Hi All,
I’m building a 10 foot longboard and would like some design advice. I’m a beginning surfer, I’m 6’3" and weigh 250lbs, and I surf mostly small wave beach breaks (Long Island, Rockaway, Jersey Shore).
I’m looking for help deciding on what sort of concave, rails, and tail to use.
Thank you.
At your size, level of experience, and wave venue it sounds like you likely could not go too wide or too thick. Seriously.. if you're able to find a 10'2" USBlanks blank by Bruce Jones you could pretty much skin it, sand it, add a fin and fiberglass it and you'd be good to go. 24"-25" is not too wide - you might have to carry it on top of your head or add a SUP handle, but that's no big deal.
I just looked at the diagram in the USBlanks catalog and it looks like it's ready to ride.
http://www.usblanks.com/catalog/?tid=5&id=43
Whatever you do, don't ask advice from a surfshop salesrat. They'll have you convinced that their latest 6'2" fish or mini-simmons clone has enough volume to 'paddle like a longboard' (anybody else heard this crap lately???) Don't believe it. You'll do a lot better with some substantial volume under you. In my opinion, a 10 footer for you might be marginal already.
Thank’s a lot for the advice,
That is exactly the blank I got, for just those reasons. I mean to take off as little as possible from the blank. I just wonder about the shape of the tail and rails and whether or not I need a concave. I mean, would I even notice the difference?
I just want to make something that’s going to be easy to catch a wave on.
Hey archer,
For a guy your size a 10’ x 23 will float you with buoyancy to spare. Look closely at some boards you admire for the general outline shape. Where you are in your ability you need wave count and stability. I like a newbie log like this. Low nose rocker and a flatter overall rocker for easy paddle. A bit of kick in the tail and imean a small bit. Flor slow waves a bit wider squash tail makes easy wave coun t and fast paddle. As for the rails I like a foiled nose ant tail for sensitivity. Go 50/50 through the first two thirds of the board and then gradually pinch and tuck the rails to a hard refined edge in the tail. As for the bottom go flat through the first two thirds of the board then taper and fair in about 1/8" of vee out the tail. If this is your first board I’d wait to start adding concaves. Do not make your rails too thick. Pay close attention to rail foil and rocker as you shape. All else bring shit they dictate overall performance in my opinion. Start shaping your rails in the bottom and ffollow through to the deck. Your last rail band begins the deck. If you shape the deck off of your rail bands you will end up with a even and well done board. Have fun most of all. Life is a journey and so is designing and shaping a board.
Skip the concave and shape a square tail with full rails… grab the blank rails right out of the mold and you’re close. By the time you cut your outline, you’ll have some shaping to do but leaving them more or less like the original molded contour won’t be a bad thing. The more fullness in the rails, the more stable it will be.
I’m sure that if you simply spackled any mold defects and glassed the blank ‘as-is’ you would be surprised at how well it works. For a big guy in small waves volume is king.
Excellent, thank you both. This is exactly what I was looking for.
Schmidt: On the vee in the tail, you mean a slight peak under the fin, right? And the foil on the nose, should it be hard or soft?
John: What type of spackle do you recommend?
I like the shape of the blank as it is, and I don’t really see any reason to cut it. I’m going to work on the rails and the tail and fill in any dents with the spackle so I don’t have to lose to much volume.
I’ll put some pics up as I go.
Thank you, again.
Hi -
If you can, just buy the stuff many people use for spackling lightweight EPS blanks... DAP Fast & Final or an equivalent. I've also made a putty like mixture using 'KILLZ" white acrylic paint and microballoons from a fiberglass supply store. The homemade version doesn't sand quite as nicely as the DAP but works pretty good to fill defects and prime the blank.
Most USBlanks arrive with any number of dents, seam marks, and places where part of the 'skin' has peeled off during removal from the mold. That blank is pretty refined as far as blanks go. If you got a good one, it shouldn't require all that much filling in to get it smooth.
I've often thought about doing the same thing for a Swaylocks campout... just glass a spackled blank as-is right from the mold. I have little doubt it would work - and probably pretty good with the right fin.
The best reason for minimizing shaping of the blank
is that you will have plenty to work with
when you wish to reshape it .
After a hundred or so hours of
acumulated water time the opinions and
prefrences you hold dear
will be light years beyond
the person you are now.
…ambrose…
up the revolution
Don’t take any advice from Ambrose ! If you do he won’t have any left to give laiter !!!