Sources:
West Coast: foamez.com
East coast: Greenlight surf supply, that's where I get my stuff, they're cool dudes.
Fiberglass hawaii, actually in Cali, I think.
There's others too, those come to mind right now.
Info:
Swaylocks.com which is old people who are bad at the internet but good shapers, and some younger dudes. Lots of info, pictures and such there.
Boardcad: a design program, download and install it and start messing with it. It's not hard to learn.
I personally liked EPS better than PU. I think it shapes easier, which is good for a beginner. I also think, in my chemistry educated opinion, that epoxy is the superior polymer. And in practice, my poly boards crack when the get damaged. The boards I made with EPS/epoxy just dent and don't require repair. Plus poly resin is brittle and quite toxic, and it's sort of a radical polymerization so a bit too much catalyst can make the batch go off in the 5 minutes. Epoxy can have a nice, long working time, also great for beginners. It seems a lot of the old guard is against change, but I like the new materials.
A kit? Might be worth it, but you don't need many tools if you want to do it on a budget. Power planers are nice but not necessary. If you have absolutely no tools, then a kit might be nice. My favorites are a surform and things I've made, which are just sandpaper on wood for adjusting rockers and stuff. You'll need a saw, for cutting the outline, stuff to sand it with (power or by hand) and things like that. You really don't need a lot of stuff. I've done most of my work with the surform and my ghetto tools. Sanding screens are nice for the rails too.
Glassing; you put the glass on the board, mix resin, pour it on the board, saturate the glass then tuck the laps around to the other side. There's a lot more too it, so read that guide and other sources, watch videos. It's a time sensitive process that can be challenging. If you're prepared and ready for everything, it will go smoothly. Consider the slow speed hardener, or don't go crazy with the MEKP if you're doing poly. Also note that epoxy cross linking is an exothermic reaction. Mix it well, the pour it out so it doesn't nearly go on fire like mine did.
Paint can be done at a variety of steps. I've done two right on the foam. If you're doing that, it's important to just stain the foam. A solid 1" thick layer of paint if bad for glass adhesion. You can also paint after the hot coat is sanded, then cover it with polycrylic or something of that nature. Honestly, people have painted at nearly every step with varying degrees of success. I personally like directly on eps foam. after shaping.
The actual act of shaping is fun, because it's not time sensitive. You can take three hours to adjust the tail rocker if you wish. Glassing can be stressful if you're new, but if you're like me you'll be happy after it's all nice and finished and you'll want to achieve a nicely glassed board.
Tips:
Keep it simple for you first shape. Don't go for some crazy single to double to spiral vee, double bump swallow tail. Just get the rocker smooth. Rocker is very important. All concave does is alter rocker. I've been riding my flat bottom boards with no issue, and I like the slide, free feeling of them.
Consider glass on fins, or the little FCS plugs, because you literally just drill a hole for them. Pre glass systems can be done, but, why complicate things?
Regardless of your blank choice, you probably don't need 4/4 top and 4 bottom for glass schedule. Make it more durable. Even a 6/4 top on a pu blank is a great improvement at little cost to weight. EPS is usually less dense so you need more glass. You don't want it to look like a golf ball after five waves, especially if you can do airs. Pros ride lightly glassed boards because they get 500 of them and for the 30 minutes their heat lasts. The super light weight might help them because they're at the highest level. That teal striped one has a lot of glass and it feels like nothing under my feet because of the surface area, I think anyway...
Go slow when shaping. It's a subtractive process. The board is inside the blank. You can remove, but you'd have a hard time putting foam back. Good lighting is great for checking stuff. Go by your eye. Use lights and shadows to see how the curves change. I'm (nearly) a scientist, so I know how important precision and accuracy are when measuring, we go crazy if one drop extra gets in. But trust you eye in determining if a line is symmetric, unless you want to take measures every other mm to get a highly accurate and precise measure of symmetry.
Boardcad is a great program to help visualize shapes on the computer. Aku shaper is cool too. They're designed for surfboard making. Think about your design, read about board design, refer to boards you've ridden for inspiration. Or try something totally new.
Look at your current boards. Study the rails, the rocker, volume distribution, everything. I, obviously, tend to treat this as a scientist would, so absolutely everything gets analyzed. There can be a lot to this, if you want, or you can keep it simple.
Rails start as angles surfaces which are blended into a smooth curve. Those are called rail bands. Think of approximating a circle with an increasingly large number of straight lines (like you'd do in calculus, sort of). I did not know this before I shaped a board. Don't try and shape a round rail right off the bat. That's not how you do it.
Rocker is very important, perhaps the most important. Measuring it is tricky. 2" tail and 3.5" nose can mean a lot of things since there are an infinite amount of ways to start at 0 and curve up to 3.5". Do you reading, examine other boards. Make it smooth, look by eye with a flat bar across the board, or put the board on a flat surface where the curve is easily analyzed.
Chuck it in the water when it's done and be amazed that it doesn't pull a titanic, then go surf.
