smooth down the rough planed edges. Next, use the middle sanding block to work each side from middle to outside edge until the deck is smooth. Make sure not to sand too much in one spot as this can cause a dip in the blank.