Productive yet...

Just makes me wants some surf.
Finished out the Orangescicle fin set up.
I laid another 4 oz on the inside of the balsa fins and finished the sanding, she is done and ready to ride. The Balsa fin tips were flexie, as much as a 1/2 inch if I really pushed on the tip. I would rather have them a bit stiffer so on with the 4 oz.
They feel 'right' this morning.
I still need to do the leash plug but that can wait till some one buys it.
Hoping to get a maiden voyage today as a small window opens up from 11 to about 1 pm.
Lets hope so before I go postal.

I started a Bing copy a few weeks back, I started with a stringerless 9'6", shaped in the outline and bottom. Its going to need a stringer (s) though before glassing so I laid out what I feel will keep the board in one piece and plan on sawing up the blank tonight.
I am inserting three Balsa stringers, two offset in the nose and middle, one 36" up from the center of the tail. I have an itch to spoon the nose a bit but I really should leave it be as that would interrupt the original foil.... All of the other dims are the same as the other Lightweight copy I did a month ago. Its going to be a personal board, increasing my quiver to (gasp!) 4 boards.

As soon as I get another 6'4" Simmons mini shaped and glassed, I will pass along the sixten I have been riding. I want to do boxes on the next one and have a 'stubbie' single option on it as well. The fins and boxes alone are 130.00! Thats a little more than it cost me to build the whole board!
But if you want American, you pay American.
Its only fair. I have made fins, it aint easy.
I am taking the tail width down to 17, losing a bit of the straight rail but losing an equal amount of width so it should perform the same.
Having boxes will allow less foam out the back too, boxes are stringers too, be nice to them.

While hulls and Simmons type planing hulls are slow to catch on up here (I blame a complete lack of point breaks), I feel they are a great escape from the 'longboard because it paddles well' mentality and the best alternative to funboards or those little shit chip things.

Well, thats the news from here.
Hoping to get some pics up today of any progress and I am looking for some one to shoot some video in trade for a board, hello?

See ya.
Oh.
Regarding hulls and mini's.
Some of the issues surfers have when swapping over to hulls and altcraft.
They are front foot boards.
You plant your front foot.
Your back foot however...will need to learn a few tricks.
One is the back and forth weighting and unweighting when in trim.
The other is the side to side. Hulls and Simmons are sensitive to weight and where you put it.
My back foot goes side to side a lot while turning and surfing my line. Planing hulls are sensitive to this input and when done right, this learned technique will give a cleaner, more styley approach to wave riding.
Check out any vid of a huller, watch that back foot.
It looks like this. (sub six single planing hull)
Its why width is relative.
Leverage is everything.
And thinned out, bladed rails help.
Now, see ya.

2 comments:

Surfsister said...

Thanks for the hull tutorial. I have two awaiting my return to the water. I've posted pictures of the hull longboard. I also picked up a 7'0" hull the week after my surgery. Reading this post helps as I know it will take some time to understand how those boards are best surfed.

Tony Lewis said...

I am no expert but...
I rode them back in the late 70's, not much has changed with them. Growing up on a point break, I learned the subtleties of riding displacement craft even before they were called that.
I do notice that some surfers have issues with front foot vs back foot boards.
Simply taking the time to think the board and your weight through will go a long way in trying to redefine how they ride.
Its all about the glide, speed and tickling the wave.