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Personal project

CRB|40: Shaping My Own Surfboard

For my 40th birthday, my wife gave me the chance to shape my own surfboard. I used my graphic design background to make it mine.

  • Graphic Design
  • Making
  • Surf
The finished surfboard standing outside FoamEZ: a white deck with mint arched stripes, a coral rail, and the mark CRB|40
My role
Designer and shaper
Concept, graphics, and shaping
Client
Personal project
A birthday gift from my wife
When
2021
The year I turned 40
Deliverable
One custom surfboard
5’8” x 20½”, four fins

The quick version

In 2021 I turned 40. My wonderful wife got me a present I would never have thought to ask for: shaping my own surfboard with the suppliers at FoamEZ.

I ran it like any other design project. I collected inspiration, sketched in a notebook, built concepts in Figma, and then took the design from the screen to a block of foam. My graphic design background is what made the board personal: the shapes, the colors, and the CRB|40 mark are all mine.

Inspiration

A clean wave breaking along a sandy beach beside a lifeguard tower
The waves. Clean waves, close to home.
A green wave breaking in the distance, seen through blurred beach grass
The view. A wave through the dune grass.
A book page with a diagram of a wave pattern drawn as a ridged block
The diagrams. A diagram from a book on surf forecasting.
A book page with a circular diagram of concentric rings and curved wave lines
The rings. Rings and contour lines from the same book.

Sketches

Notebook sketch of a surfboard from above and from the side, with a circled B logo and dimensions
First sketch. Outline, rail, and a first logo idea.
Notebook sketch of a surfboard from above, below, and the side, with a circular mark on the deck
Deck and bottom. Deck and bottom, with a round mark.
Notebook sketch of three surfboard outlines, one with an owl drawn on the deck
Trying ideas. An owl for the deck, just to see.
Notebook sketch of a surfboard deck with a number 4 and zero, and a bottom drawn as nested contour lines
The idea that stuck. A 4 and a 0, and contour lines.

Concepts in Figma

Figma screen showing a mint green surfboard deck with a coral rail and a coral bottom
First pass. Concept 1: a solid mint deck with a coral bottom.
Figma screen showing a white surfboard with coral arched stripes beside a solid mint board
Second pass. Concept 2: arched stripes.
Figma screen showing a board from the side, a striped deck, and a mint bottom
All the views. Side, deck, and bottom together.
Print-ready sheets with the deck and bottom artwork on a coral background
Ready to print. The artwork laid out on sheets for fiberglass printing.

Shaping at FoamEZ

The FoamEZ storefront with a sign reading Shape it, Glass it, Surf it
FoamEZ: shape it, glass it, surf it.
Racks of white foam surfboard blanks in a workshop
Racks of blanks.
A foam blank marked with pencil outlines and notes
Marking the outline on the foam.
A pencil clamped to a wooden block and metal rod, resting in foam dust
Hand tools, covered in foam dust.
A person holding a template against the edge of a foam board
Checking the shape against a template.
A selfie of me in a dust mask and safety glasses, with a foam board in front of the camera
Shaping, with a mask on.
A close-up of the nose of a foam surfboard with pencil lines along the rail
Refining the nose and rail.
A foam surfboard on a stand in the shaping room, with a FoamEZ sign behind it
The shape coming together.
Me holding the finished white foam board in front of a container painted with I love shaping FoamEZ.com
The foam is finished and ready for glassing.

The finished board

The mint wave B top of the finished board, with a coral rail crb40, leaning against the FoamEZ wall
The Top: mint, coral, and logo.
The mint bottom of the finished board, with a coral rail and four fins, leaning against the FoamEZ wall
The bottom: mint, coral, and four fins.
A close-up of the finished board showing a handwritten signature and dimensions near the stringer
Signed, with the dimensions.
Me and a friend on a hazy beach, each holding a surfboard
On the beach with the board.

Outcome

  • It gets noticed. I get a lot of “rad” comments on the board, from El Porto to County Line.
  • It spread. I have recommended surfboard shaping to multiple friends.
  • It lasts. Five years after I made it, the board still keeps me happy and satisfied.

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