Hi everyone, I hope everyone is having a good start to 2020.
I’m planning on building my wife her second board and after looking at the archives I’m questioning what I want to achieve…sooo much to read. She’s been riding a budget of a board 8’ X 23" X 3" tri fin mini mal and weighs 60kg/135lbs, very fit for a 40 something and has snowboarded with me for ever. I want to keep her stoke going with more progression and go slightly smaller allround. It has to handle waves up to chest high,and keep going in the flats (more a longboard break). Her only musts are a single fin and resin swirl (yeah it’s gotta look good). Here’s what I have penned so far -
7’7" X 22" X 3" wide point 3" forward, 16.5" nose width 15.5" tail, 3.5 - 4" nose rocker and 2.5" tail with no flat areas. Slight belly up front and vee starting just ahead of fin box…and that’s as close to a plan as I have. Do you see any shortfalls in this for what she needs? What’s a good rail choice for her?
your dimensions, and rocker numbers look good, with the exception of the Vee in the tail. A soft low rail, will provide very good riding characteristics.
OK, I’ve taken the skin off and roughed my shape. I widdened the tail 1/4" (now15-3/4") for my eye appeal and maybe to accomodate a last minute round tail. Nose doesn’t quite look right to me but will view for a week and go from there…
Others may see it differently, but TO ME the nose to wide point look fine but the curve through the middle looks a little flat, resulting in more parallel rails. The longboards sometimes do this but it’s not real common in the mid-lengths.
The other thing is that if the board is for a lighter weight surfer at the novice skill level they usually don’t have the stance or leverage to turn a 16" tail. A 170# male surfer can do it without a sweat if they have their rear foot over the fin, but a 130# or 140# female would naturally have a tougher time of it. So you might consider going back to the original template which had a curve through the middle that was aimed at connecting the nose and tail widths. For that matter, for her stature you might even consider going slightly narrower than 22", too. Guys tend to have wider shoulders than most women so the right width for a taller guy might not be the right width for a shorter woman.
I never change a nose or tail width without adjusting the rest of the curves in the template to meet up with it.
Whatever you do, don’t do this board as a thruster. A 2+1 will be more forgiving and really, a singlefin would probably be an even better choice for a novice. It’s not like she’s going to be actively pumping a fin cluster or getting fulll extension on her top turns. .
What isn’t stated is the waves this board and person will ride. Horses for courses!
What’s shown looks to have considerable volume, suggesting a board for waves without much energy, or for a beginner needing a lot of stability at the expense of maneuverability. The board will have a goodly amount of resin and glass on it, suggesting considerable weight.
If in fact this board is for a relative beginner (even a fit one) how well will it hold up to the daily insults of bumping into things? I gotta say, though I fully support home building, that the cheapo boards from Walmart, Costco etc. have ding resistance like no other. Surprisingly they are being seen at some fairly intense breaks, too. Their cost is simply unbeatable when compared to foam, glass and resin, and most of all the labor involved.
I built maybe five boards for my very inexperienced surfer wife (I kept selling them out from under her). One significant issue was always that she bumped into things with them. No concept of the space they occupied as she went down the stairs to Tonggs, or came around a hallway corner. Thus they suffered all the little shatters and dings that PU/PE boards are the natural heirs to.
Another very fit surfer friend had very poor wave judgement and was always breaking the boards I’d made for him, despite robust glassing, 3" thick at center, etc. Two boards were lost from his unbreakable habit of using used bicycle inner tubes to tie the board to his racks (inner tubes weather poorly and fail suddenly/catastrophically). After ruining four or five boards (his payment methods were a problem too) I refused to make him another and referred him to Costco. Didn’t see him much after that, and just as well I suppose.
Those cheapo boards are something to think about. Hate to say it but they certainly have their place.
Honolulu; yesterday I was chatting here about that since long time ago most boards finish into the general public not under surfers feet. That changed the way the designers looked at the boards so the boards changed and now we have a great spectrum of shapes etc to try to solve that problem however, that bumping stuff is a clever point that do not have any solution included the styrofoam boards.
I am not an advocate of new people into the waves; we are too many in some spots but Money talks and money always win.
—hi Smerk:
In my opinion, you falls in the category that think that all the beginner needs an enormous board to start. That is not good in first case. In the future the stance will be too forward to ride properly small boards then the lack of pumping idea (changing the AOA constantly) etc
You just shaped the board but you would shaped a recreational like 6 x 21 x 3 1/4 with 2+1 set up with a V in the tail and step rails to help the turning in such weight. And that is an enormous board for her. Tomorrow I will shape something like that for a gal that is shorter than yours and used a 8 x 23 x 3 as a beginner.
You can go a lot smaller too but you and she have the vision that floatation is everything; and that is not Surfing; for surfing you only need and small piece all the other is to paddling and the take off (think the tow in boards and the big wave guns not toed in)
As with competant surfers I can ride most boards and can feel the differences, but when building something that I think she needs…well in reality I don’t know what she needs and my wife certainly can’t tell me. So, your input is very helpful. I’ve some meat on the blank for changes…
gdaddy - OK I’ll go back to 15.5 on the tail and get some more curve in the middle of the template. Would you go down to 21.5 width or more? Or even shorten the length? It will be a single fin.
Honolulu - I understand where you’re coming from with the spatial awareness, but she’s pretty good. The waves she surfs are more laid back ‘longboard’ type waves, up to chest high. The odd beach break if it’s small. She’s very stable on her feet…so I guess another point to go smaller.
reverb - Yep totally agree I don’t know what I’m building (see second para). Shes tried my flat rockered 6 - 7 (21 wide) boards and is not quite there yet. I’d like to stick with a sub seven foot board, but are you saying you’d shift the wp back with this length? Can you show me a pic of what you’re intending for your female client?
…here s one. These are very big for a gal but very user friendly. You can float, turn. Between 6 and 6 6 would be good but bear in mind that 6 6 is pretty big.
Others may disagree, but I wouldn’t go with less than 4" of nose rocker on a shape like this of any length unless the surfer had at least an average level of skill and wave judgement. I also don’t think a 135# surfer needs a 3" thick board, either. You need a certain amount of float but after that the surface area will be a factor. A round tail will be easier and smoother to turn even though a little slower under the foot of a novice.
One thing you might consider doing it looking for vids that show the conditions your surfer will actually be using the board in - because as mentioned above that’s a big deal - and to find surfers surfing in the manner you expect her to surf the board. Then look and see what kinds of boards they’re riding and how those are set up. Look at the various websites of shapers who build the type of board (singlefin midlengths) that you’re building to see what they do.
One example that your design reminds me of is a McTavish model
I’m not suggesting you copy anyone, but just watching what other shapers have done, particularly for female surfers, might give you some ideas how you want to go on this one. This article is a bt superficial but there are some observations about female surfers that I think are valid.
Yes, I have a collection of board pics and can see how parallel mine looks. That McTavish ‘Rincon’ looks nice…Here’s a fairly normal summers day at Saunton Sands (her favourite spot).
Yeah, that’s the kind of softball wave that’s common where I live. We have bigger/faster conditions, too, but knee-to-waist high is real common. You’re already committed to that blank so by all means, finish it, That shape and fin setup will easily handle an overhead wave so long as it’s not dumping, so the board will be able to do more than your surfer for a ong time to come. If you did Board #4 as an actual small-wave longboard that would be a 2-board quiver that would work across a large range of conditions at a break like that.
Here’s my second attempt at the outline. I’ve gone back to my original 15.5" tail and it’s not quite so parallel through the middle. I’ve also gone down to 21-3/4 width, which isn’t that noticeable but am wondering if I need to go narrower?
Not going to comment on the current shape, looks like y’all have it covered, just providing a little “food for thought” for future projects for gals. I had some scrap foam and stringer wood laying about and I decided it could be used to make an 86% sized longboard for girlies. It’s 8’ x 19", and will ride for a 5’ 2" 114# girlie the same as a standard issue 6’ 180# guy on a 9’ 4" x 22" longboard. Yep, that’s all extruded styrene. Other projects keep jumping in front of me finishing it.
