http://thesurfboardstudio.com.au/

Would love to shape my own boards, and I'm interested to start but have zero knowledge and skill in this area apart from a few articles i have read and youtube videos i have watched. Now unfortunately I think it looks a hell of a lot easier than it actually is, especially starting.

Has anyone ever done one of the classes at the surfboard studio or done a similar course?
Its about 1k so a bit of $$$ but you come out with a board and potentially the skill set and limited knowledge to then start shaping yourself.
Now obviously your not going to be Al Merrick after one class, but would this give you enough of a foundation to then go shape yourself and produce a semi decent board obviously with the right tools?


Also this is the only class i could find in the Melbourne area via google search, is there any other classes people know about in or around Melbourne that they may recommend?

$1000? ... Gee, it makes me appreciate the two weeks I spent at Bennetts for work experience - where I not only got to learn a heap about shaping and making boards, but got to take home one of my own creations. Need I point out that a course is not going to turn you into a master shaper overnight - really only give you an insight into what goes into making / designing a board, and the variables involved!

Select to expand quote

LordKuz said..
$1000? ... Gee, it makes me appreciate the two weeks I spent at Bennetts for work experience - where I not only got to learn a heap about shaping and making boards, but got to take home one of my own creations. Need I point out that a course is not going to turn you into a master shaper overnight - really only give you an insight into what goes into making / designing a board, and the variables involved!

1K sounds a lot,
But its 16 hours of tutorial and you come away with your own board.
Considering alot of people buy a board for 8-900 of the rack from a chinese factory these days, i actually dont think its to bad price wise when you consider it all.
And like i said in my initial post I dont expect for a second to be Al Merrick at the end of the course, I just want to know if thats enough to have atleast a foundation to build my own from there

Seems a bit steep to me to get started you would need :

1 x x Blank $100 - 150
1 x Planer $100
3 x Sanding blocks $100
1 x Surform $30
1 x Saw - $20

So for $350-400 you have everything you need to shape a board bang on another $200 bucks to get it glassed and your golden...you still have another $400 to play with which means a second board and still some change....sure you miss the tutelage but you get experience and you can find alot of stuff on you tube, swaylocks and sometimes even right here!!

Select to expand quote

Tux said..
Seems a bit steep to me to get started you would need :

1 x x Blank $100 - 150
1 x Planer $100
3 x Sanding blocks $100
1 x Surform $30
1 x Saw - $20

So for $350-400 you have everything you need to shape a board bang on another $200 bucks to get it glassed and your golden...you still have another $400 to play with which means a second board and still some change....sure you miss the tutelage but you get experience and you can find alot of stuff on you tube, swaylocks and sometimes even right here!!

I know what your saying, but I still dont buy it.
$600 all up, but if you mess up it its $400 down the drain and a fair amount of time wasted.
Id also like to be able to go from start to finish, so including glassing my own, knowing some basics about tints which you learn in the class.
1k is a guaranteed decent board, plus the education needed to go from there to do everything yourself.
If you outlay 1k initially but then can make your own boards for 400-450 first up then cheaper once you have the necessary tools including glassing your probably making boards for $350ish.
Then again this isnt a long term money saving project, i think the satisfaction of riding your own boards would be pretty awesome and a fun hobby to do some personal experimentation of your own equipment in terms of design and artwork.

Just spent 2 hours fixing up a cray pot.... I reckon it would take about a 40 hour week for me to learn to safely plane a blank. but i think the bigger question would be where are you going to do your second board? having a look at shaping bays there is a sh678t load of foam flying around. If you have a vacant shed down the back corner, then you're golden, moving the wife's VW Passat out of the garage aint going to earn you points....
$1k is a bit of coin, but you'd drop that on your next holiday without blinking.
So if I had the room, a smidge of skills with tools and the time then I'd be tempted to grab a couple of mates and have a go...
just saying

Sounds like you already have your mind made up whether it's a good deal or not. Go for it. It isn't that hard to get the basic skills. It's the knowledge and eye for the subtleties of design that come with time that make a decent board great. You will come out with enough knowledge to shape a board and make a mess. Then you have years ahead of you.

Select to expand quote

Tux said..
Seems a bit steep to me to get started you would need :

1 x x Blank $100 - 150
1 x Planer $100
3 x Sanding blocks $100
1 x Surform $30
1 x Saw - $20

So for $350-400 you have everything you need to shape a board bang on another $200 bucks to get it glassed and your golden...you still have another $400 to play with which means a second board and still some change....sure you miss the tutelage but you get experience and you can find alot of stuff on you tube, swaylocks and sometimes even right here!!

Then make friends with your local shaper and bring a carton over and get them to have a look at your board. Heck, you could probably volunteer a weekend here or there to help them out for free and ask for tips here and there. Still cheaper. It's much like our educational system. Sure you get the basics but everyone can learn about sawing off rail shape etc, but the real learning comes from the hours you put in outside of an actual class and the stuff ups you make along the way.

Select to expand quote

Glasssssy said..

Tux said..
Seems a bit steep to me to get started you would need :

1 x x Blank $100 - 150
1 x Planer $100
3 x Sanding blocks $100
1 x Surform $30
1 x Saw - $20

So for $350-400 you have everything you need to shape a board bang on another $200 bucks to get it glassed and your golden...you still have another $400 to play with which means a second board and still some change....sure you miss the tutelage but you get experience and you can find alot of stuff on you tube, swaylocks and sometimes even right here!!

Then make friends with your local shaper and bring a carton over and get them to have a look at your board. Heck, you could probably volunteer a weekend here or there to help them out for free and ask for tips here and there. Still cheaper. It's much like our educational system. Sure you get the basics but everyone can learn about sawing off rail shape etc, but the real learning comes from the hours you put in outside of an actual class and the stuff ups you make along the way.

What this guy said

Select to expand quote

thomas11 said..

Tux said..
Seems a bit steep to me to get started you would need :

1 x x Blank $100 - 150
1 x Planer $100
3 x Sanding blocks $100
1 x Surform $30
1 x Saw - $20

So for $350-400 you have everything you need to shape a board bang on another $200 bucks to get it glassed and your golden...you still have another $400 to play with which means a second board and still some change....sure you miss the tutelage but you get experience and you can find alot of stuff on you tube, swaylocks and sometimes even right here!!

I know what your saying, but I still dont buy it.
$600 all up, but if you mess up it its $400 down the drain and a fair amount of time wasted.
Id also like to be able to go from start to finish, so including glassing my own, knowing some basics about tints which you learn in the class.
1k is a guaranteed decent board, plus the education needed to go from there to do everything yourself.
If you outlay 1k initially but then can make your own boards for 400-450 first up then cheaper once you have the necessary tools including glassing your probably making boards for $350ish.
Then again this isnt a long term money saving project, i think the satisfaction of riding your own boards would be pretty awesome and a fun hobby to do some personal experimentation of your own equipment in terms of design and artwork.

I think your either good with your hands and the technical stuff or not. I can do most things when shown once, but to shape a board for me, i'll stick to buying them. I agree that if you stuff it up then your out of pocket, not to mention the time involved that you'll have lost. (yes i understand the joy it would give you, but i can also imagine the frustration).

I did work experience with Bruce Montgomery at the old Surfwest and he gave me a blank to shape, after spending time watching and learning. It was to be around just under 6 foot but when i had finished it was under 4 foot

My hat of to the guys that can shape their own boards, its a skill and it must give them great enjoyment, but its not for everyone..

$1000 is huge, and just face it if you are genuinely doing your first board yourself (that is handshaped from a raw blank) it's not going to be perfect but I can tell you from experience, regardless of how good (or how much of a dog it is) you'll be stoked on it anyway...nothing beats the feeling of riding your own board. get the gear, do it yourself, spend some time looking over the shoulder of your local shaper, hell next time you order a board stand there and watch him work. Getting a good board off your own stands will probably take a few tries anyway. Also note that it says you get a pre-shape to start from so not genuinely handshaping, though definitely improves your chances of success. You can do this at home (depending on where you are) through shapers.com.au and there are no doubt others around with machines that can pre-shape based on your design.

On the plus side the good thing is you get to work out of a professional facility which will probably make the process a little quicker.

Honestly if your keen to do a few boards, the $1000 is a great investment in your education.
you will be far less likely to mess it all up when doing future boards and should generate higher quality boards quicker.

It all depends if your good with your hands or not.

I guess I spent a fair few dollars setting up my shed to do some shaping. Having a good stand and good shaping lights makes a world of difference.

Just remember not everyone will make a meal of their first few boards. I've only done 6 boards start to finish and my only problem was with some glass that wasnt surfboard grade so it dint go fully clear when wet out so it looked dodgey, although structurally it was fine and colin sold me a batch of dodgey resin at took forever to sand off and required a 2nd hot coat to fix. So i spent the money on good materials from then on and havent had the same problems.
Take your time, enjoy the challenge and you will reap the rewards.

Shaping isnt for everyone, and neither is glassing, but at least they boys at the shapers studio will give you a good taste of whether you want to commit a heap of $$$ to making it you new hobby or not.
When in Vic last year i went and saw Kent at the studio and bought some materials and it is a sweet setup. I saw on instagram the other day their CNC machine had arrived. So maybe you could design the board in CAD and get them to cut and glass it for you? I'm not sure if they are offering this service yet.

if your going to glassing yourself get the UV catalyst for the laminate but use MEKP for the hotcoat for best results.

Select to expand quote

Bertie said..
Honestly if your keen to do a few boards, the $1000 is a great investment in your education.
you will be far less likely to mess it all up when doing future boards and should generate higher quality boards quicker.

It all depends if your good with your hands or not.

I guess I spent a fair few dollars setting up my shed to do some shaping. Having a good stand and good shaping lights makes a world of difference.

Just remember not everyone will make a meal of their first few boards. I've only done 6 boards start to finish and my only problem was with some glass that wasnt surfboard grade so it dint go fully clear when wet out so it looked dodgey, although structurally it was fine and colin sold me a batch of dodgey resin at took forever to sand off and required a 2nd hot coat to fix. So i spent the money on good materials from then on and havent had the same problems.
Take your time, enjoy the challenge and you will reap the rewards.

Shaping isnt for everyone, and neither is glassing, but at least they boys at the shapers studio will give you a good taste of whether you want to commit a heap of $$$ to making it you new hobby or not.
When in Vic last year i went and saw Kent at the studio and bought some materials and it is a sweet setup. I saw on instagram the other day their CNC machine had arrived. So maybe you could design the board in CAD and get them to cut and glass it for you? I'm not sure if they are offering this service yet.

if your going to glassing yourself get the UV catalyst for the laminate but use MEKP for the hotcoat for best results.

Thanks for the feedback Bertie.
I was thinking along the same lines that the 1k investment would result in a good level of education to start producing my own ridable board from the first go.
Plus id assume they would watch you pretty carefully resulting in a decent board coming out of the class.

Im going to give them a call and sus it out anyway pretty soon when I know I can do 2 weekends back to back to get it done.

mate sign up on aku,design the board,get one of the boys with a cutting machine,get them to cut it,go to shapers buy some hand tools ,hit up u tube watch as many different sites then get into it...same with the glassing......u tube it every different way & have a go!!.........UNLESS U WANT TO TELL EVERYONE "I SHAPED THIS BOARD" but used "aku" or other" machines".................BUT IF U TAKE A PURE BLANK & CUT THE OUTLINE BY HAND WITH A TEMPLATE ,THEN PLANE OUT THE ROCKER & RAILS THEN ECTECT.....& FINISH THE BOARD "BY YOURSELF" ...DONT EVERY TELL ANYONE U SHAPED THAT BOARD.........YER IT MIGHT SOUND HARSH BUT I DID MY TIME OVER 20YRS AGO & CONSIDER MYSELF "A REAL SHAPER" BUT THESES BUYS WHO KNOW HOW TO USE A COMPUTER & DOES WHAT I SAID ABOVE THEN U CANT TELL PEOPLE U "SHAPED THAT BOARD..... THERES 2 DIFFERENT SHAPERS..."SHAPERS" & SCRAPERS"......

i let the groms come in have a go shaping there own stick with my assistance(plaining)and do there own paint job for no extra cost

Select to expand quote

shaper said..
mate sign up on aku,design the board,get one of the boys with a cutting machine,get them to cut it,go to shapers buy some hand tools ,hit up u tube watch as many different sites then get into it...same with the glassing......u tube it every different way & have a go!!.........UNLESS U WANT TO TELL EVERYONE "I SHAPED THIS BOARD" but used "aku" or other" machines".................BUT IF U TAKE A PURE BLANK & CUT THE OUTLINE BY HAND WITH A TEMPLATE ,THEN PLANE OUT THE ROCKER & RAILS THEN ECTECT.....& FINISH THE BOARD "BY YOURSELF" ...DONT EVERY TELL ANYONE U SHAPED THAT BOARD.........YER IT MIGHT SOUND HARSH BUT I DID MY TIME OVER 20YRS AGO & CONSIDER MYSELF "A REAL SHAPER" BUT THESES BUYS WHO KNOW HOW TO USE A COMPUTER & DOES WHAT I SAID ABOVE THEN U CANT TELL PEOPLE U "SHAPED THAT BOARD..... THERES 2 DIFFERENT SHAPERS..."SHAPERS" & SCRAPERS"......

My ears hurt

Select to expand quote

katana said..
i let the groms come in have a go shaping there own stick with my assistance(plaining)and do there own paint job for no extra cost

Select to expand quote

shaper said..
mate sign up on aku,design the board,get one of the boys with a cutting machine,get them to cut it,go to shapers buy some hand tools ,hit up u tube watch as many different sites then get into it...same with the glassing......u tube it every different way & have a go!!.........UNLESS U WANT TO TELL EVERYONE "I SHAPED THIS BOARD" but used "aku" or other" machines".................BUT IF U TAKE A PURE BLANK & CUT THE OUTLINE BY HAND WITH A TEMPLATE ,THEN PLANE OUT THE ROCKER & RAILS THEN ECTECT.....& FINISH THE BOARD "BY YOURSELF" ...DONT EVERY TELL ANYONE U SHAPED THAT BOARD.........YER IT MIGHT SOUND HARSH BUT I DID MY TIME OVER 20YRS AGO & CONSIDER MYSELF "A REAL SHAPER" BUT THESES BUYS WHO KNOW HOW TO USE A COMPUTER & DOES WHAT I SAID ABOVE THEN U CANT TELL PEOPLE U "SHAPED THAT BOARD..... THERES 2 DIFFERENT SHAPERS..."SHAPERS" & SCRAPERS"......

hahhaha, that was a hard one to read. Took me 2 goes for it to sink in.


Technology these days is designed to assist people to make whatever that want to achieve easier. Embrace it or get left behind.
I want to make surfboards I can ride, not fill my garage and tell my makes what a sick **** I am.

Thanks for the advice tho, i think

Select to expand quote

katana said...
i let the groms come in have a go shaping there own stick with my assistance(plaining)and do there own paint job for no extra cost

You Sir, are a legend.

What an awesome way to give someone a chance to try it.

Select to expand quote

thomas11 said..

Bertie said..
Honestly if your keen to do a few boards, the $1000 is a great investment in your education.
you will be far less likely to mess it all up when doing future boards and should generate higher quality boards quicker.

It all depends if your good with your hands or not.

I guess I spent a fair few dollars setting up my shed to do some shaping. Having a good stand and good shaping lights makes a world of difference.

Just remember not everyone will make a meal of their first few boards. I've only done 6 boards start to finish and my only problem was with some glass that wasnt surfboard grade so it dint go fully clear when wet out so it looked dodgey, although structurally it was fine and colin sold me a batch of dodgey resin at took forever to sand off and required a 2nd hot coat to fix. So i spent the money on good materials from then on and havent had the same problems.
Take your time, enjoy the challenge and you will reap the rewards.

Shaping isnt for everyone, and neither is glassing, but at least they boys at the shapers studio will give you a good taste of whether you want to commit a heap of $$$ to making it you new hobby or not.
When in Vic last year i went and saw Kent at the studio and bought some materials and it is a sweet setup. I saw on instagram the other day their CNC machine had arrived. So maybe you could design the board in CAD and get them to cut and glass it for you? I'm not sure if they are offering this service yet.

if your going to glassing yourself get the UV catalyst for the laminate but use MEKP for the hotcoat for best results.

Thanks for the feedback Bertie.
I was thinking along the same lines that the 1k investment would result in a good level of education to start producing my own ridable board from the first go.
Plus id assume they would watch you pretty carefully resulting in a decent board coming out of the class.

Im going to give them a call and sus it out anyway pretty soon when I know I can do 2 weekends back to back to get it done.

I'm with you Thomas and Bertie , one thousand $ going through this shaping course is just the beginning of the investment needed to do a good board by your own in the futur.
Building your own board does the best one you will ever have even found from a surf shop racks with the best brand , it's worthing some courses

well i cleared out the shed on the weekend and had another go. this one is a 6'8x22"x3" beginner board. flat to vee double. Its a little rough by my standards but should ride just fine :)
And this will be my new weapon at some point. its a 5'6 x20" to be something like a tomo evo.
I skinned the deck last night but my planer died :( gotta get it fixed or mod my hitachi. the foam kills the brushes i think.
Symmetrical outline, front and back with 50% mid point. Its like 3 1/2" thick right now so i'll see how she turns out