If this is your first time here, allow us to introduce ourselves…

We are Blending Curves!

BC is a resource for surfboard shapers, builders, designers, creators, tinkerers, and foam hackers alike.  We have created, categorized, and compiled a collection of templates for hand making surf craft.  The site is still evolving though, so keep an eye out as we introduce other resources as well.

Be sure to sign up below to get notified when we add new content or have something cool to share, then click through the other tabs to see how things work.

This project started around 10 years ago as a collection of templates I created when I first started shaping surfboards in my garage.  My graphic design background only fueled the obsession of tweaking designs on my computer.  I soon had accumulated digital piles of every kind of shape you could imagine.

As I began to organize and categorize, it became clear that I needed to share these with the community that had helped me along the way.

Today, BC is a library of over 400 surfboard outline, fin, and rocker profile templates available for free.

Tomorrow, we hope to be much more than that.

Blending Curves was created to inspire people interested in shaping surfboards.  Use what you find/learn here as a starting point.  A good template is a good start, but there are many other design elements that make up a great surfboard.  Bringing that all together takes passion, patience, and practice.  Hopefully you learn enough here to feel comfortable diving in and getting your hands dirty because I can promise you one thing…standing up on your first board is one of the best feelings in the world.

Do your research, know your history, and design with intention…but don’t overthink it either.

I think Andrew Kidman put it best:

Go and find your blank, make what you want to make, surf how you want to surf…

Happy shaping!

– Andrew

Downloading and printing your templates should be the easy part, but sometimes people encounter issues…

Here are some tips to ensure downloading/printing goes smoothly…

DOWNLOADING

• Downloading should be a no-brainer.
• Click the links where instructed to download the PDF templates.
• Depending on your settings, you’ll be prompted to save the file or the PDF will open within the web browser itself.
• If the PDF opens up in your web browser, that usually means the file is now in your default download folder.

PRINTING

• Unlike downloading the file, printing the file gives some people issues.
• 99% of the time the issue is that the printer shrinks the template.
• If you find this to be the case, some of your printer settings need to be adjusted.
• Before you click “print” again, you need to look for settings related to “scale” or “fit”.
• Do not select “fit to page” or any other setting that will resize the original file.
• If you’re able to adjust a percentage, set it to 100%.
• If you have the option to select “Do not scale” or “Actual size”, that’s what you want.

The same general process applies for rocker profile templates and multi-page fin templates as well.  

Outline Page Diagram

* If you’re printing out a wider outline template, there will likely be pages towards the middle of the board where the template is wider than the printable area on the page.  In this case, it’s normal to have pages print without the stringer line due to it falling outside the page.  As long as you’re lining up the registration lines and the template line, everything will line up as intended.

Rocker Page Diagram

* Each rocker template print out has multiple template lines because each length comes in 3 different thicknesses.  Specific thickness is indicated next to the center line of each template.

Q: Do you have the nose/tail dimensions for your outline templates?

A: Unfortunately we don’t have the nose/tail dimensions listed out per outline, but go ahead and print one out and measure yourself!

Q: Is the width of the outline templates taken at the center or at the widest point?

A: Widest point

Q: Do you have templates for hollow board construction?

A: No we do not.

Q: Are your templates available in other digital formats?

A: The templates are only available as PDFs.  If you’re savvy enough, you could open the PDFs in a vector editing program (such as Adobe Illustrator) and export the artwork.