.What is your guiding, underlying question?
What are the limits of surfboard design?

1. Include any sub-questions you have identified.

How do I create a brand around these boards and begin selling them?

Why do these questions matter? Are they connected to some prior experience? Curiosity? Wonder? What’s the story?

Over the summer I became obsessed with surfing. I would go out every day that I could but waves don’t come every day so I needed something else that could connect me to the activity at home. This is when I discovered shaping. For about a month I intensely studied surfboards. I used youtube watching surfing clips and paying attention to the board types and where they excelled or fell behind. I got more into it as I watched videos on famous surfboard shapers and listened to the way they spoke about their boards. I could tell these people were obsessed just like me. Then I started watching videos on the process of making a board. At first I was intimidated and discouraged but in the end I was able to convince my dad to drive me to home depot where we bought a block of foam and some sanding tools. Since then I’ve finished four boards and I really have found a passion for this process

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1. What if any steps, experiences, or products have you identified as necessary for answering your essential question?

• Experimentation, using the boards I make and critically analyze their strengths and weaknesses
• Reading about hydrodynamic design

 

1. What form do you propose your project take? Explain what you already know about the area of study or professional field you will be immersed in. Describe how you hope to spend your time during Senior Project. (This should be largely the same idea you’ve developed based on your feasibility work.)

I have finished four boards so I have some experience in the process. I’ve learned so much about making boards and the design process in the last couple months but I know there is so much more to discover and learn.

I plan to spend each day of the third trimester working on a board. With school work and classes I usually only get around 7 hours of work a week on a board. I think I could do about 4 hours of work each day depending on what step in the process I am in (as some steps require days for drying). I will also be doing art on the boards that I finish. I will also spend about an hour a day studying online about hydrodynamic design and surfboards. I will also document my project by taking pictures of the process and the final product. I want to get some really good photos of my boards, maybe even photos of the boards in use. If I am able to try out my boards I want to write a reflection of the experience on each board and analyze what I felt while riding and what I think created that feeling. I also want to spend time creating a brand around the boards through instagram.

 

1. What do you hope to learn through this experience? How do you see the proposed experience addressing your essential question? How will you know you have had a successful project? How will you tell the story of your project?

I will know that I have had a successful project if I’ve completed a couple high quality boards. I want to spend time on quality rather than quantity focusing on and giving effort to small details and mistakes on each board. I also want to have some platform for my boards by the end of the project possibly through instagram. I will approach my essential question by being experimental in my design and also putting my boards to the test. Whether these boards fail or not does not have to do with the success of my project. In the end I will have all my boards up online and I will showcase them using pictures and descriptions of what I’ve learned about design through each of my boards.