A longboard design for the glide and paddle ...

Even as I start the shaping and glassing of a Lis Fish, I’m thinking ahead about building a Summertime longboard/paddleboard. I need help and advice on the design parameters …

Indended Purpose - A longboard for nil to really small 2’ waves that’s super stable, easy to paddle and able to catch unbroken swells. A board for the glide (catch the wave, get up, angle off for the long straight ride in) and one that a young beginner can easily standup on in tiny surf or catching the foamies, yet a big oldie can handle well. Mostly a longboard, but floaty enuf for easy paddling easily when there ain’t waves.

Materials - eps sandwich core (two rectangular glued-up planks that are shaped into a core), RR epoxy, 6oz E glass layers, sandwich glass stringer and wood core stringer(s).

Dimensional Considerations -

  • 10’ to 12’ length

  • 22" - 26" width

  • 3-1/2" to 4" thick

  • nose and tail rocker: ?

  • outline shape: ?

  • tail shape: ?

  • single boxed fin location: ?

Mahalos for your assistance, Swaylockers. :slight_smile:

Greetings, I just finished an 11-2 and am personaly happy how it works for me with 230 lbs of body weight. It has a squash tail with a wooden block, Butterfly stringers, slight V in the tail bottom, 3 1/2 in thick, 60/40 rails, and a concave dish on the nose that blends in with the curved stringers, 8x8 Volan Top and 8oz Volan Bottom. Lots of folks talk against the concave that it pushes water but I have not had any problem with the design. Its a single fin box set at 6 inches from the tail. I would suggest 5" or 5"1/2. Just some idea’s to mill about.

JohnF

RFD, Clark makes their 11’3" blank and 12’3" blank that should work well for the type board you are considering. The natural rocker on both works pretty good.

3 5/8" to 4" thickness at the stringer sounds good, but dome the deck a little so you get a thinning of the foam near the rails; easier to turn.

Skip Frye makes some awesome glide rockets. I see one of them alot at my local break, and it frustrates surfers when it’s out because, “Dang! He caught another one way out there.” That board is as follows: 12’3", 24" wide, pintail, pointed nose, 50/50 pinched rails to the last 1/3. Tail morphes slowly into hard downrails. It also has a very subtle, soft concave in the center of the board approx. 10 " wide that goes from nose to where the V starts in the tail. Not much tail rocker, (I estimate about 3"to 3 1/2"). It’s glassed fairly heavy and once it gets up some momentum it covers distance FAST.

With a board that size, my experience has been that you need enough V in the tail, otherwise turning will be difficult. I would set the finbox 6 1/2" from the tail.

Good Luck. Glide baby, Glide. Doug

I keep moving more and more to deeper and thicker skegs for longboards like we’re talking. Up to 11" deep and as much as 3/4" thick at the front IF they are really foiled out correctly www.mccormickfinewoodworking.com . I’d also consider moving the skeg back quite a bit. Tom Wegener has some good points about keeping fins way back and going thick too www.tomwegenersurfboards.com . Enjoy the ride!

Richard

The EPS longboard I just made had many of the characteristice you’re talking about. I took rocker from a 10’2" Bob Miller noserider, thickness from a 10’4" Velzy '63 model and template from a 9’10" Jim Phillips / Velzy XTR and drew the squash tail out to a round pin to make it 10’1". It works great. Belly roll through the front half, flat out the back half. No concaves or vees. Single fin in 10.5" box 6" up from the tail. Beveled rails in the front 18", eased to 50/50’s and finishing with hard down rails in the last 14" or so. Really fast and turns sharp for a round pin. About 3.5" thick at the midpoint which is 23.5" wide. Plenty of board, I’m 220 lb.

I’m out of town and can send the rocker & thickness dimensions in about another week, if you want them.

In my opinion, it’s all about rocker and rails.

The less rocker the better. Three inches with maybe an inch of tail rocker. That’s very flat, and I wouldn’t take it out at a hollow beachbreak, but it will catch anything that moves. I think ten foot is enough. 11 foot would really get in early.

60/40 rails are also better, in my op, because they release the water. Water will cling to a soft rail, which is great for noseriding, but not for paddling.

Finally, a sqaure tail releases water better than a pin.

Super wide nose for catching waves.

Thick isn’t as important. I think three inches exactly is perfect.

Put it this way: I had a 10,4 Nose Devil by Cooperfish that was beautiful. The craftsmanship was superb. However, it was too much and was actually slower than my 10,0 that I still have.

The Nosedevil ws 10,2 by 24 wide, by 3.5 thick. It had soft, pinched 50/50 rails from front to back. I thought, at the time, that bigger was always better for paddling. I learned a humbling lesson at San Onofre when other guys were catching waves much earlier than me on much smaller boards.

My 10,0 is 22.5 inches wide with flat rocker, is 3 inches thick, and has 60/40 rails. It catches everything very early. Always has. But, it doesn’t noseride very well. Let me rephrase that: I don’t noseride very well on that board.

It was made by Craig Hollingsworth in Leucadia. It is the fastest longboard I ever rode and catches waves earlier than the other guys (usually). It has volan glass and a superblue blank. Single fin. I’ll never get rid of it.

I suggest that you take a look at the 11’ Munoz Ultraglide in the Surftech line(leaving behind for a moment the arguements about the centralized global economy and molded board factories). I have one and I enjoy it so much( it was a gift, thank you Fritz). Go to their website or find a surfer who has one. Tiny days and unbroken waves, crowded conditions and difficult sections all have different meaning. I’ve paddled it from Santa Cruz to Capitola and kept up with stock paddleboards. Lately,I’ve been tempted to use it for halibut fishing too. It is a really fun forgiving shape, I’ve stuck beginners on it and they had a blast- check one out and I’m sure you’ll get ideas for the board you’re gonna shape. Good luck

P.S. After trying all sorts of fin set ups on it I am happiest with a small Johnny Rice hatchet(5"?) and two small side fins. It is my board of choice in our small kelpy summer conditions- it flies over kelp.

I’d go with RoyStewarts idea of LONGER glides better!

I’ve made and ridden a couple in the 11 foot plus range that are a blast in small conditions. They are both thick and beefy and designed with belly in the nose, fairly flat rocker and down rails in the tail for speed. I was out yesterday and had a blast challenging a little kid to a “stand off” - he took his dad’s longboard and counted to three whereby we both stood up to see who could remain standing the longest. There are several very fine boards designed for paddling and surfing in the 11 foot+ resources section. Here are two that were made to be ridden…

http://www.swaylocks.com/resources/detail_page.cgi?ID=657

http://www.swaylocks.com/resources/detail_page.cgi?ID=913

I would make a board simaler to the 10ft bic noserider- www.bicsportsurfboards.com

10ft8 length

23 1/2 width

3-1/2" thick

not much nose and tail rocker: ?

simalar to the bic noserider outline shape

Rounded square wide tail

thats what i would do it would be hell fun!

It’s funny that you mention this board, it was the board that I learned how to surf on at Cowells. I would have gotten the 12 footer if available at the time. Another board that might work is the 10’6 Munoz or a 10 Infinity Rad Noserider. All three boards catch waves great and are pretty forgiving, however the smaller boards carve better. I hope that this helps.

Thanx to all fer yer good input.

Fairmont, yer design comments struck an accord and I think that’s a good seed for growing a “glide board”. Mahalos.

the clark 11’3 would be a good start.

Quote:
the clark 11'3 would be a good start.

Yeah, I like the minimal rocker - long ‘n’ flat, the kinda stuff needed for fast paddling, and … then … The Glide. I might just duplicate that 11’3 rocker template.