I also found this review of a christenson flat tracker which has a similar outline. The reviewer talks about the bottom contours - it has vee throughout the whole board with a double concave from chest to fin, fading behind the fin… I think I am going to try this! I have never shaped Vee that much forward in any of my boards and am curious how this will feel in the water. people seem to like the feeling of the board sitting deeper in the water and the ease of going rail to rail…
Ok so here is an update of the board build. I have finished it in time for the surf trip last summer and I had enough time to try it out in small summer waves.
It’s a good paddler and catching waves is easy. I noticed that it felt stiff with the 8" connector fin that works great on my shorter egg. So i swapped it with a 7" greenough style fin that I have made out of an old windsurf fin and that made the board turn much easier and smoother. It needs to be all the way up in the box. I’ll leave it at that and add some pictures. Thanks again for the help.
You shouldn’t be having any problems turning that board with a bigger fin. You just need to adjust your stance so that your rear foot is over the fin when you want to turn. I had a 6-10 singlefin and I usually ran a 10" flex fin. I never had a problem turning the board or the fin losing hold when I had it on the rail.
Surfing midlength singlefins usually involves a bit of a shuffle or a short cross step between turning vs moving forward to put the board into trim. Especially with a wide point forward template. Trim from the forward position, turn from the rear position, right over the fin. If you’re too far forward then you’re giving up leverage. Watch some vids of the traditional singlefin longboarders - they’re constantly moving back and forth between trimming vs turning. Midlengths work the same way except you don’t have to cover the same distances.