Yeah, I have all my fingers left! The ply is apple that chrisp sent me about 6-8 months ago. It was really thick - like 5/8", so I planed it down to about 3/8" before foiling the fins.
Hey nocean, I used the figures that kirk put up on a thread I started a while ago, but I moved all fins forward 1/4", and rear fins at 1 3/4 from rail instead of 2". This is what I came up with:
Front fins - 10 1/2" from tip of tail, 1 1/4" off rail and toed 1/4"
Rear fins - 4 3/4" from tip of tail, 1 3/4" off rail and toed 1/8"
Caveman, do you wish you had more curve in tail ? rocker and planshape ? or do you think the flatter and straighter a bonuses in small waves ? many people checking the dim-SIM out , I get plenty of people asking bout it and looking at me like I am a kook, till they see it works and works well....so you riding it with fins forward, thought you might after I rode mine with more curve and fins back...would be great to catch up and swap boards in the futre, not planing any hols up north are ya ??? stoked you are enjoying it....
Its hard to say Mark, I dunno… It might have given me more freedom with more curve in the tail, but it goes that bloody fast and catches that many waves that I’m not too fussed. I think someone more used to top-to-bottom surfing would appreciate a bit more rocker and curve in the tail, but seeing as I ride it for a completely different feel and not to surf like Kelly Slater its not a big deal for me.
I’m starting to understand why people use the half moon keels in super flat simmons…maybe to give a release point further forward?
I might have put the grip tape a little far forward, it feels like it might go better with my foot closer to the leesh plug so I might take it off and split it either side of the leesh plug. See if a bit more back foot pressure on the foiled out section of the board makes a difference
cptn’’
its the roll (belly) that needs to be done right and then flow into flat from centre of mass
concave more lift best with some rail rocker
**flat more loose **
as small as they are they are still hulls in a sense
**cheers huie
**
Yah huie, it has a nice gradual and subtle rail rocker, but with a deep concave making the stringer rocker almost flat. I think its just going to take some getting used to after surfing rockered pulled in tails for so long…Like I started to notice that I can’t just keep my weight on the front foot and give some slight back foot pressure to turn the way I would on a curvy shortboard. I had to crouch and pressure the tail with the back foot to kind of “load” the rear fin to turn. If more rocker and curve would make it slower I don’t know if I would be as stoked with it, haha 
I don’t see how it would be looser with less rail rocker and less concave?
Shaping my first mini-simmons and had a question. Just wondering why a lot of the boards have concave on the top of the nose but the middle of the deck is higher like there is a hump in the middle of the board. This is probably a stupid question but I really don't anything about shaping. Just kinda winging it on this first one.
Hi, the “hump” your talking about is sometimes referred to as an S deck I believe and I thought it was a bit strange at first too but when I shaped mine it makes a lot of sense. By hollowing the nose out from the top of the board you can keep a flat bottom or rocker but still thin the nose out reducing the “swing weight” of the overall shape and also maintain some much needed thickness through the middle of the board if its as short as some of these are.
Cheers for those fin figures LanceM, I ended up doing some of my own on my latest, Surfed it the other day in 2 foot super fast runners and caught a ton of waves but also took some good beatings! I found the board caught waves easy and went really fast but didnt like taking a high line or coming of the top, just as Captn described I think to turn it I needed to load my back foot more and maybe more rocker in the tail and no concave but a slight v would be worth trying, however I had a blast and certainly will surf it again… Am keen to try a Twin fin setup on it next time as i surfed it as a quad…
we went to and fro with hundreds of e-mails chatting bout the specifics of this board, with consideration put into every design element, the rocker and tail planshape getting the most attention, in the end Capt. made all the calls, and its great to see he is loving it, and learning from it too.... . this is my version of the design , never meant to be an exact replica of a hull/mini-sims, customer and I worked on exactly what shape he wanted for the waves he surfed... I have made him several boards and know how he surfs and what waves he rides so all these things definitely came into play, but if he requested a total replica of a mini-simmons , then it would be different and with hull and belly replicated....just my spin on it really, tweaking for him and what he wanted....
mine has more rocker and curve in planshape and its going insane, couldnt be happier with how it is going....these are super fun boards and alot of people will be frothing over them soon, but the HPS crew may not love em, same deal as the fish I guess, some are gunna be open minded and have the ability to adapt their surfing to really enjoy the benefits of this design, others wont be able to whack and slash staright away and will dismiss it as another passing fad in design trends.....I can see many more older designs being revisited and the time and energy being spent to make them another FUNctional design for todays surfing....happy days....
This lil slab has no trouble doing vertical snaps…it pivots really well.
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It’s the operator that has to hold on for dear life when it’s doing em.
Stuck my head in to see Brian the other day (Weir’s) and he’s shaping some really cool stubby diamondtails.
I added V to the tail before adding the bonzer concaves. I figured the V would help that super wide tail go rail to rail better – it does. The board goes rail to rail as smooth as anything I’ve ever ridden.
**i think pridmore amswered your doubts for you **
just because someone made these boards flat dont mean they all have to be like that
to each his own ?
cheers huie
What sort of stance do you surf them with guys?? I have a short wide keel fin ( eggy, but swallow tail ), not quite a simm, but similar, and im not quite sure where to stand on it. Seems really good with a wide stance so far, just curious to hear where you stand on such short, wide boards. Also, where are your widepoints?? Just forward of centre etc?
Love this thread, so keen to make one of these!!
yeah, each to their own with all designs, great to see different interperatations, be shitty if we all did the same shapes, always replicating the same stuff, that would be crappy...love the place surfboard design is at right now, great to be able to totally create boards for fun and not following any fads or trends, or maybe a fad like the mini-sims can inspire shapers to create many different variations....
BF, stance is same as usual for me, but surfing them is different, different is good.....
I had the wide point forward of center a little ways about 2 inches at 23". BUT - the tail is 20" 1 foot up and the nose is 19 1/2" 1 foot down so the rails are pretty straight…
For me surfing it, I do better with my back foot on the tail. I noticed that when I got forward on the board it would slide out in steeper sections.
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I added V to the tail before adding the bonzer concaves. I figured the V would help that super wide tail go rail to rail better – it does. The board goes rail to rail as smooth as anything I’ve ever ridden.
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Hi LanceM,
I'm about to shape my first board - gonna be a little ambitious and try to shape a mini-simmons. Like you I was also thinking of doing double concaves with V through the tail to get rail to rail easy. My question is: Did you add any tail rocker? Or did you keep the stringer flat and create V by shaping up the rails a little? I've never ridden one of these boards, but I want it to be able to turn more than say a classic keel fish. Also do you keep belly through to the middle of the board, or transition to flat/concave earlier/later?
Thanks in advance.
Hi LanceM,
I'm about to shape my first board - gonna be a little ambitious and try to shape a mini-simmons. Like you I was also thinking of doing double concaves with V through the tail to get rail to rail easy. My question is: Did you add any tail rocker? Or did you keep the stringer flat and create V by shaping up the rails a little? I've never ridden one of these boards, but I want it to be able to turn more than say a classic keel fish. Also do you keep belly through to the middle of the board, or transition to flat/concave earlier/later?
Thanks in advance.
give it tail rocker and curve for better manouverability, mine has quite a bit and goes great...flatter is faster but also depends on the bottom shape you go with, the double-vee combo will help for sure when it comes to putting it on rail.....please post pics when you start shaping.....
Just saw this, ill throw it in the mix here for some history: not sure if the link will come out ok but otherwise youll have to paste it:)
I still cant post links properly!!
http://thealleyfishfry.blogspot.com/2010/11/joe-bauguess-talks-about-inventing-mini.html
Today I just realised how much of a difference fins make it mini-simmons.
Mine is quite flat with minimal rocker…Maybe half an inch of tail rocker on the rail, but almost zero rocker on the stringer due to the concave. It also has 4 FCS tabs each fin for experimentation. With three tab FCS keel fins it felt like I just didn’'t have enough leverage to turn the thing…Not enough manpower. The speed was eye-watering though…
As soon as I decreased the fin area to M3’s it turned into a completely different board, absolutely electric! Like a super skatey and super fast fish, rather than a down the line demon that was hard to go verticle with. It seems as though fin area makes a big difference when you don’t use much tail rocker…
I’m going to experiment a little more and draw up some half-moon keels for FCS tabs and get them custom made for me…nice one. Super excited to surf this thing agian… 