Hey guys, it’s been a while since i last posted i hope you are all still good?
I need some pointers specifically from you guys who’ve had experience in shaping big boards in excess of 11ft.
Unfortunately and very tragically a very good friend and work collegue of mine died whilst we were kitesurfing recently. Not only was he a good friend and kitesurfing buddy he had not long decided that he was going to start building boards, mainly kiteboards. He did however also want to try paddle boarding and despitie my urgings that perhaps a 12ft 2 paddle board was probably not the surfboard to start your board making debut on, he nevertheless went ahead and purchased the blank.
Im intending to make this board for a variety of reasons, both so that i can enjoy it but also so that his wife may also get the chance to ride it too and i can think of no better way to remember my friend than riding the board he intended to make.
Ive pretty much got everything i need. The blank is 12ft2 long 28 inches wide, i haven’t measured the thickness but it must be at least 4 inches thick. Unfortunatley i haven’t got a rocker profile for it and haven’t as yet had a chance to get it up on some stands to take some measurments. Still trying to work out where im going to shape this tanker.
The blank is from homeblown here in the uk and it’s more than one blank scarfed to another. Double stringer with a centre piece of foam.
I doubt i’ll ever be riding any big waves with this board but i do have a couple of breaks locally that are very long not so steep faced waves. I also hope to get the board out during the summer when it’s flat and use it then. Knee paddling i guess, can’t imagine i’ll be able to stand up paddle with it but we’ll see. Intending to ride it tandem too, that’ll be interesting.
Im hoping some of you guys might be able to give me some pointers here on overall dimensions, rails ( im guessing they’ll probably be 50/50) but most importantly rocker. What should i be looking for when i go back and measure the blank? Ive got the old clark catalogue and had a look at some of the bigger boards in there, can any of you recomend one of those bearing in mind this blank is 12ft2.
Also intending to laminate with epoxy, i have some ampreg 22 or sp systems 115, either of these be suitable?
Any help you can offer will be very much appreciated and of course will keep u updated as to the boards progress, but bloody hell these blanks are huge!
Cheers KS