Build a Surfboard Episode 1: Shaping

Step 3 The Planer

You're going to see a lot of this tool. It's a Skil model 100 planer. Good thing they last forever, because it's no longer made. All the shapers love it. There's a lever at the front that changes the depth of cut. When shaping a board you move this lever with each cut. Each cut starts and ends at zero depth so there's no step or divot at the end of each cut. Each cut is just smoothly blended with the rest of the bottom contour. All the other planers have a knob that you twist to adjust the depth of cut. That is a lot more work for your wrist and it's a lot harder to get graceful cuts.

He used to use this old hand plane to work on the stringer. Then he got the little aluminum one that uses a razor.

Johnny replaced his Skil 100 planer's blades with the nubbly grinding drum seen here.
The planer blades had the following problems that this device solves:
They left ripply marks in the foam.
They could grab and tear out chunks of foam.
When planing across the stringer the blades could grab and splinter it.
The blades cut big flakes instead of the dust this device produces. The flakes from two boards filled up his shopvac. With the grinder drum he can do five boards before emptying the shopvac.

Which brings us to the next part of the system, Dust Collection