True, but then you’d have a board you could never duck dive (it’s not like these things are easy to get under anyway) and blending into the nose rails seems like it would be no easy task, although I readily admit that’s just a non shapers iobservation. The thickness is important for sure, all that float and planing speed. By the way, I should have I have mentioned the explanation comes via J. Elwell, so I figure if anyone has a good take on why the scooping it’d be him. Rooster- how’d that new one work?
That board is beautiful. Thanks for posting it, Proneman. If you ever get the chance, visit the Surfing Heritage Museum in San Clemente, CA. There are several Simmons originals plus a lot more. I don't know if this is their policy, but I was allowed to touch them and feel the rails, etc. Mike
I should have quoted this post before, but this is the board that I was wondering how well it surfed, and paddled, and how big the human was that surfed it? I’ve ridden lots of weird skate-ee boards over the years and I’d like to know as much as possible about this one because I’m thinking of having something like this shaped.
is the polish just part of the restore?..................what was the original finish?
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Not original finish. Restoration was done by Carl Ekstrom, I am told. I personally never saw a finish that good on a Simmons board. Even up to 1960, what came off the brush, was what you got, as far as the finish was concerned.
Two points where it would be great to get some feedback please…
1) TRACKING: With all that width and thickness, and especially with the longer mini simms, It seems like these boards would track heavily, especially with backside bottom turns and cutbacks - is that true?
2) CONCAVE RAILS: To minimize tracking and get a more snappy mini simm (or fish), it seems like a concave rail line would be perfect for these boards. Let me explain: 7S Surfboards puts this hollow/concave thing that runs from near the nose to the tail on the deck rail. They call it a “step deck” (which is nothing like the original noserider step deck). Anyway, the concept works because you still have the volume in the rest of the board for paddling but now you have a thinner more responsive rail line. This rail was discussed in another thread and has some photos although they are hard to see the actual concave in the rail.
first I ever heard of Bob Simmons was the reference in Greg Noll's book. What amazed me was, between balsa and clark foam , he was playin with ply over EPS !!!!!!!...........................the original compsand??? more drinking from the well
And here’s the original Casper, mini Simmons #2, being ridden by Tyler Warren in the ‘Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables’ film that’s just come out apparently. There’s more over at the hydrodynamica blog.
I haven’t ridden the big balsa but it’s no small wave log apparently, it needs a decent wave to work as Simmons was designng for speed and distance. The mini Sims however, they just work!
It’s not right in front of me at the moment, but it’s got pretty flat rocker throughout…obviously a little bit of entry rocker. Down rails through most of the length until you start approaching the nose. Hard rails in roughly the back third of the board.
Hard to otherwise compare the shapes, but interestingly - the rails are similar to the rails on my Mabile twinzer.
