I’m pretty keen to make a Laser Zap style surfboard. The whole performance single fin thing intrigues me. I was just curious if you can make one without a winged keel, ie just a standard single fin. Any other insights would be greatly appreciated.
No, you would be immediately arrested and hauled off to jail
Of course you can make any design you like. There might be problems if you make and sell boards using McCoys Lazor Zap name, in as much that you wouldn’t make and honestly sell a computer you’ve labelled as Apple.
Sure you can. But put a few extra boxes in case you aren’t happy as a single fin. And consider building it a couple of times and adjusting to what you learn each time
While I don’t copy and sell other people’s work, I’m pretty sure that for the most part every shape has been done before by someone. So whether you know it or not you are likely enfringing on another’s design.
Just to be clear: I’m interested in a Laser Zap style surfboard for my own use. This is not a commercial venture. I do not wish to make a copy of a Laser Zap, only to make a board in consideration of the design’s general design principles. My question was in regards to a particular element of the design; the winged keel, and it’s importance.
Basically I want to make a short performance single fin surfboard.
Pretty sure McCoy recomends no winged keel fins on his designs.
My mate has a lazer zap with the winged keel, he swapped it out for a regular fin and rides it a fair bit in good waves. Went pretty shit with the winged keel, in his words.
I believe that Cheyne Horan’s experimentation with the winged keel was a collaboration with Ben Lexcen and a number of other shapers (Terry Fitzgerald being one of them).
I don’t think that Geoff McCoy or his Lazer Zap design were involved/used - even though the winged keel board designs bore more than a passing resemblance to Geoff’s Lazer Zaps.
Others here who were closer to the situation may be able to confirm or deny.
Thanks for the insights. I was unaware that winged keels were not really part of the Laser Zap design! I’m going to make something around 6’ with a tear drop shape similar to the Laser Zap. I guess I’ll put a V in the bottom. Single fin. Cheyne Horan seemed to surf pretty good on them. Boards like this can spice up otherwise uninspiring waves.
I have one of those fins at first i didnt know wich way it ran so it was in my board backwards from age 11 to 13 then 1981 a m8 of my dad pointed it out when i told him the board hums when i go fast ( i used to think it humed because i was riping it up so hard ).
So we turned it round and the huming stoped and i went even faster .
If they didn’t have a lexon fin they had a big single because the tail was so wide .
Mine was a local coppy allmost the same but had chanels and the lexen fin it went great , you can still get the original fin new from dolfin co. The original one had lexen imbossed on it clear blue white red or black made of some sort of ( 1980s ) space age plastic.
Its probably beter to use the wing fin shanne was on top of his game .
http://www.mcsurf.com.au/products/starfin-also-known-as-the-winged-keel/24/1
Make sure the curvy bit go’s to the back of the board
I rode a starfin on a McCoy-type bottom and it was my least favorite fin for that board due to lack of drive. I think I might have liked it a fair bit better if it had 1/2" more base. I’m quite a bit heavier than Cheyne Horan was when he was competing.
I used one in one of my wider tailed boards. At first I did not like it at all. After some deep surf meditations I realized I had to change how I surfed it, drop my stance a little. I got it to work saw some potential BUT it was a major kelp catcher and that is not good where I surf. You have to adapt to it it does not adapt to you. In the end just another fin find what works for you and have fun.
For most of Cheyne’s time on the lazor zaps, he used long raked, narrow based singles. Mccoy called them finger fins. For an idea of the outline, look up the True Ames “norm flex”, it’s pretty close. But the McCoy fins weren’t flexy and carried thickness quite a ways up the rake. Very full parabolic foil.
Check the bottom contours very closely, there is a lot going on under the back foot: Multi-panel design.
Taylor’s right… The “loaded dome” bottom on those zaps was actually 4 panel vee blended into a soft roll… Tough as hell to replicate but that’s what made those boards go.
Cheyne gave a buddy of mine one of these boards with a super raked fin like the one in the picture. He ripped on it, my friend did too, maybe not as much, though!
Yup, what Taylor and Jim said above. Without that “loaded dome” bottom it’s just a big-fat-tailed single fin
I own a few of Cheynes boards and I would say the design dictates the ride.
I own a Martin Potter Minami from 89’ board and he’s are super flat in the tail rocker so the board has a lot of projection so you can give it a flick with the feet and it shoots forward. It looks like you’re flying along.
I had a Slater board with lots of rocker all along and I needed to keep it pumping to make it go and it looks like I’m working every inch of the wave.
I had a 82’ Cheynes Zap and because it’s tail is so fat it was hard to get it on a rail for say a cutback, the fin needs to be very long because when on the rail the fin base comes out the water. But when it’s really at an angle the fin pops out. In the end it’s easier to do the flat-spin turns tha the Zap is famous for.
The design dictates the ride.