Longboard lookout

Hello, I was hired by a customer to make them a surfboard bar top. They want it to look like a 1950's or 60's style longboard. I'm just looking to trace one on cardboard or a big sheet of paper. If anyone has one or knows where I can find one to trace, and your near the Rancho Cucamonga area, It would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I've done a slew of em' just free hand. Like the famous "Duke" style. Got some pics somewhere. 10 to 12' long x 19 to 24 wide.

Thanks Ben, They gave me a small drawing of what they wanted, but your way sounds better and I think it will look more authentic. Thanks and much respect for you. Tony

If you have to, print a picture out on transparency and use an overhead projector to trace it out to desired size. (I'm short on talent, I use this technique frequently :) )

Thanks MadDogMike I'll take all the advice I can get. I'm use to carving tikis. I have'nt done too many things like this.

Ive done a couple of things similar, (manually resized an object, because Im too cheap to buy an overhead projector). The cheap and easy way to do it is the old grid method. In your case find a nice high res pic of an old longboard. Print it out, and draw a grid shape over it. On some paper (I used baking paper because it was the closest thing to hand in a decent length, short of taping a heap of sheets of paper together!). So draw a larger grid pattern on the baking paper, and square by square transfer the shape over.

Heres a couple of pics of an Alaia board I did (traditional Hawaiian board). So first of all I traced the shape and then drew the grid over it. Ive numbered the grid to make life easier too.

In this shot Ive transferred the pattern to full size, and cut it out. Place something on the template to stop it moving!

Flip it over and shape the over side. Doing it like this means the overall shape is symmetrical, as opposed to trying to do it by eye and matching side to side exact. Once youve done this, cut it out with a jigsaw and then sand the edges to round them off.

Hope this helps!

On 2010-04-01 20:34, MadDogMike wrote:
If you have to, print a picture out on transparency and use an overhead projector to trace it out to desired size. (I'm short on talent, I use this technique frequently :) )

Short on talent my BUTT! Don't let him fool you! Have fun with the bar top!

Yeah, I don't think anyone is short on talent, they just need to find it. It looks like right now I'm short on it because I cant draw something as simple as a surfboard. Thanks for all the tips!

Try googling "surfboard bar top","surfboard table" or "surfboard furniture". There's a lot of cool ideas. Mahalo