The Board Project

After writing my last post about the philosophy of craft and how this whole adventure started, I sat down to map out exactly what we’ve gotten ourselves into.

Noah is 8. This has to be an adventure, not a school curriculum. But I also want us to take the craft seriously enough that we walk away having learned something real. We aren’t here just to spectate.

The first thing we did was call the crew at Santosha. We talked about Noah’s surfing level first, and then pitched the project. We hashed out a rough structure and agreed that we could get our hands much dirtier than we originally thought.

When Noah and I first walked into the shaping bay to make it official, one of the guys was already in the middle of fixing a busted board. He didn’t stop working; he just walked us through the repair process as he went. Noah stood next to me, watching the whole sequence in silence.

The board is now officially ordered. The raw foam blank takes about eight weeks to arrive on the island, which gives us a solid runway to prepare before we touch any tools. Once it’s here, we’ll spend a few weeks shaping, painting, and glassing it. Twelve weeks total.

The structure

I want this to become a ritual, not just another chore squeezed between school and dinner. Every week, we commit to three things:

🤝Apprentice with Daniel and the team — ask questions, watch closely, make mistakes, get corrected, try again.

🛠️Do the homework — read up on theory, sketch out designs, gather materials, and practice our technique.

✍️Document the journey — journal what we learned, what blew our minds, and what proved harder than it looked.

Because Noah is 8, the rules need to be simple. But we need just enough scaffolding to ensure the memories—and the lessons—actually stick.

The timeline

Twelve weeks. Three parallel tracks: shaping, designing, and documenting. Here is the master plan.

Week 1done

First Contact

Meet the shapers. Agree on the dimensions. Order the blank.

Week 2~3 hours

Board Anatomy

Daniel deconstructs a board for us. Stringers, rails, foam densities, and rocker.

Week 3~3 hours

Design Theory

The “why” behind our board. Understanding how bottom contours and tail shapes control water.

Week 4~3 hours

Watch the Masters

Shadowing Daniel while he shapes a different board. Learning how to look at foam.

Week 5~4 hours

Graffiti & Flame Concepts

Noah wants flames. We study street art styles and start sketching on paper.

Week 6~4 hours

The Posca Pen Dojo

Sourcing the paint pens and practicing on scrap cardboard to master the technique.

Week 7~4 hours

Tools & Tactile Training

Getting a feel for the planer and surform. Practicing our sanding technique on offcuts.

Week 8~3 hours

Locking in the Artwork

Choosing the final flame design, mapping it out at full scale, and a final dry run.

Week 9~5 hours

The Blank Arrives (First Cuts)

The foam is here. We fire up the tools and make our first permanent marks.

Week 10~5 hours

Sculpting & Symmetry

Meticulous sanding. Trusting our hands to find the perfect symmetry on the rails.

Week 11~5 hours

Painting the Flames

Noah takes over. We transfer the art to the raw foam and seal it so it survives the glassing.

Week 12~3 hours + 🌊

Glass, Seal, Surf

Watching the alchemy of fiberglass and resin, installing the fins, and paddling out.

Week 1: First Contact

✓ DONE🎯 Meet the shapers, set the vision

We’ve already checked this one off. We hit the Santosha shaping bay, introduced ourselves, and figured out exactly what kind of board makes sense for Noah right now.

Shake hands with the crew at Santosha Surf and understand what’s actually possible.Dial in the board dimensions based on Noah’s weight, his skill level, and our local break.Pull boards off the racks together to find physical inspiration for the shape.Pull the trigger and order the foam blank (queue the 8-week waiting game).Journal: write down our sensory first impressions of the bay and what Noah is most hyped about.

Week 2: Anatomy

~3 hours🎯 Learn the vocabulary of the craft

Before we can sculpt a board, we need to know what we’re looking at. What are the parts? What does the stringer actually do? Why does the curve matter? The best way to learn this is a tactile walkthrough with Daniel.

Bay visit — ask Daniel to grab a finished board and walk us through the anatomy: nose, tail, rails, stringer, rocker, and fin clusters.Geek out on the foam — find out exactly what our blank is made of, why they chose it, and the trade-offs of different densities.Read through the D’Arcy Surfboard Anatomy page to cement the terminology.Have Noah draw a board from memory and label every single part he can remember.Journal: what parts did we have no idea existed? What detail surprised us the most?

Checkpoint: If Noah can accurately explain what a “stringer” is to his mom, Lara, we consider Week 2 a success.

Week 3: Design Theory

~3 hours🎯 Understand why water cares about curves

A surfboard isn’t just carved to look cool; every curve serves a hydrodynamic purpose. A concave bottom channels water entirely differently than a flat one. A sharp rail releases water faster than a soft, rounded one. This week is all about the physics of our specific design.

Sit down with Daniel and have him justify the design choices for our specific board: the rail profile, the bottom contour, and the tail shape.Feel the differences in real life — physically compare a retro fish, a high-performance shortboard, and a classic log. Run our hands along the rails to feel the contrast.Study the Greenlight guide on rail design to bridge Daniel’s explanations with the underlying theory.Journal: sketch a cross-section of a rail. See if we can write a one-sentence explanation of concave vs. flat bottoms.

Checkpoint: Can Noah explain to Lara why our board requires a concave bottom instead of a flat one?

Week 4: Watch the Pros

~3 hours🎯 See how the magic actually happens

Before we dare pick up a power tool, we need to observe the rhythm of an experienced shaper. We won’t be looking at our board this week—just standing back and watching Daniel work his magic on whatever is currently on the racks.

Post up in the bay while Daniel shapes — stay out of the way, but ask questions while the dust flies.Have him narrate his flow — why does he start where he does? How does he check symmetry by eye? How does he know when to put the tool down?Track down Fish: The Surfboard Documentary for some crucial cultural history and context.Journal: what did we notice about Daniel’s body mechanics? What blew Noah’s mind the most?

Checkpoint: Can Noah perfectly pantomime Daniel’s stance with the power planer? Bonus points if he knows why the stance matters.

Week 5: Graffiti + Flame Sketches

~4 hours🎯 Find the aesthetic and put pencil to paper

Noah has made it crystal clear: he wants flames on his board. I’m all for it. But if we’re going to do hot-rod flames, we need to understand how street art translates onto a highly curved, 3D canvas.

Ask the guys at the bay to show us some painted boards — dissect what designs pop and what gets lost under the glass.Dive into visual research — pull references from hot rod culture, 90s skateboard decks, and local street art.Scroll through the 360Guide surfboard design ideas to see what other people have pulled off.Let Noah loose with a pencil and paper — draw as many flame iterations as he can dream up.Journal: compile a mood board of our absolute favorite sketches.

Checkpoint: Can he show Lara his favorite sketch and confidently explain why it looks dynamic instead of flat?

Week 6: Posca Pens + Paint Practice

~4 hours🎯 Build muscle memory on low-stakes surfaces

We’re using Posca pens for the artwork. They’re water-based, non-toxic, punchy as hell, and very forgiving for an eight-year-old. But paint flows differently on raw foam than it does on paper, so we need to run drills before we touch the real board.

Procure the arsenal: a fresh set of Posca pens — broad tip.Consult Daniel on surface prep — how aggressively do we sand? Do we wipe it down with acetone first?Scavenge the bay for offcuts, scrap foam, or busted blanks to use as our canvas.Run paint drills — get used to the friction of the foam and practice blending colors.Read up on Drew Brophy’s legendary Posca techniques to avoid rookie mistakes.Journal: document the tests, specifically the catastrophic failures so we don’t repeat them.

Checkpoint: Can Noah visually identify the difference between a clean Posca line and a messy, bleeding one?

Note to self: Posca dries fast but stays water-soluble. If we don’t seal it perfectly with clear acrylic, the fiberglass resin will smear Noah’s masterpiece into a muddy blur.

Week 7: Tools + Sanding

~4 hours🎯 Get a feel for the steel

The blank is almost here. This week, we transition from looking to touching. Daniel is going to hand us the actual tools—the power planer, the surform, the calipers, and the sanding blocks. We’ll be destroying scrap foam to learn how much pressure translates to how much removed material.

Tool orientation — Daniel shows us exactly how to grip the tools, what angle to hold them, and what they’re designed to destroy.Make some dust — practice sanding on scrap foam to feel the drag of different grits.Accept critiques — have Daniel correct our stance, our grip, and our sanding speed.Skim the Greenlight Surfboard Building Guide to lock in the technical names for the tools we just used.Journal: Noah attempts to sketch the core tools from memory and writes down their main jobs.

Checkpoint: Hand him a surform and a sanding block. Can he confidently tell Lara which tool is for aggressive removal and which is for finishing?

Week 8: Lock the Design

~3 hours🎯 Finalize the art. No turning back.

We’ve been conceptualizing for weeks. It’s time to commit. Noah selects the undisputed winner of his flame designs, and we vet it with Daniel to ensure it scales cleanly onto the dimensions of our actual board.

Lay out all the sketches and crown a champion — Noah makes the final call.Run it past Daniel — make sure it respects the curve of the board and won’t get warped near the rails.Draft a 1:1 scale version on butcher paper to make sure the proportions hit right.Execute one final, full-color dress rehearsal on a scrap block.Journal: snap a photo of the final, signed design. The die is cast.

Checkpoint: Can he present the final artwork to Lara and explain the reasoning behind the color choices?

Week 9: Blank Arrives + First Shaping

~5 hours🎯 The foam is here. Time to make it look like a surfboard.

The long wait is over. The blank is on the island and sitting on the racks. The shapers take the lead to establish the heavy cuts, but Noah and I jump in wherever they’ll trust us.

Arrive early, listen to the master plan, and follow Daniel’s lead.Help lay down the template outline and watch the power planer chew off the crust.Get Noah involved in the tactile stuff—whatever hands-on rough sanding the guys will permit.Journal: record the sheer panic and thrill of making that first irreversible cut.

Checkpoint: Can he point out exactly what sections of foam we removed today and explain why the board is starting to look “skinny”?

~5 hours🎯 Trusting our hands to find the perfect symmetry

Most of the romanticized idea of “shaping” is just meticulous, exhausting sanding. This is where a crude chunk of foam magically transforms into a sleek, hydro-dynamic craft. We’re obsessing over symmetry and foil.

Attack the rough shape with the surform and sanding screens to establish the core profile.Work up the grits — start at 80, graduate to 120, and finesse it with 220 until it’s buttery smooth.Trust our hands — close our eyes, run our palms down both rails simultaneously, and feel for imperfections. Double-check with calipers.Earn the final nod of approval from Daniel before we’re allowed to touch the paint.Journal: get macro shots of the foam texture changing as we move up through the sandpaper grits.

Checkpoint: Can he slide his hands down both rails blindfolded and tell if they feel identical?

Reminder to self: Sanding is where the actual magic happens. The planer gets you in the neighborhood. The sandpaper buys the house.

Week 11: Paint the Flames

~5 hours🎯 Noah’s moment of truth

This is all Noah. We prepped the surface, we ran the drills, and now he executes the vision on the actual board.

Execute the final surface prep — hit it with fine grit, blow off the dust, and do an acetone wipe down.Lightly ghost in the flame outlines with a soft pencil directly onto the foam.Lay down the ink — Noah drives the Posca pens, I step in only as a steady hand if needed.Lock it in — hit the finished artwork with a light mist of clear acrylic spray so it survives the resin stage.Journal: capture photos of him mid-flow. Have him write down how nervous (or pumped) he felt.

Checkpoint: Seeing the absolute pride on his face when he steps back and looks at his work.

Reminder to self: It does not need to look like it belongs in a museum. It just needs to be his.

Week 12: Glass, Seal, Surf

~3 hours + first surf🎯 Encapsulate it in glass. Take it to the ocean.

We hand the baton back to the pros. Daniel’s team will glass the board, turning our fragile foam sculpture into a watertight wave vehicle. Then, we wax it up and paddle out.

Spectate the glassing — watch the heavy alchemy of fiberglass cloth and catalyzed resin curing over our work.Observe the router work for the fin boxes and the final gloss coat sanding.The payoff: our very first session on our own board. 🌊Journal: synthesize the last three months. Print a photobook, edit a short video, or just sit back and look at what we did.Noah picks the hero photo for the cover.

Documenting

This isn’t an afterthought; it runs parallel to everything we do. It’s a weekly discipline.

Capture 1 defining photo + 1 short video clip per session.Noah acts as art director and picks his favorite photo of the week.I synthesize our progress in a short recap.Noah adds a physical entry to his sketchbook (drawing or writing).Shoot close-ups of whatever specific detail we focused on that week.

For the sketchbook portion, I put together a printable journal—one page per week. It has Noah’s turn and my turn side by side, plus a blank box for his drawings. Download it as PDF or open it in the browser.

That’s the blueprint. Noah doesn’t fully grasp the journaling commitment yet. Honestly, he just wants to shape a board and cover it in hot-rod flames.

And for right now, that is more than enough.

I’ll keep updating this log as we get into the weeds.

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