Rider is 8 year old boy (4’2, 55lbs) who is still being pushed into waves. He likes to surf but really as a means of playing in the water with other kids. No kids, so real desire to surf.
Currently riding a 6’2x20.5 hybrid/fish. He has fun on this but its a handful in the white water. He has expressed desire to go smaller so the board is easier to handle. All our breaks are reef breaks but there is one spot with a nice reform with sand bottom. Next step will be a river mouth reform that has reef bottom but is tame on small days. He is close to being able to catch waves on his own.
I have read the arguments regarding width and being able to carry the board but we tested it and he can not carry anything wider than 17". Tried a 5’6x17.75x20.125 performance short board and it was too unstable. Nose and tail were both very pulled in and thinned out.
I thought to go shorter and wider, sup handle, with nice soft curves for safety sake.
See pdf link below for board design details…thanks for your comments.
I just looked at your pdf file… can you widen the tail a bit to slightly straight n the outline, maybe make a rounded squash tail? You want a hull type bottom I’m thinking, and thinned out pinched rails…a bit of kick in tail also…these boards seem to also have a lowish rocker. I think ur good there. I’d soften the fin for safety -since he’s 8.
These board are similar to fish in that they’re kinda parallel, but they do have a bit of curve more near tail…the rounded squash tail, or thumb tail would add to float. Not to mention - help turns…I geuss a round pin would be cool to !? But I’d widen the tail a bit. Not the width at 12" up, but the block up area…fatten it up a bit… if you have sum time - check out Marc Andreini’s website, and check his ‘Vaquero’ - it’s a lot like what I’m talking about. Good luck on it!
Yup! That squash tail would be very good! He’d get ample stability, and an ability to turn well with a bit of kick… Fyi -I’m a garage shaper but I’ve had luck thin n my tail about 12" up, and then I just surform & block it in…you end with a slight kick that flows smoothly into the natural rocker… Fyi- ive done this on three boards so far and they all ran well. Infact, I’m going to do it on my own board !what I Iike to do is just scrub it in with a surform, and finish w block. But you could plane it in
Also… keep in mind, you will get a slight hump in front of the kicked up tail…but what I’d do is smooth it to blend a bit into the over all natural rocker…when it looks good n even call it done. Note: I use a c calipers to even out the sides and measure thickness… My idea. It just keeps it look n even. You can even use pencil marks to guide you in your cuts. An idea I thought of is to: make a line straight across your tail block - the depth of kick you want, and make a tape line straight across 12" up, then just plane until you get to the tape + near depth at block… then remove the tape and blend it out. If you dont have tape - just use ur square and draw a line. Hope the board works well! If he doesn’t like a single fin, put as many as you want on it! A four finner might be k also.- Jim
Here is what my 8 year old (In this picture…he’s 9 now) rides. It is a miniaturized version of the Dumpster Diver shape. It is 5’2. He has natural talent and can ride a shortboard or even ride a boogie board stand up down the line. He’s on the beach just about every day from May through the end of October. Don’t know what tho OPs child’s skill level is. I went with this shape and size because I knew he would be able to ride it right off the bat…I probably could have even gone shorter but we already have a 4’10 in the house. I also wanted him on something that he could get a couple of seasons out of. If his 14 year old brother is any indication my 9 year old should be able to ride this board until he’s 12 or 13. The Dumpster Diver shape is about as user friendly as it gets for a shortboard.
Here is another option. My youngest has had this BZ 5’0 fish soft board a few years and has surfed the crap out of it. He’ll probably keep riding it. My three kids fight over this thing. Even my 14 year old has fun on it.
One final piece of advice: Based on my experience I would avoid longboard type shapes for youngsters. It will really let them get away with bad technique and let them ingrain bad technique that will become a hurdle down the road. I started my oldest out on a bigger board and he could kind of crawl to his feet. He didn’t have to develope a good pop up. To this day he struggles with his pop up technique and I really believe it was because he was on a board as a youngster that didn’t demand a proper pop up. Bad habits are hard to break.
Beach… Consider going wider but use a mini version of a sup deck handle to facilitate carrying it. There are all sorts of ways to make them in kid’s size. Also consider using rail channels. They work great for grabbing the board in all sorts of situations and would make handling it in the shore break a lot easier. Plus with really narrow grom boards you can’t get much curve in the outline and I think they tend to learn to surf off the fins as opposed to developing a carving flowing style.
Mako, that first board you showed, my boy is not ready for. But that 5’0 fish looks perfect. I overlayed the image of the board on my squash design, PDFd above and the outline was similar. The fish was a bit fuller in both the nose and tail so I may adjust accordingly. Do you have any idea the dims on the BZ Fish? There were none listed on the website. If you have them handy, that would be a big help.
Dave, SUP handle is in the plan. Shape…thanks for the input! All good stuff.
I would thin the rails a good deal bcuz the design has the width…my
theory and feedback I’ve got on the handful ive made call for thinner down rails, or pinched rails. I think the pinched rail more of a 50/50 -with a pinched top? So just make a 50/50, but sand it a bit more on deck side… a modern harder rail from front of fin back would also help… soften the rear of fins with sand paper to soften those sharp edges enough…
One other option for your squash tail! I would make the nose at least 1" or so wider than the tail…just look at a good egg shape and scale
It down to “fit.” But your last pdf looks good, but id narrow the tail 1"less than the nose. Give us a ride report k!
If your aku cant make the wider tail block section - just make it by hand, or sketch it…it wont be a lot. If you can draw out a tail template -so as to even it out -that would be better.
I took my 5 year old boy out surfing this past weekend for the second weekend in a row. He is really big for his age (80 lbs and 4’4" inches tall). The board that I made for him is 17" wide, 6’3" long, and 2.5" thick. It floats him just right but it is a little too wide for him to carry with one arm. I think that he just likes being out in the water more than anything. He hasn’t even tried to catch a wave with it yet and he refuses to let me push him into a wave. We went out at Cowell’s, which was a nice spot for him to get comfortable with paddling. He had to duck under a few incoming waves but not too many. Plus, he was able to see other kids surfing outside of us. It is amazing the things you take for granted. For example, I told him to turn his board and paddle in a different direction. He put his hands on the rails and tried to jerk his board into the direction that I was pointing. At that point I realized that we needed a little lession in paddling. I taught him to paddle with just one arm to make the board turn. After a little practice he figured it out and were on to learning how to sit up on top of the board. While we were out we got some up close sightings of seals and an otter, which I think were the highlights of the day for him.
I think pushing a kid into waves is a worse practice than starting them on a mal type board. I can see doing it the first time or two, but they should learn the harsh reality that you have to earn your waves. That means paddling!
The few times I’ve given casual instruction to young kids, I insisted on two things. They had to catch the wave on their own, and they could not wear a leash. Swimming is a perfect incentive to get better.
We surfed this afternoon. And he is definitely now of the frame of mind that he does not want to be pushed in. So I am coaching him up to catch his own. But I am of the opinion that whatever makes it fun for them at the beginning, you should do. There is very little risk that Daddy’s push becomes a crutch. Not too many kids want that especially when they seee the other kids doing it themselves.
In our case, we are out maybe 200 feet from shore, surfing 1-2 foot waves breaking over live coral reef. Elk horn etc. Much more consequential than sand bar beach break. So if he needs a little shove on a late take off, I am happy to give it.
I certainly understand that you may have to allow for the spot, itself. But I see too many self appointed surf instructors who are charging money from a kid’s parents that do not teach basics and just push them in. The kid eventually stands up for a second or more, and the parent thinks the money was worth it because the kid got to his feet.
Funny thing is, last Summer I saw a fairly tiny girl paddling into waves all by herself and riding right onto the sand. I spoke to her mom and found out the kid was only ten, she’d been at it less than six months, and they live inland so they don’t get to the beach much. I told the mom that her daughter surfed better than many of the adults I see at that same beach.
Labat- good move. It’s better to move down in size, rather then down to up…a few things you can do is maybe use a blank that comes with the desired nose rocker
You think would be right for your boy. Go with a fish egg blank and all you’ll do is cut in the added 1/8" of kick aft thinning your bottom, toss in whatever other mods, throw on sum rails, thin a few areas on deck. I think you might even want one yourself! Mine got stolen, but I can design one, but I’ll have to thin the thing more than normal. These things aren’t corky. They’re widish flat rockered potato chips! They are floatie due to width and sum length. I’m definitely getting the fins unlimited normal foot long box. Maybe they are 11"? Play n with fins w box setup is probably the best setup on this type of board. For one, when the waves turn into crud- just push fin up! Now the board works…I’m going to grab me a blank right aft my pig build!
If you make it narrow enough for a kid to be able to carry the board themselves , then that will get them into another good habit , early on.
DOES he have far to walk to the waves ?
In August 2001 , I made the mistake of making a 4’11 x 20" fish , ‘the Tadpole’ , for a mate’s 5yo [at the time] son , Dane . It was waaay too much board for him to carry , and to paddle.
At 9 years old , he had more fun on it .
Funny enough , a 20 yo mate of Dane’s dad rode it a couple of years ago … on a decent right hand reef break , and from all reports , FLEW on the thing ! When this guy makes the trip south from Sydney , he often asks Ross to borrow the board.
I’m just S T O K E D that it is still in one piece , and being used !
I made it as a single fin[boxed] board to start with , but we put **[one **pair only ?! :o ] of side fcs plugs in it , once Ross saw it .
Maybe I missed it, but to me the the most obvious problem in making boards for people/kids under 155 lbs is the thickness of the tail for a tri set-up.
I made a board for a bud who is intermed-advanced and 155 and thinned the tail a tiny bit more than I intended to and ended up with the trailer box (Probox) being visible from the deck even after adding a layer of 4oz cloth to the deck “just in case.”
How the heck do people do the boxes for smaller people (under 155, better than intermediate level) do deal with the thinness-of-foam issue?
This has probably been covered in the past, but it stands out to me as an obvious issue.
