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 The Largest Surfing EncyclopediaA-Z: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Advertisement
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In the days of fighting sail, a captain might have himself rowed some distance from his ship to see her lines better and cast a judicious eye at her trim. Every day, all over the world, surfboard shapers still do pretty much the same thing. After drawing the outline for a new board onto a blank, the shaper will stand it on end in the shaping bay and scoot backward, as far as the room will allow, so as to appraise the lines of the prenatal surfboard, just as any shipwright would do.
This one-dimensional outline is often called the board's template but, in the trade, the word usually refers to a pattern, or master curve made out of a thin sheet of Masonite, veneer or poster board. This pattern is laid upon the blank and adjusted until it fits the series of measurements that the shaper has already marked out. Each shaper has a treasured collection of templates that he uses in much the same fashion as a set of oversize French curves. There are a number of methods in which they are used to create individual surfboard outlines. Some are suited to production shaping, others to custom work. A shaper's template quiver is his most valuable possession: most are fairly unique and represent the only truly proprietary differences between different board builders, in that most modern shapers share pretty much the same foam blanks, rockers and fin designs. Just as perfect curves are often found in nature, honed by evolution, so there are perfect natural curves in the surfboard kingdom. A certain rate of curve, the appearance that the lines are almost of organic design -- this unmistakable flow of the great surfboard outline is instantly recognizable to those with an appreciation for such things. It is quite possible that all of today's surfboard templates sprang from a few original Adam and Eve curves copied from wooden boards that existed prior to the rebirth of surfing at the beginning of the 20th century. As surfing spread abroad, new craftsmen began duplicating each other's work, and though templates were constantly tinkered with, it was done in much the same fashion as hybridism in agriculture. Today's surfboard templates could very well have descended from a centuries-old olo board in the same way that a plump, modern hybridized apple did from its scrawny, ancient predecessor. -- Dave Parmenter, February 2001
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