Shaping is similar in surfing to me.  Both seem to bring out this zen mood in me where I just get absorbed in what I’m doing and all my cares seem to fall off my shoulders, just for a while.  I was in a funk today and headed over to Shapers Studios to work on my board.  It’s actually a very theraputic activity in a certain way.

I’m almost done with the mini simmons / bar of soap type shape that I’m making.  It’s going to have a twin keel setup.  I’m not in a rush to finish it.  I almost don’t want to be done with it as I’ve found this project to be extremely enjoyable.  It’s so great to go to the shop, shape, have a beer, joke around with the guys, and actually make my own board.  Today I spent a lot of time looking up as many pictures as I could of Tyler Warren’s bar of soap model.  I saw that his rails on the bottom were hard, and he had a bevel in the rails on the deck.  So I beveled the rails on top, leaving the bottom hard.  I’m really happy with the way it came out.  This picture is before I thinned out the nose.