All in all I’m pretty stoked with the outcome of this design and have been consistently impressed at the variety of conditions I’ve been able to dial into with the different fin combos. It doesn’t do everything great in every configuration, but from chest high to overhead and a half I’ve managed to enjoy myself and survive quite well.
This is a fun board to travel with and can fill the slot of several boards i would want to take if i could.
The weight still throws me off a bit from what I’ve become used to, but it helps a lot when it gets choppy or windy, and it just might last a bit longer too.
Pivoting off the top still has room for improvement.
So, do you think a slightly wider/rounder pintail with more pronounced wings would do it?
There’s still a lot of playing around with other fins/foils and stuff too, any suggestions?
And how light do you think a smaller version, say a 6’ in epoxy, could be and still handle the size and survive for more than one winter?
I’ll take suggestions now, thank you very much!
I would also like to give credit where credit is due…
all these photos were taken by either John Lyman or Alfonso Petrirena who both live in the Playa Negra area of Costa Rica. They take photos of tourists and friends like me to buy and bring back home with them. If you’re ever down that way say hello for me. If it wasn’t for them i wouldn’t have ANY photos of this board being ridden.
And last but not least, here is a final photo to get you laughing. I did it.
I taught this beautiful Swiss woman how to ride, and now the world now has one more surfer…
Can anyone say “instant karma”?
-jar
Hmmmmmm,
No comments about the board, the fin combos, the photos, or the Swiss girl?
And no discussion about board designs?
What am I doing wrong?
Is there a secret handshake or something I missed?
Oh well…
-jar
i’m enjoying this thread Jar.
i don’t really have any comments right now.
i would love to hear more about the quad setup
if you get a chance to ride it in some decent waves.
it seems like the tail is more drawn out than the
typical “high-performance” quads that are popular
nowadays.
i wonder if this would help it in bigger waves ie. overhead+
I like the whole thing and hope for more 
Thanks for responding ChrisP,
i was wondering if i was talking to myself!
i’m looking forward to trying it out again as a quad also,
but from my last experience i may have to trade out this fin combo for another, maybe smaller combo. any suggestions? (it’s such a long paddle at my break and I just don’t have any desire to surf with a back pack on…)
and i agree with your observations about the drawn out tail.
it seems to handle the bigger stuff pretty good as both a tri and a 5 fin, but bogs down a bit in anything less than chest high.
still haven’t tried it as a quad in anything of size, so maybe that’s what i should do next.
i’m thinking about another version of this for more average waves…
something a little wider/rounder, esp in the tail area, but maybe bringing it back in with deeper wings? thin it out some so it’s not so forward buoyant? (the thickness under the chest seems to help when i have a wetsuit on). Might make up for it by going epoxy.
i have a vision of a board that incorporates a different concave/rail/wing alignment than i’ve seen, but i have no idea how to draw it up.
It looks something like this board from Bourton…
http://www.basesurfboards.com/bourton-trippun-fish.htm
but in a rounded pin shape with the wings hooking down more towards the stringer line in the tail. (damn, it’s not really like that board. Just sort of. Anyone know of a free/easy/good shapers’ program to fiddle with?)
anyway, thanks again for stopping by…
-jar
thanks Benny1!
ever going to make it up this way?
some of us are tossing around the idea of a small shapers/designers BBQ sometime…
(actually, only two of us so far, but maybe we can talk the folks who shaped and glassed my board into it too)
are there any other shapers in Mendo county you know of?
-jar
Not Mendo, but I regularly see guys from Sonoma Co… Ross from HT is always around, as are Nate & Pat from Proof (which I guess is Marin, but they mostly surf Salmon)… Daily Dale… Greg Lehrer (Lehrer Surf & Bowling Equipment) from Sebastopol… let me know when & where
B
dont forget the korean guy from south bodega bay
they named the beach after him
Dorn Park was sonoma’s first surfer in the nineteen fourties.
he built boards right on the beach before the state
made it into a recreation area and named it after him.
he was originally from Kakaako
his mom ran an auto body shop
after his dad died.
settled in bodega after the war.
was a postman.
…ambrose…
second cousin of Lydgate Park
the Park family is really big.
I won’t tell where the photos
were taken.although I recognise the ocean.
hey Benny1,
don’t think it’s going to be much more than a spontanious thing, but i’ll work on it and see if we can come up with a date.
then maybe you can invite those you know down there to join us, including the state park.
(read ambrose post)
-jar
thanks ambrose,
second cousin of a state park,
poet laureaet of sway’s,
and builder of resin hallucinations…
don’t worry about where the photos were taken,
i kind of gave it away when i mentioned the photographers.
it’s my favorite place in Costa Rica even if the crowds are worse than at home.
been going there for awhile now and the friends i have there are worth dealing with all the agro tourist types.
really, the crowds there suck. any time it’s over chest high it’s easy to get stuck between the surf tourists who feel they’ve paid for the right to hog waves, and the locals who want them all to go home.
even the pre monkey dawn patrol gets crowded with over 20 people in one take off spot!
i did have a one of a kind moment deuring the night of the lunar eclipes though.
ever been tubed by fullmoonlight?
it’s my ‘local’ break i’m not talking about.
i like my teeth; )
-jar
my fantasy still endures
the dorn park will show bitchin
south swell peaks and offshore
when all the rest of the coast
is blown by the NW winds
and the huddled disgruntled
of I know shyte spots
linger about abusing
while the sonoma kids
get waves like costa rika
roite in their turf
and go eat at the union hotel
in occidental for dinner.
…ambrose…
aaaahhhh the smells
accompanying the drive
on the gravenstein highway
1956
seems like every time Ambrose graces us with his presence,
he reveals another dimension to his character.
thanks Ambrose for sharing your thoughts here on this website.
if i’m ever out that way or vice versa, i’d love to buy you lunch
and talk story.
Hmmmmmm,
No comments about the board, the fin combos, the photos, or the Swiss girl?
Well… I kinda like her hat.
Seriously - the fin set-up review is great stuff. Interesting to see the placement differences in the 5-fin designs ranging from Greg Griffin’s to Bonzers to your own.
thanks john!
she got teased about the hat…
something about a swiss hair condom.
(did you see my hand in the lower right corner? that’s what i meant about instant karma!)
the 5 fin diversity is great on this site.
never got to ride one of greg’s boards, but i sure would like to.
did enjoy a few waves on a friend’s bonzer… lots of drive, but it seemed to hang up on the turns.
probably could have used a few more sessions to get a real feel for it.
still don’t quite understand how 5 fins can be faster than 4 or 3,
but my experience on this board makes me a believer.
do you know of any posts which might help me understand this?
thanks,
-jar
Braddah 'brose, 'tisn’t often that your memory falters, but waves like Costa Rica at an ACorps o’E jetty covered with river sand?
I hope that my distant past gets better & better as well.
Waves, sure, but hardly ever more than 20 yards off shore. Which isn’t always a bad thing, especially if it keeps the SR kids from coming up to Boneyards & Boardwalks…they can pay their 5 spot and I’ll go swim with the man in the gray suit for free 
Now the walk through the golf course & down the mandatory public-access path, that’s a different story.
Perhaps before the ACEs wrecked the spot with too much meddling (and renamed it Doran to boot) it was a better, more natural wave. I would love to have seen that. Now, the only one of those around requires a long drive & a huge roll of the dice if you decide to go on 'tour.
Best to you my friend
B
Yo Ben,
If you read Ambrose’s post with the emphasis on ‘fantasy,’ you come to the conclusion that not only is his memory right on the money, but current as well. How many times have SoCo surfers stood in the Ten Minute spot checking out Doran (now forever to be Dorn in my mind) and envisioned those waves breaking fifty yards farther out to sea, or not closing out THAT fast, or the sideshores dropping to something more managable…say, thirty knots? He even nailed the gravensteins.
Sometimes it’s comforting to know history repeats itself.
Now, if history were to repeat itself tomorrow, it would find me speeding up the coast to gamble on that spot a bit north, getting skunked, then limping back to SR with half a cup of cold coffee and five new ideas for board designs for when the break finally decides go go off…maybe next week. Recently departed Kurt Vonnegut would state it the best: So it goes.
I’m in for a bbq! Perhaps we could have it at Dorn park, pass around a few boards, swap some stories, and pour out a few for Dorn, Ambrose, and anyone else whose ever rolled down the windows on the drive out there and smelled the Gravensteins.
Any chance a city dweller could join your meat-burning festivities?
I know I’m a bit south of mendo, but I’m a big fan of that coast…west marin too…im a trannie, but a respectful one…
Any of you guys run into a guy named “rock-man” from PA? surfed with him at fort point this winter, just he and I and some lurching beasts…he said come on up and surf the cove…I’ve been there once when it was on, impressive… makes you feel small…ambrose, i dint realize you haunted these foggy waters…NW wind too much for anywhere today…
Thank you for this post. I think it makes the benefits of different fin setups much clearer.
Hi -
Check any of Oneula’s comments on his GG boards or GG’s comments and it at least reveals another take on the 5-fin scene. I’ve not tried one personally but they make sense.