One Of A Kind Blank, Two Years In The Making!!!

DEAN EDWARDS

Years Shaping: 48
Board: 5’11” x 20”
Blank: One-of-a-Kind blank made of over 1,000 different offcuts from 47 different colored blanks.  It took 10 years to collect all the foam off-cuts and the process of gluing took over 2 years.

Words by Rick Berman
“For years shapers have been trying to figure out a useful way of disposing the off-cuts of foam left over from shaping a surfboard.  Several years ago, Dean Edwards of Big Rock Color Works, a master shaper/board builder on the island of Hawaii had a vision and began saving the ‘bones’ from the boards he was shaping.  Dean has more than 48 years of experience shaping boards, beginning in the late ‘60’s with Wilken and Natural Progression and through the last 25 years on the Big Island of Hawaii.”

“When he thought he had enough material to proceed, he glued the pieces together and started to shape the BONEFISH.  The advent of colored foam in the last 6 years or so made this approach much more interesting.  Together with the glue lines, a one-of-a-kind blank is produced.  This particular board consists of the ‘bones’ of over 47 different blanks.”

 

Words by Dean Edwards

“I’m pretty isolated here on the Big Island, but I know that other people are building interesting boards.  I had seen the “Sunrise Surfboard” that Jim Phillips made in 2009, which helped me clarify my vision.  Jim’s work is incredible and I just wanted to build something that might encourage or hopefully inspire others to build interesting boards from re-purposed materials.”

“Nearly the entire board is made from waste.  Obviously, the foam is all off-cuts, which normally end up in the dumpster.  The fins were made out of plywood and fiberglass scrap.  The sandpaper was all previously used.  The scraps were collected over the course of 10 years.  There are over 1000 cuts; 90 foam pieces in the checkerboard section alone.  It took over 2 years to glue-up the blank.  There was no template, no rocker. It was all free-hand shaped.  The only new material in the construction process was the resin.”

“One thing that I’d like to reiterate, is that there are so many ways to reduce the waste we create in our industry.  The Bonefish is an example of something that would have ended up in a landfill.  With a little consideration, we can help reduce our waste output.  That is my challenge to other surfboard shapers.”

Bruce Jones, Some Serious Experience!

Bruce Jones has built premium surfboards for three decades. The company, renowned worldwide for its products, was founded by Bruce in 1973 after he shaped surfboards for many years with some of the biggest surfing names in the sport: Hobie, Gordie, and Brewer to name a few.

Bruce was there at Hobie's, during the golden age of the mid 1960's, when the best shaping talent in surfing history was gathered in one place: Phil Edwards, Dale Velzy, Terry Martin, John Gray and Ralph Parker, among others. Starting in the gluing department, Bruce worked his way into rough shaping, then into the actual shaping room and lost no time in getting help from everyone involved in shaping surfboards. In the mid to late 60's, Bruce moved to Huntington Beach, California where he shaped for Vardeman Surfboards, doing all the Jackie Baxter Models, which to this day are considered rare collector's items, being the first board on the west coast to combine the low tail rails of the Hawaiian Gun (for speed), with a refined longboard outline and eventually a turned down, flat-bottom nose for superb nose riding (influenced by the famous Morey/Pope John Peck Penetrator model).

At night, Bruce would shape surfboards for Gordie Surfboards. Gordie (Gordon Duane) had a reputation for being a superb craftsman but very hard to get along with. Bruce put up with him and learned some of Gordie's shaping techniques and most of all his dedication to perfection through using these techniques. Bruce did a short stint with Dick Brewer in '69, ghost shaping surfboards for him on Maui. He then went on to shape for Russell Surfboards, Newport Beach, and then Ole Surfboards in Sunset Beach, California from where he launched his own business. Bruce has made a number of surfboard blank molds for Clark Foam and most recently for US Blanks.



Enjoy this great little video with Bruce Jones shaping and designing filmed and edited by his son Brock.

Round 2 - Bettis Shapes Up An Orange Foam from US Blanks!

Round 2!!! We had Matt Bettis give the Orange Foam from US Blanks a whirl. The more shapes the better when it comes to R & D on a new blank. This time we got some better audio and video equipment so we don't look as ghetto...still ghetto but with a touch of class! Anyways, the foam is looking solid so check it out and listen to what Matt had to say about the blank. We'd like to thank Matt for donating his time and expertise in the name of research.

Foam E-Z and Matt Bettis shape a US Blanks Orange Foam from grant ramey on Vimeo.

Tim Stamps Test Shapes an Orange Foam US Blank!

Hope everyone had a great X-mas holiday weekend and are now ready to get back down to some serious business of building boards.

About two weeks ago the brass over at US Blanks threw us (Foam E-Z) a sample Orange Foam surfboard blank to shape out. This NEW surfboard foam is 6% lighter or 1/2 pound compared to their Red Foam formula. We thought we would enlist pro shaper Tim Stamps as test pilot since he is a stickler when it comes to his foam. We knew we could get an unbiased, honest opinion from Stamps whether it was good or bad. We interviewed Tim at the end of this video for his take on this new foam. We were pleasantly surprised by US Blanks latest creation so look for the Orange Foam at Foam E-Z in 2011.