Looks great. What sort of rocker dims are you going for?
Measured is 3 1/8" nose and 2 3/8" tail. The rocker is derived from using 8’ of my 9’ thruster gun’s rocker - shown mated against the part. That rocker is my medium rocker, which is reduced 7.5% from my 6.9%/2.7% tuberider rocker I developed in ‘91 - using equations and DOS Turbo Basic software I crunched a couple years prior - plots templates on a vintage 80’s wide carriage dot matrix printer. I already had full-length rocker/thickness hotwire foam cutting templates from a previous project, and some foam and stringer wood left over from that project and others to cobble together for this. Also, still sorting in my head what kind, and how to do longboard rails for this and a 10’ longboard project.
Those details distract from the basic point of simply doing a 3D proportional reduction of all dimensions of a guy board to make a gal board. This 14% reduction is likely a bit much for most gals; probably a 10% reduction is better suited as a general starting point for gal boards. And when measureing 12" back from the nose / up from the tail on a guy board, on a 10% reduced gal board you’d have to measure to 10.8".
Right I’m now doing belly in the nose and blending rails into this. I’ve got 3/16 belly finishing roughly 20inches down. 50/50 rails blending into 60/40 no hard edges on rails. Will this work or more belly?
Steve
I think that’s a good setup for that type of board, except if it were mine I’d add a tucked rail with an edge in the tail.
Disregard the title of this image, but if you went from a 60/40 or 70/30 in the middle of the board and ended up with a somewhat foiled version of the D or J you’d get a versatile combination of hold (from the round part of the rail) and release (from the edge coming off the vee). In my opinion.
Are you going to do the single-fin flat to vee to flat bottom? Flat at the widepoint, then progressive vee maxing at the fin, then a little flip in the centerline rocker that progressivly takes out the vee in the last nine inches or so. T’was the thing to get all that drive and hold on single fins in the mid to later part of the 70’s. Nothing radical, maybe just one degree max per side. It’ll make the board easier to turn and trim.
To be honest gdaddy the tail isn’t far off ‘D’ now as I was going to tuck it like this, but what Bill said in his earlier post is still in the back of my mind…with the low tail rocker it ‘should’ be good for her. I’ve never ridden anything like this.
Hi Scott, I’m going slight belly in the nose to flat, no vee…I’ve been thinking about a 7ish for myself with 70s style template. I wonder if the vee would suit this (point break wave)?
Oh, absolutely! Though Gerry riding Pipe got the most press, most boards were made for, and riden on, Cali point breaks. And the flat-vee-flat (tail kick) was dialed-in by lots of shapers. Finding a good example is impossible because all the good boards got ridden to death. In the last few years, I’ve been working on any number of ‘Retro-Revised’ shapes where I camouflage modern board tech with some retro looking features - most notably blunting the nose to a late 60’s/early 70’s point. Thin boards with thin rails with retro-looking templates, but templates that have some modern hip-curve in them, yield remarkable results. Not using old fins with faceted foils, that cause all manner of flow separation, but instead the decent foils that most Futures single fins utilize, and everybody else followed with their own versions, help immensely too.
So: 70’s template but a little more hip, flat-vee-flat, high aspect ratio single fin with modern foil, thin board, thin rails.
Pictured: A 6’ 10" x 21 3/8" x 2 1/2" retro-revised single-fin with late 60’s style nose and tail. It uses a permanently installed (mortise and tenon) Futures Albacore Flex 8.5" fin (discontinued) placed 7 3/4" from the tail. Dead flat rail-to-rail bottom - I instead use tail rocker to achieve the same effect as flat-vee-flat - been doing that since '91. Its only been in the water a couple of times, with those being at Ventura County point breaks. Best single-fin I’ve ever ridden, and one of the best boards I’ve ever ridden. Not saying that cuase I made it, I make lots of dogs and admit it when I do so. This one turned out great. There was an experimental board/dog that preceded it.
You could go down to 21" for a 7’6". 21" - 21.5" is a good width for eggs. I’d leave the outline alone because it looks good to me for a begginer. The only thing I’d think about is the thickness. With 3" thickness, you’d have to crown the deck more to get the rails thin enough for a nice rail. I have 2 eggs that are only 2" thick, but they have a flat deck. I hadn’t used them for years, but I recently took them out to see if I could still paddle them since my boards are now up to 3" thick. I was happily surprised with the way they rode. I’m 61 now and about 165 lbs. not surfing as regularly right now, so my arms are not as strong as they were. I didn’t surf much during Dec-Jan.
2" may be too thin, but anything between 2.25" and 2.5" should be good. I glass my boards with lots of glass or a combination of glass and Balsa wood, and they last a long time.
Board below is 7’ x 21" x 2", very low rocker. I have another just like it, but 8’ long and a different rocker.
Seems like a board that great would get more water time. You must like multiple finned boards more.
Nah, just middle aged and am busy with lots of things so I don’t get in the water all that much.
Yeah been there. But by 50 I was doing my best surfing. Like you mostly Ventura, SB pointbreaks that I accessed from Pisblo. A few years of Ranch and living on Pleasure Point. But now I’m just old. But if I were up the road from Rincon, El Cap or even Refugio, I’d be on it. Mostly I wait all winter for a few go outs in summer up here in Oregon. Lowel
That’s a nice gauge. Once you get it established; Those Varirad Sanders like Pleskuna used to make will get you there. I’ve thought in the past of making a series of V sanding blocks by cutting one inch plywood the width of a tail plus. Say 20" that starts at zero and goes to the desired degree of V at each end. Add a couple of sandpaper width 1" to the inside and spray adhesive sand paper on to it. Three or so for different degree of V. But I suppose the easy way is the way I have always done it. Shallow cuts to deeper cuts with the Skil and finish of with sanding block and hand plane"
I agree with gdaddy , 4" nose rocker
Surfline has the “Saunton Overview Surf Report & Forecast” camera, is that a good view of your surf spot? If so, or if there is a better one, after the board is finished and your gal is having a go with it, let us see it in action.
The medium we ride upon is curved, but we tend to see things in cartesian coorinates with straight lines of sight in all directions. As we learned with Shawn Thompson’s Pink Banana at Pipeline, the rocker needs to form to the wave being ridden. Even mushburger waves have a hooked curve in the face; if too straight a rocker is used, the water will see a turned-down surface and will lift it, and the nose of the board will subsequently fall. A properly designed tail rocker will form to the curve of the water, and the water will see a nearly straight surface. This results in the fastest boards, the easiest boards to catch waves with, the easiest longboards to noseride on, and the easiest boards to tuberide on. Pictured is an experimental board that is undergoing a reshape of the tail template, but that has such a rocker on it. The rocker comes from a 7’ 11" hollow-wave semi-gun, but with 13" whacked off the nose to accomodate this alternative to riding a longboard 6’ 10" x 21 3/4". It easily catches one foot mush. With the tail reshape, it should have a fair bit of drive in one foot mush.
Well after having the corona virus, we’re back on track. I hope you’re all well and able to get some time making something fun.
I finished this a few weeks ago now and ended up with the intended 7’7", 16.5" Nose,15.5" Tail and rockers of 4" Nose, 2.5" Tail. Slight changes were made to width, 21-3/4" and thickness to 2-3/4". Bottom contours are all FLAT except a slight belly in the nose. Just needs to be surfed now…
Nice , and excellent use of the cutting board .