How to Use Templates When Shaping a Surfboard

Video Transcript

"ABE TOKE: Hi. Welcome to Expert Village, my name is Abe Toke. I'm going to take you through step by step to shape yourself a complete surfboard. So after you've laid out yourself your width dimensions along the nose, middle and tail of the board, you're going to need to get yourself a template going. Obviously, I've already have one made here. You can make 'em yourself by tracing another board under a piece of cardboard or a piece of paper or in this case, a piece of Masonite. That usually works out the best way. And then you'll have to cut 'em out and smooth 'em out as best as you can. That's a tough job but the cleaner it is, the better cleaner board it will be. These templates are designed to blend so it's never just a straight board, although it looks like it. I'll line up the nose where I feel like it's just the right spot, usually pretty close to the stringer line if your template is close to the board. What I'll do is I'll bring it to the middle mark so I have the middle and the nose right along the edge of the template giving you a nice clean line and all the way up to the tip of the nose. Once you've got it all where you want it then you can just pencil it out. If you're blending a template like this, it's best to go past the middle line. Give yourself a reference where that line is going, and then I'll bring in the tail. It looks good. And the process is the same for the bottom or the other side."