Here’s the board I just finished today. It was 12lbs without the fins in. I can’t wait to see how it goes, and will update with a ride report.
Pat
nice pat!!!
I see you’re working off the famous Mutant Jellyfish templates 
Nice work. I like the embellishments. Did you press the rocker on a foam bed, or freebagging with weights?
Let’s just call it the “I’ve never made a composite board this big before so I’m going to try and copy Bert’s templates from the latest creations thread and hopefully that works” template.
That foam block you brought down did, just, fit into my bag. I used the bed after cutting out the blank for my rocker and put the whole thing in. Doing it that way was really nice, because I was able to put it in and walk away. But you really need to be sure your hotwire templates are right on in terms of rocker, because I ended up with 1/2" more nose rocker than I wanted: no way to check and adjust once it’s in the bag.
Final Dims:
Nose Rocker 5 3/4"
Tail Rocker 3 1/2"
Width: 17 3/4" nose, 23" mid, 14" tail
Length: 9’4" along the bottom curve
Thickness: 2 3/4" max, 2 1/8" at the center of the deck concave.
It sounds like there might be some waves today.
Pat
nice board! can’t wait for ride report
wait…didn’t that foam arrive during the 1st week of October?
Looking good man; what did you do the rails out of?
Catch a couple for me; too snowy here for me to think about the 22ft @ 18 second swell that rolled through here a week back…chairflifts are so much easier to deal with than icy winds, waters and holiday ferry traffic; ick.
Looks great, SFP – what were your fin placement measurements, and did the surftrux change those numbers compared to a standard (no moving fins) thruster?
nice job. i have a 9’0" LB in the works with inserts for surf trux side fins as well. to me it makes perfect sense for surf trux as side fins on an LB. let us know how it goes…
Hey Steiny, now I’ve got another board for you guys to try out when you feel like stepping off the Cadillac.
OK, first to answer some questions, then an initial ride report.
GreatWhiteNorth: Yeah, the foam got here during your visit in October. That makes it three months build time. The way I figure, that’s three boards a year plus three months of vacation! Now I’ve got two surftrux boards for you to try out next time you’re in town. How’s the snow been? For the rails, I did many layers of balsa, to get to 3/4". In the nose and tail I had to use 1/16" to make some of those curves.
Etmo: I placed the fins as if I was building a thruster longboard, with no special considerations for the surftrux. This was in line with what Blakestah had told me. The back fins are set 14 3/4" from the tail, and 1 1/4" off the rail at the trailing edge. For the time being, I have a 7" center fin placed with the trailing edge 8" back, right where I’d put my thruster set fin. I’m going to play around with that.
jjp: Yeah, surftrux plus longboard seemed very logical to me after riding my 7’1 1/2" board all year.
Now for a very preliminary ride report:
I took it out today at middle peak with the fin setup pictured above. The first thing I noticed was that this board is a lot harder to paddle than the 10’ long 3" thick eps board I made over the summer. I’d kind of gotten used to that when longboarding. The conditions were a little bumpy, but not windy, with smaller sets going through, and every once in a long while a head high set heading in. My first few waves were kind of frustrating. I didn’t know what the board would do, or how to surf it. It’s very stable. 23" is the widest board I’ve ever owned, and the deck concave kind of locks the feet in. After a few waves, I realized that I was trying to surf it like a shortboard, not a longboard. On bigger sets, I was making really late drops with ease, but then wanting to pump a bit across the face. With the big back fin in this felt really heavy. I can’t wait to try it with a standard thruster center fin. On a couple of smaller sets I was able to try out the turning from the tail. It turned like a shortboard. And then I tried getting to the nose a few times when I had a nice little wall ahead of me, and that worked really well too. Given, I still shuffle up there, but once at the nose (or in that 1’ area behind the nose; my toes never actually hung off) it was really stable. So overall, once I got to know the board a bit I really liked it. At times, though, it felt sticky. That’s the best way I can describe it. Like something about the tail didn’t work. It wasn’t the surftrux, since when going straight it felt like a singlefin. I don’t know. I’m thinking that it was the effect of that big center fin, since most of the time I really wanted to treat it like a shortboard. Perhaps it needs less tail rocker? I’d love for it to paddle better, since some of the impetus for having a high performance longboard is to deal with big current days.
I’m going to play around a bit, hopefully the waves and weather cooperate, and I can give some better feedback.
Pat
Hey Pat - I saw you riding your bike with that today. It looks so sick! I have a 5.25" thrusterish template center fin if you want to try that.
Peace
~Paul
Hi Paul,
Yeah, that would be sweet! Give me a call if you’re around in the am. I’ll probably head out about 11 again tomorrow.
Pat
Pat, I’ve got 3", 3.5" and 4" centers for a longboard box. I’d be happy to just stick one or two in the mail for you, I’ll pick 'em up later. PM me your address, I don’t know where I put it last time.
Thanks Ben, PM sent.
By the way, you know that 10’ green board? I tried out a spitfire fin in it, and it worked really well. Even for my version of shuffle up to the nose and hang out a bit. Something about those big round rails worked with that fin.
Pat
I agree. Wait until you try it in a round pintail noserider. It just doesn’t work for me on boards with wide square tails, late rocker kick, and a little edge around the end. Everything else, its good. 
Got your pm, they’ll be on the way.
B
Thanks.
Just looked at the weather.
Might have to wait until after the weekend to do any serious r&d
Pat
Tried out the board with the 4" thruster center fin Benny1 sent in the mail. It worked great. That’s the fin setup this board wants. I’ll still play around a bit, but this feels like a winning combo.
Double checked the weight over at Cj3’s today, since 12 seemed too light. All waxed up with the fins in it was 13 lbs, so it looks like I was pretty close when I said 12. cj3 has the board out at the lane right now.
Pat
That’s good news, Pat I’m not surprised at all.
Bert’s boards with the flexy tails are, IMO, supposed to do a lot of the same things the Surftrux do: quicken in trim with their flat rocker, but then respond into something more turnable when asked. That center fin is a lot like what Bert sets up his longboards with, so you should be able to get the most out of the light weight and the s-curve tail outline.
Glad it cleaned up for you today. Hope the Boardbreaker doesn’t give you another project (repair) for the next storm - supposed to hit pretty good again tomorrow. Never really cleaned up here today.
I saw Pat’s board today on the cliffs- beautiful. I am so stoked for him.
Quote:
Tried out the board with the 4" thruster center fin Benny1 sent in the mail. It worked great. That's the fin setup this board wants. I'll still play around a bit, but this feels like a winning combo.
Send the fin specs or make/model or a pic of the rear fin when you get a chance, glad to hear it is working out. Stocked for you.
Hey SFP - I’m glad to see you finally built one. Your workmanship is looking really nice. I would really like to hear Christian’s review of how it surfs. The guy can do magic with these boards. I’ve got a few ideas for your next one that I think might fix a few of your boards issues (but maybe not - what do I know ). In regards to the rocker - it looks like your starting your nose rocker too late and your tail rocker too early. It looks like your getting the speed part too far forward. I would also listen to Christian’s advice and ditch the long board center box. I think stiffening up the tail works sort of like having a longer wheel base on a car - it gives a more drawn out/smoother ride. If you’re looking for that go for a single fin. Bert’s boards are meant to be surfed like a shortboard.