Welcome to Essence Surf's Shaping School Page.
The only surfboard manufacturing facility that offers you the opportunity to work privately one on one with experienced shapers, glassers, and sanders to build your own surfboard from start to finish.
Please browse the various sections related to our Shaping School.
- Introduction.
- What do you need?
- Getting Started...
- How much does it cost?
- How long does it take?
- What is NOT included?
- Where is Essence Surf?
- Some of our Students...
- Contact The Shaping School.
Here at Essence Surf we have learned that as surfers there is nothing more rewarding than entering the water with a personally hand built board. This, to us, is truly the essence of the surfing experience. With all the mass production of surfboards on the rise Essence Surf wishes to keep tradition alive by teaching individuals how to craft their own surfboards. For nearly the price of a brand new production board, Essence Surf invites you to private lessons in basic shaping, glassing, and sanding techniques. Once finished, you receive a new surfboard that you have built with the customized features that you want. If you decide this is something you wish to do...our shop is yours.
Sincerely,
Eugene Wahl Jr.
Director of Operations, Essence Surf.
DO YOU LIVE IN NEW JERSEY?
If you live in the state of New Jersey you are probably within a few hours of our location (see location section) at most. Please keep in mind that the classes involve multiple sessions that can last up to 3 hrs. each. If you do not live in the wonderful Garden State we would not deny you the classes but the area we are in is fairly expensive and you will have to stay for about a week to complete the course.
ARE YOU 18 YEARS OLD?
If you are over the age of 18...no worries. If not don't be discouraged, we can still teach you but you MUST have a guardian present at all times during the building process. Guardians must also be present before any waivers or contracts are signed and must understand all the rules.
Parents, we run a safe but dirty operation. If you feel uncomfortable with your child participating in a certain aspect of the building process we respect that and will allow you child to watch and ask questions. We have taught individuals as young as 14 and have had the pleasure of working with both the parents and their children. We meet with all students and guardians prior to any classes and answer as many questions as you might have.
Mind Getting Dirty?
No Joke, shaping glassing and sanding boards by hand is a dirty job to say the least. We would recommend that you bring a change of cloths or coveralls when you start. You are welcome to change on the premise or leave cloths in the shop to change into.
So, this turns out this is something you would like to do. Question is how do I get started?
We do not accept walk-ins. We always invite the student to come into the shop and see what the area is like and what we are all about. We do not want any misconceptions as to what the student will be getting involved in. We are located about 30 minutes West of New Your City. Please feel free to email or call us to schedule an appointment.
We require a 50% down payment on all classes prior to ordering any materials. Even though we have a stock of blanks, glass, and resin we may have to order if we are out of particular items.
A contract and waiver MUST be signed by the student and/or guardian explaining the responsibility to their instructor and themselves.
Safety equipment must be purchased for the classes.
Pricing varies from student to student depending on the additions or modifications they do to their board. All little niche pricing for additional work would be explained prior to that work being done. We have worked up a general price list for base costs.
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*We break this list down primarily by board size. Base price signifies a plain white surfboard with (1) custom logo (8" x 10") of your choice and (1) Essence Surf logo. Base price covers all raw material costs, and instruction on Shaping, Glassing, Fin Installation and Sanding. (PU Blanks and Resin ONLY, we do not work with epoxies). Additional Item pricing is listed below.*
Additional Items Pricing:
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Additional Fins | |||
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Of all
the questions we are asked about the Shaping School this is by far the toughest to answer accurately. We have found that all people work at different paces and all individuals usually show better skills in some areas more that others. Kids can take substantially longer during the shaping parts of the course. Our best guess would be...
- Shaping: Anywhere from 1-5 sessions ranging from 2-4 hours.
- Glassing: 1-2 sessions, 1-2 hours each.
- Fin Installation: 1 session, 1-2 hours.
- Hot Coating: 1-2 sessions 2-4 hours each.
- Gloss Coating: (Only included with resin swirl work). 1-2 sessions 2-4 hrs each.
- Sanding: 1 Session, 2-4 hours.
We try and supply our students with everything they need in order to build their first surfboard. However, there are some items we do not supply.
- Fins: Since we do not get fins at cost we cannot give you good pricing.
- Leash: Also for the same reason as fins.
- SAFETY EQUIPMENT: This is the most important! Due to hygienic concerns we require all students or people watching to bring their own safety equipment. You will need an organic respirator that is good for vapors, goggles and chemical resistant gloves. YOU CANNOT enter the shop without the proper protection!
Since the internet is filled with bots that gather information typed into these pages for malicious use, we prefer not to include our address or contact information for public consumption. We also do not desire people just stopping by without notification. We can tell you we are located about 30 minutes West of New York City off of Rt. 46. Please fill out the form for contacting Essence Surf at (Contact Shaping School.). Or Call us at the number listed in the (Getting Started) section of the page. We will be happy to give our address and email information to any persons interested in taking the classes or who just want to visit the shop.
Since most people who take the classes are there to work they usually forget to take any pictures for the web site. This section represents a few of our students over the years...
Tokusuke Akashi:
Toku over the years has take the shaping school course twice. Working with more advanced techniques on his second class Toku shaped a beautiful 6'3" 5 Fin. A natural artist, Toku spent many hours airbrushing his 2nd board and finished one of the nicest boards build by a student.
Nick Salerno:
Nick completed his board in about 6 sessions and named it the "Flying Fish". A 5'10" x 20.5" x 2.75" deep V fish tail. Nick kept a great pace during the shaping process and showed a great eye for detail during the final sanding of the blank. The end result was a board he was extremely happy building and riding.
Tim Bourne:
Tim, well he's just one easy going guy. Patience and kindness through and through. Since his classes Tim has been working on and off in the shop fine tuning his shaping skills under the label "Identity Surfboards". So far I believe he has build about 7-8 boards in our company. A pleasure to work with and one hell of a guy Tim's passion for surfing and the beach life is unmatched.
Dave Calello:
Our First international student which started with a phone call from Hong Kong... I do receive calls from all over the world regarding our school and boards, but I never suspected people would actually travel for the class. Dave's family was originally from the U.S. and visits once a year. This particular year Dave had a school project and decided to build a surfboard for it. Only 14 years old at the time Dave was a little skittish when tearing into his blank with the planer but soon got his rhythm. Under a time constraint as well he worked many hours a day to complete his board within a week.
Anthony Crisafulli:
Tony worked for a few months on his board since he could only make classes once a week. With some students they modify as they progress into their shape. Tony however seemed to know exactly what he wanted and managed to produce the board that lay dormant within his mind. Every time I worked with Tony it was a reminder of why I do these classes. His expressed joy of engaging in the classes and how his board was coming out better than he thought kept a smile on my face.
Thomas Mahady:
Tom's work ethic is certainly unmatched by any student or perhaps any individual I know. Working tirelessly to achieve his goals Tom took no exception when building his board. His first visit to the shop was when he started and he would not have had it any other way. Since allot of our tools are used in various contracting industries Tom was a natural when shaping out his board. The Glassing however, Tom was a bit nervous since he had never done it before. Regardless, he completed his board and found a new passion. For the next summer I traveled down to Wall Township to Toms assisting him with glassing techniques as he built more boards in his garage. Eventually Essence Surf assisted in building a shaping shed behind his house where he now operates under the trade name of Mahady Surfboards. I have not spoken with Tom recently but I am certain he is doing well at what he does.
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