After getting some boards under my belt I am ready to try a smaller board to fill a hole in my quiver. Looking for ideas and thoughts on this concept.
Problem: Longboard and funboard do not fit well in my car, need something smaller, ie: Fish, Dwart etc. for crappy conditions.
Need: 6-2" or less board for clean ankle slappers to waist high whitewash (east coast sucks) that have little to no power (have to generate power on the paddle).
Surfer: 6 foot 180lbs and dead sexy - looking just for a pop-up, (turn, maybe straight in when really crappy), ride as long as possible down the line and ditch. Then repeat, repeat, repeat… no airs, just beginner/intermediate level stoke. Do not want too skatey and something with a foundation to help with pop-up when washing machine conditions.
Current Rides: 8’x20"x2" vee bottom squash tail single fin fun funboard, 10’x22"x2" single fin single concave long board and still mastering 6’4"x19"x1-3/4", sing concave pintail, thruster.
Thoughts: Twin fin or quad fins, 6’2" x 22" x 2-3/4" with round nose round tail with 2-1/4" NoseRocker and 2" Tail Rocker, flat to the slightest of v, 80/20 rails and cramming as much foam into it as possible to make it almost float like a bobber.
Materials: Haven’t decided, have plenty of Epoxy laying around.
" Problem: Longboard and funboard do not fit well in my car "
Well, a cheaper / easier solution , in THAT case ....
.....buy some roofracks , and ride your mal ['longboard'].
They DO go WELL in tiny waves , after all ....
Anyway , THAT is just "Plan B " , if Brazil don't wanna play ??!! Although , if you really ARE as 'sexy' as you think you are ...then , WHY wouldn't she ?! bwahaha ]
Reverb: Those are estimate dimensios of my other boards. typing from office/cellphone and do not have the dims of the boards I have already made. But the longboard is thin and I love it.
I fit 2 5’10"'s with fins in the back of a 2010 Civic. In fact, we packed four people in there and both boards. Talk about tight.
For your ability, an appropriately sized mini simmons will do what you want. I rode one this summer and while I did not like the board, it was exactly what you are looking for. Down the line glide, fast from the take off, can kinda do okay turns when it is small. You can do your research on them.
I made myself a 5’7"x18.5"like 2.75" thick twin fin shortboard. Square chop tail, flat and very slight rocker out the back, normal fishy style 3" ish nose rocker, lots volume throughout the board; no super thing noses or tails. It can cruise in small waves, so I don’t have to jump up and down if I don’t want to. Pivots well and goes down the line quickly if I want. I’ve gotten much better at milking the wave for all it’s got, partly due to surfing a lot but the board probably helped a little. I’m 5’5" 120 pounds though, which probably helps in weak waves. So you might want to go bigger.
So definitely try something like that. I also saw some guy riding a simmons and it sounds like what you want, to agree with riderfowaves. He rode the waves forever and it looked like it got into waves so easily for being a 4’10" board. Maybe a retro fish, those are supposed to glide and be fast and short, right?
And I’ve fit a 6’4" thruster and 6’6" thruster in a 4 door bmw car, one of the smaller ones. They went from the space behind/above the seats near the rear window to the front windshield, between the driver and passenger seats.
You should also look into a twin+trailer setup. I sometimes push too hard taking off going left, I’m goofy. Since the board releases the fins really easily it will just slide down the face instead of going with the wave and stop. That’s rider error though, but the little center fin might help add some drive to your pumps too, if you’re a thruster pumping kinda guy. I’m thinking about adding a litle center fin to mine.
Okay this is getting funny. Let’s handle some of the comments:
Car issues = I drive a Convertible BMW softtop, roof racks are not a option.
I do long rides to the beach with top down and if caught in the rain the car
gets wet, which happens often.
Mini Simmons would fit the bill, will need to find a blank to make it out
of…onto Google.
Brazilian girls = Lived on South Beach in Miami for two years, had my fill,
but they are still great to look at!!! Plus I am an ass man, which they are
known for along with Columbians. Okay, focus…back to surfboards…I am
engaged, stay away from facebook and girls from Miami…stay…stay…stay damnit, stay…
Viagra = I am 33, I don’t need it yet but still can be used as party
enhancers.
44 = football and soccer number growning up and in college.
Mini Simmons is probably the way I am going. Knew that was what I was going
to hear and I was trying to avoid the “popular board”. It is what it
is. Now just have to find my credit card and place some orders.
Mini Simmons are cool if that’s what you’re looking for…
I might suggest a different route with a single fin, though. Low drag, nice glide, and easy to manouver in those kinds of conditions. Keep it wide and thick with a modified seventies feel to it. Look at some vintage riders for ideas of dimensions, but don’t be scared of 21" widths and near 3" of thickness. Hell, for those conditions I’d build it with medium high density eps, and keep it just a bit lighter than a polyester board so that you can bounce it off the top in less than powerful surf. The width, relative flatness and a bit of vee in the tail, and those low-radius rails will keep it planing even in mushy crap.
I’m usually on a longboard, but have a blast on my singles even in tiny surf… cheater fives, long rides even in knee high conditions, tight cutbacks and such when the wave allows for it. And they’re a blast when its unexpectedly good.
Just my two cents worth. I was building two and four finned fish a few years back for small summer stuff, and just found that my singles are really where it’s at for me.
The mini-Simmons is a great choice, I am close to your size and I just made a 6’2’’ x 23’’ x 2.75 for myself and this thing flies. I took it out this morning in waist to shoulder high surf and couldn’t be happier with it. I made it a quad, but it didn’t work so well until I put some MR FCS twin fins in the rear boxes and left the fronts off. Then it came to life and is so fast and loose, plus they paddle well and I have a new favorite board. I used a US Blanks 610A blank and kept it as flat as I could with just a bit of tail rocker at 1 1/8’'. Good luck and have fun.
Celticskunk: have you had it out in mush or knee high stuff yet? That really is my goal, replace long board when it is crappy which it is most of the time on the East Coast.
…you ask me what kind of rocker, but first you need to take measurements on your boards, then decide what type of board, then we can work some numbers.
Araq44: I have had it in knee high mush and it is just as fun as in bigger waves. It’s still fast and loose, I’ve been grabbing it every time I go out. It is the shortest board I’ve had in 25 years or so & it was not a problem to get used to.
I just got offered a 24"x4"x96" 3lb density EPS block for less than $50.00. I am going to make a stringerless Mini-Simms with using all the recommendations I have been getting here. Thanks to all that replied!!!
Time to watch some NFL action while thinking about the board until I get the foam in a couple of days.
Live in Jacksonville FL, that’s a pic of today’s surf, I will be el piggo en el shitto on this board today locally in that weakness, gliding and trimming, cheater fiving and just making everybody really confused as I go out on the tiny little shoulders and do nice cutbacks back into the tiny mushballs
42 years old, 210 pounds, good shape
all I’m saying is don’t discount a larger simmons variation, I don’t get wrapped up in trying to ride a thimble or a tea cup
guys on longboards constantly ask me what I am riding because I can ride this board like a longboard
and it surfs plenty agile in surf up to 2 ft overhead locally, extremely fast, big drawn out turns, solid as a rock bottom turns
it’s poly
you could easily achieve same results and retain a lot of glide at 5’10-6’0 length, I just got this length/dims because it does what I want it to for me in my location, this is my 2nd Simm-21 from John Cherry, its makes below average to average east coast stuff really enjoyable