my guess is that with more crack (but not so wide) may be you can obtain more “individualistic” moves; I mean, one pin at a time, instead of the tail as a whole
I 'm digging that fish. Looks like great fun. Did you make the fins? I don’t like leashes either. Unless I’m going to kill someone or the board is going to be destroyed the first time I lose my board. Or, things are looking and feeling sharky(get dragged underwater for five miles giving the f…er a flossing).They do go faster without it! My advice is to follow Mike D’s advice regarding butt cracks on fishes, of course. Mike
Hey the thinner tail advice is great, and well appreciated Mike. Want to get back to shaping boards asap and as the first will probably be ‘fishy’, don’t want it to be ‘corky’ as well! Another one for my “Swaylocks bookmarks” collection…
Janklow - I remember those Burton Winterstick snowboards he says was were an influence for that board. Holy cow!! I can just imagine the stress and flex on the tips of that surfboard if one were to crank a hard turn and really get it on edge. Question is, would it give you some spring coming out of the turns, or would it give you mush on compressing and entering the turn?
I didn’t make the fins, I made a template of the fin and sent it to Marlin Bacon at 101fins Co. and he made the fins.
MikeDaniel,
I was surprised how thick the tail was once it was glassed. Prior to glassing I actually thought I had thinned out the tail too far, the thing was just so dam flexy once I cut out the crack. I was even told by some experienced shapers, “Make sure you thin out the tail, and then once your done thin it out again.” Lesson learned.
Halcyon,
I don’t know how Marlin makes the fins, but they are foiled on both sides. I wanted to take “more” advantage of the flex/twist of his bamboo fins (I have a quad Lokbox set for my speeddialer) and I thought that by decoupling the trailing edge from the board I would get more flex.
We will see how it works as I haven’t had a chance to surf the board yet. I picked her up from Moonlight last week, and then we had that swell that this board wasn’t designed for.
So the fins and board are of the same family of thought that Rasta’s boards are. I was just wondering how much of the fin appears to be wood and how much is glass/resin.
The depth of the cut of a swallow tail and the amount of cutaway made in the base of the fin both create more flex as they are increased. The amount of flex you get also is directly related to the type of resin and foam that are being used. EPS and epoxy both give more flex than polyester and polyurethane.
The thickness of the composite is the first and most important variable when it comes to producing flexibility.
Most of the base of you fins (about 85%) is connected to the board. I’m thinkin’ you’ll get a little flex out of the trailing edge but that’s about it unless the top and tips of the fins are foiled out pretty thin. How do they feel when you torque on them with hands?
The fins are thinner than the ones (Ghepharts) on the board that I modeled this one after, and they definitely have more flex.
I wish I had seen the fins on Rasta’s board before making my template. I think that the fin template on his board would better match the flex characteristic of Marlin’s bamboo.
When I put the bamboo fins on my Speeddialer I really noticed their forgiveness in turns.