You Ordered A Custom Surfboard! (Here's What Happens Next...)
As you likely know by now, we build a new batch of stock surfboards every single week. We post those boards on Fridays for your viewing—and eventual surfing—pleasure.
A stock board is a great option for those who are ready to surf their new board right away. Swing through, pick up your new surfboard, and you could be surfing by sunset.
However, many other folks want to order a custom surfboard—built just for them. The model, length, and color of their choice tuned to their size and surfing ability.
We have tons of resources about selecting the right surfboard for you, and we are always happy to have that conversation. We are only doing our jobs well if you get a board that brings many years of surfing enjoyment.
So, what happens after you order your custom surfboard?
1. First, your order gets written up and put in our Surfboards in Progress book.
2. We pass off a carbon copy of the order card to Griffin every week, and Griffin places an order with US Blanks for the perfect surfboard blank (with our carefully tuned rocker profiles).
3. The following week, your board will arrive to Griffin as a raw blank.
4. Now that your blank is here, you're really in the queue. Somewhere hiding inside that rough looking foam blank is a carefully tuned surfboard. It's Griffin's job to find it.
5. Griffin is as meticulous as anyone you're likely to meet and has been honing his craft since he was a teen. (Shaping every Almond Surfboard since 2008, which totals almost 9,000 surfboards.)
6. Once Griffin is finished shaping your board, your order card gets pinned to it and he walks it over to the Waterman's Guild glass shop. They have been doing the best glass work in Orange County since 1983.
7. If your board is getting color (and nearly all of our surfboards do) you're more than likely getting a resin tint. A resin tint is different than paint. Paint covers up, a tint accentuates what the board is made of by adding a hand-mixed hue to the resin. The reason color-matching is more art than science is because the laminator is mixing the color by eye (and experience) and pouring that color in a thin, transparent layer over the whole board—being careful to saturate the cloth while removing the excess resin.
8. Laminating is a multi-day process with one side happening on the first day and the other side happening after the resin has had a chance to fully cure.
After laminating, the board is starting to look like a finished board, but still has several steps remaining.
9. Because most people prefer the versatility of fin and fin placement, this board is getting a fin box. The fin boxes are routed into the board at this stage.
10. The next step is to give the board a hotcoat—a slightly different resin formula over the entire board.
11. After the hotcoat comes the first sanding.
12. After the first sanding comes the gloss coat.
13. After the gloss coat, the board is sanded again and either left as a "sanded-gloss" which is a semi-matte looking finish, but very strong... or... it's buffed to a high gloss & polish finish.
14. Now the final touches happen... the leash string is installed and the board is wiped down.
The board is now ready to be delivered to our retail shop on the next Friday board delivery.
This is when we get to make our favorite phone call, the "your board is ready, come pick it up!" call.
Now you have the difficult decision of where to go surf your new board first, and there are really two schools of thought:
- A. Do you surf your local break where you are most familiar with the waves?
- B. Do you make the extra effort to go surf somewhere really good to get the best waves possible on your new board?
Whichever path you choose, you've got your new custom made surfboard and many years of great waves in your future.
What's Next?
