Self and Design Evaluation

Self and Design Evaluation
I. Scope of project
My project is to design and shape a surfboard for mushy one to two foot New Jersey wave conditions. To execute this project I needed to research wave types and conditions, specific to New Jersey. From here I researched surfboard shapes and features and how they affect board performance. From here I reached a final solution which I constructed out of a surfboard blank. I shaped the board over 2 weeks and glassed and installed the fin boxes the next week. From here I painted the board using painters tape and spray paint. Once the paint job was done I clear coated the board in order to make sure the paint would hold up in salt water, and just the average ware a surfboard gets over time. Once the board was complete I tested the board, on a one to two foot day in Long Branch, New Jersey.

II. Description
My final chosen solution is 6 feet tall, 2 ½ inches thick and 22 inches wide. It is thicker and wider than my current short board in order to increase surface area to help catch waves more easily. It is a short board, less than 7ft so it will be usable in a competitive event. The board has a swallow tail which has two separate pivot points to allow for rail control to keep you on the wave. The bottom contour is a single to double concave. It is a very shallow concave with two exiting concaves. This tail will jet water to both pivot points on the tail and allow for maneuverability and rail stability. The nose rocker is 6” with a 3” tail rocker will keep the board relatively flat to increasing speed, while still allowing for the contours of a more modern board.

III. Discrepancies
There are a few discrepancies between my design and my final product. The major one is the tail. The tail had a chunk taken out of it while shaping, this was not intentional. The chunk was so big it wasn’t really fixable. I blame this mistake on my inexperience using an electric planer. I probably should have practiced on a few different materials before going strait to foam. I contacted my mentor and asked what to do about this, we both ruled out starting over because the blank is $150 and it would have been a waste of money to start over completely. After describing to him the location of the “chunk” he suggested making the mistake a part of my design, he said to look up tails with wings online and to try and make the chunk into something more visually pleasing. He said that the wings wouldn’t make much of a difference in the design and that I could still keep the base of the tail as wide as I needed it. I decided the wings were the best option for the board and followed through with the wings on both sides of the board.
The other discrepancies are with the measurements of the board, because it was my second board ever shaped I was still a beginner. It takes years and hundreds of boards to be a good surfboard shaper. The measurements of the board are off by ½ an inch at most in some places. I was pretty pleased with the outcome of the board.

IV. Successes and Failures
I would say I experienced more successes then failures during the project. I think this is because I chose an area I am very comfortable with. One of the problems I encountered along the way was time. When I tried to work on the board in class I would never have enough time to get anything significant done. I needed a solid few hours to really get into what I was doing and put solid work into the board. I accomplished this by taking the board home. My dad was very helpful during my project. He set up one of the bays in my garage as a shaping area with lights on the sides, shingles on the floor for glassing and he built shaping stands as well. All the tools I needed were easily accessible and it was very comfortable to shape.
Another problem I encountered was with shaping strokes, it is very important to start from one end of the board and move to the other. If you do short or abrupt strokes while shaping the contours of the board will come out poorly, the board will have a choppy look to it. The last major problem I had was with glassing, I didn’t put enough hardener in for the cold temperature that it was. It took almost three days for my board to dry completely, much longer than it should have originally. As I said before I think my successes with the board were much greater than my failures, I really had a lot of fun with this project. I enjoyed shaping the board, and for my second board ever shaped I think it came out very well.

V. What I Learned from Failures
From my failures I learned that preparation is very important in any situation. When I tried to shape the board at school there wasn’t enough time to prepare what I needed to be successful in the shaping process. I needed a place where I could make a huge mess, have shaping lights on either side of the board and have all my tools around. If I were to shape at school I would really need like a shed or something to shape in. I think this applies to any situation, in order to do a good job at anything you really need to put thought into the task and be prepared before you start. I think this project went as well as it did because I planned it out the first two marking periods and was really prepared and knew what I was doing. I also learned that resin doesn’t dry if it’s too cold out, it will eventually dry but if it is 65 degrees of below you need to put more hardener into the mix or wait for a warmer day. I am very thankful my board eventually dried. Another thing I learned is that when shaping you need to move from one end of the board to the other, and as John Carper says in his movie Shaping 101 “shape like water”.

VI. Additional Learning
I learned a lot about surfboard shaping from this project. I learned how to shape a surfboard which I can say not too many people know how to do. It is a lot of work but a lot of fun as well. I could see this developing into a hobby of mine when I get older, as for now I don’t have that kind of money. I learned how to use auto cad again, and I learned that it is almost impossible to draw a surfboard in 3D. I think this project has given me new eyes to surfing; I am more knowledgeable than I was about surfboards and I think I will be more skeptical when I go to buy my next board.

VII. Design Flaws
I recently saw a board that Kelly Slater (the record holding 9 time ASP world champion of surfing) is transitioning into riding. He is getting a lot of negative feedback from the surf community about this board and there are rumors that this board may cost him the 10th world title. I disagree. The board he is currently riding is much smaller than what he has historically ridden. It is an egg shape, with basically no nose. I think that when Slater gets used to riding this board, or is as good on it as he is on other boards he will be unstoppable. I think that his new surfboard design is really interesting and I would have liked to take some of the elements of his boards and add them to my design. The element that the board has a wide rounded nose is the element I think would work best on my design. I think that this nose would keep the board flatter than mine currently is, by not pointing the nose and making so much nose rocker you increase the surface area of the board in the water. I think this would make the board faster but it may be harder to ride. This is an element I may have changed now that I have seen Slater’s new design. When I was designing the board I didn’t put much thought into the nose because it is a short board and all short board noses are typically pointed with a lot of nose rocker, but after seeing Kelly Slater’s new design I think that a rounded nose may just be the next thing in surfboard technology.

VIII. Self Improvements
This project has helped me improve my problem solving skills greatly. It has challenged me to think outside the box to fix problems. During this project problems occurred instantly and I would need to come up with a new way of doing things, or alter my original thinking to solve the issue. The one problem that comes to mind was when the planer took a chunk out of my board; I had to think of a way to alter my design to fit this new problem. I think that most of all I learned to use my resources (my mentor) to help me with problems.
This project also helped my with my communication skills, not only through speaking but also drawing and writing. I have had to express my ideas in drawings on auto cad, overall this went well. The drawings I did really helped me when I went to construct the actual product. The drawings helped me stay organized and I always had something to reference if I wasn’t sure what measurements should be. Writing was also a big part of this project. Every step of the way there was related documentation due to help explain what was going on. I definitely became a better writer because of this project; I would say that I did more writing in Systems Engineering than I did in English this year. Overall I think I improved the most on my speaking skills, having to get up in front of the class each marking period and present was really good public speaking practice. I found it almost simple because I was so comfortable with what I was speaking about.
I also improved my organizational skills. The most valuable thing I think I learned was to plan out my work. The calendar assignment helped me to think about everything I needed to do that marking period and stay organized. I think I will carry this concept through in college. I liked having a calendar to reference whenever I didn’t know where to go next.

IX. Conclusion
My project was to design and shape a surfboard for small New Jersey surf conditions because majority of the surfboards used on the East Coast are shaped for West Coast conditions. I made a few shaping mistakes but that was expected since it was only the second surfboard I ever shaped. Because I was comfortable with the material and I love surfing, I was confident that the final product would turn out alright. I learned that the preparation of a project is just as important as actually doing the project.
Throughout the entire project, I have had to write multiple documents. My writing skills have greatly improved and I learned how to better communicate my ideas through public speaking and asking for advice. Overall, this project was much more than just building a surfboard. It takes you through the design process and makes you work on skills that you might not necessarily think were important. All of the improvements and mistakes I have made will stick with me in college and throughout life.