GONG SPACE CENTER: IN THE SHAPING ROOM WITH PATRICE GUÉNOLÉ

Inside one of the key rooms at GONG.

The tools have evolved and 3D design now plays a huge role, but this place where you work directly with the material remains essential: reading the lines of a board, feeling what can be improved and finding how to give it the character you are looking for.

A shaping room that Patrice, GONG boss and shaper, still spends many hours in every week despite his very busy schedule, as during this slightly unusual shaping session...

“We train a lot of young people at GONG.

Depending on the season, there are between 110 and 150 of us in-house, with an average age generally around 28 to 30. That means we are constantly passing on knowledge: logistics tools, software, our working methods, CNC cutting, laminating, vacuum bagging, finishing... Basically, all the skills involved in our trade.

And when you are training people, mistakes sometimes happen.

This board came from one of them.

The foam blank had been positioned incorrectly in the CNC machine. The cut was asymmetrical, there was still skin left in some areas, not enough thickness at the nose, too much at the tail, and the rails were uneven.

The kind of challenge I like.

I learned to shape at a time when CNC machines were almost inaccessible. They were rare, extremely expensive, and most boards were still shaped by hand. So I spent hundreds and hundreds of hours with a planer, a Surform, sanding blocks and pencils, learning from absolutely exceptional shapers.

That is probably why I can work so quickly on a computer today. Before drawing perfect lines on a screen, I had to learn how to draw them by hand, again and again, until I found the right ones.

So rather than throwing this foam blank away, I decided to look for another board inside it.

Not because of the cost. I simply hate wasting material, especially a PU foam blank. If there is a good way to save it, I would rather spend the time and turn it into something useful.

So: planer, Surform, hands, eyes, feel. Old-school shaping, just like I used to do when I was Malo’s age, around thirty years ago.

And honestly, I love it.

The result is taking the shape of a pretty interesting mid-length: narrow, fast, with plenty of paddling speed, a fine nose and a shape born almost entirely from the material I had in front of me rather than from a computer file.

I even planned a slightly unusual fin setup for it.

The board is not finished yet, but I already know one thing: it is going to be really fun to surf.

Sometimes, a mistake is simply a new starting point.

Tudo Besné ✌🏻😎

PS: I did this on the day we launched the Hollow range.” Patrice Guénolé.