oh oh four

     Basically finished shaping 004 this evening. There are some minor adjustments that need to be made, but I'm going to wait and do the final final sanding right before I glass, because I know I'll just keep on messing with it if I go near it with a piece of sandpaper before then. I already started to go at it too much today, but I refrained and called it quits for the night.

     It should be a fun board, definitely a lot of foam. I picked up the fin boxes from Greenlight in Philly on Saturday, along with two (2) blanks: one for Mark's board, and one for Ryan's. It'll be cool making theirs (hopefully) very soon after I finish this one, instead of there being a couple months in between.

     I've also been up to this the past couple days: four cedar panels for four wood fins. I laid up the panels out of seven 3/4" strips, and then I surface planed them today. They came out really flat and it should be fun making the fins for the Probox system. I'm really excited to be able to experiment with fin placement without having to make a whole new board. Plus, these will be pretty cheap, and I've got plenty more cedar if I want to experiment further (double foiled fronts and/or rears, smaller rear trailers, a Canard Quad Cutaway setup, etc.). I hope to begin glassing this week. I've just got to finalize the decal for the board, which I think I'm going to do right now.

     P.S. - There is a type of bird I've been hearing a lot lately, and it has the most sing-songy carefree birdsong I think I've ever heard. I laugh every time I hear it. Once I am able to identify said bird, I'll share it with all you bird-lovers out there.

So it begins: 004

     Started shaping 004 today. I had planned on starting it tomorrow, but then I ended up having a free night tonight, and so I started.

     I'm basically going off of Frank's Chemistry "Boombastik" that I love so much, and since I love it so much, I decided to change very little. I did decide to make a change to the tail. Above: the Boombastik tail is the template on the right, and the tail I'm going with is the tail on the left. Kind of a rounded-diamond type thing, kind of...I'm the extra area on the wide tail will add some speed. That way I can beat Frank on all those party-wave races.

     After thinking about a project for an unmeasurable amount of time, it's always exciting to take that first irreversible step and drive that saw deep into the foam. You know then that there's no turning back now. I imagine after someone shapes hundreds or thousands of surfboards, some (hopefully not all) of the excitement disappears from shaping. But for me, starting on my fourth, it's still the embarking on some epic journey of wonder. The epic thing will come back again with the music selection of the day. See below....

     So yeah, I was able to flatten the bottom, cut the template out, square down the edges, get the outline smoothed out, and start on the rocker today. I don't know if I'm going to be able to get the board glassed by the end of next week like I wanted to, tomorrow being Wednesday already, but I'm going to try. We'll see.

     And now for music to take epic journeys by. A lot of my favorite bands from the past couple years have been from Canada. Those Canadians know how to play interesting music well and do it time and time again. Some of my favorites are Black Mountain and Pink Mountaintops, both led by Stephen McBean, and utilizing a collective of musicians, but they are not the focus here. All the rest of the bands from Canada contain about three members: Carey Mercer, Dan Bejar, and Spencer Krug. That is an exaggeration, but not by too much. These guys are linked to so many good bands that it's kind of mindblowing. There are three songs I will post today, and I wish I could post more, and really I could, but I won't.

     "You Go On Ahead (Trumpet Trumpet II)," the sixth track from Sunset Rubdown's 2009 album Dragonslayer. This is Spencer Krug's project. It was hard to pick a song off this album, or to even narrow it down to this album. But I did it...

     "A Hand At Dusk," the eighth track off of Swan Lake's album Enemy Mine, also released in 2009. This band is comprised of all three of the previously named Canadian gentlemen. This song is really good, but something tells me I should have picked "Paper Lace." But then which version, the one off this album or the one off of the aforementioned Dragonslayer?

  
     And finally, "Stockades," the third track off of the 2007 album Tears of the Valedictorian, by Carey Mercer's band Frog Eyes. Not only is this a good song, but Frog Eyes is releasing a new album I think this month or the next month or sometime soon. Anyway, I've downloaded it and can't wait to listen to it tomorrow. By the way, they are playing in NY in June, I think.

Goodnight.