Building a Board

So I'm in the process of building a board (my first, actually), but have only gotten started with the shape. I'm looking to get a freeride board out of this project, not necessarily because I have anything wrong with my Apex 37, but I'm looking to try a heavier, lower freeride deck. This brings me to my next point... to drop-through or not to drop-through? For those that are unaware, drop-through construction allows you to mount your baseplate through the top of the board, and in turn brings the board closer to the ground. With this comes ease of breaking traction to initiate a slide, one of the most important parts of freeride. I don't feel like drop-thru construction will make things easier for me, however, as all of my riding has been done on top-mounts and I'm not looking to confuse my feet.

I'm still contemplating the press I will use, and as of now I'm caught between a foam mold with a vacuum bag, a different type of foam mold known as the Dimm press, or a simple wood press. I'd like to go with the vacuum bag for 3 reasons,
a) I'm more likely to get better results with that than the other options
b) I already have a vacuum motor, I just need to make the bag
c) Foam is much easier to work with than wood (my last option).

My shape is symmetrical with an hourglass width. It's about 37 inches long and 9 inches at it's widest point, shrinking to 8.5 in the middle. I gots a picture of the shape with a traced out shape of a truck to make sure it would fit.

So the nose looks longer than the tail, but that's just because of the angle of the picture.

I'm still pretty confused as to a lot of aspects of board building, but I'm excited and hoping this is gonna be a fun project. I'll keep you updated.