i just shaped my first board, a 6’7" hybrid egg. its a beginners board, 3.125" thick, 22" at the wide point, a couple inches up from center, and a 7" tail.(actual end of board, not 12" up) i didn’t modify the rocker from the clark 6’9"A blank, and i left plenty of volume in the tail. the board paddles and rides just fine, but when trying to catch waves, it seems to give up at the last second. i’ve had more experienced friends try the board and they say everything’s great except for catching a wave. i’ve searched the archives and found nothing wrong with my board. does anybody have an idea of why this might be happening?
small waves, usually less than 4 feet. i guess i was ill advised by my friend as far as the wide point location. what effects on the board does the wide point location have?
12 and 24 are within reason for your overall width, so you’re only 2" forwards of center…the only thing that could cause the hesitation dropping the face would be …too thick a nose area, forcing you to paddle from forwards, and when the wave picks up your tail, it also forces the nose rocker into the water, causing drag and slowing the board down just when it needs to accelerate down the face.
Try paddling for waves farther BACK on the board, to get the nose rocker out of the water.
If you keep the tail width, you can’t move widepoint back without major spinout unless you use side fins.
i’m using a three fin setup, i’m kinda new to all of this, so excuse the terminology, i think its called a thruster setup, and its got futures fins. could the wide point be moved with this fin setup?
As a safe general rule, tri fins need WP back about 2-4 " BEHIND center, as they tend to drag during paddling, hold in really well, and surf in a snappy manner.
Sorry, thought it was a single.
WP forwards keeps the tail IN the water, good for single fins which tend to spin out.
WP back allows the wave to pick the tail of your board up early, allowing you to paddle down the face, and get moving.
my tail very thick, i know that’s not an issue, and i think it has to to with the nose. there’s a lot of volume there becuase i didn’t have a spokeshave or curved planer, and got tired of taking it down with sandpaper. how would the toe-in on the fins affect this? like i said, it rides fine and paddles fine, it just kinda craps out between paddling for and catching the wave. i think we’ve got the answer, nose volume, but i’m interested to learn how fins could affect this. thanks for your help, by the way…
the giggle is missing from your wiggle ,try communing with the great spirit of Stoby the surfboard,rick griffin volume 0ne, the board has no faults your adaptation to the greatest surfboard of all time is not complete…spiritual guidance is imperative…this memorial day eve i impeach your left brain to allow the greatness of the collective mind to flow through you as the wave itself transits the inscrutable sea to you…this collective mind has all you may ever wish to possess as knowledge and do not, to access this resivoir relax empty your mind of expectations and just go…late, early, to fin, or not to fin, just ride the sucker and learn its unknowns beter than anyone ever could …by just surfin … as one to another… ambrose…allow yourself to be succesful
You thin a nose with a handblock plane, about 3" long, going across the stringer.
Fish’s catch waves because of FLAT tail rocker and width in the tail, which is much wider than conventional tris or singles. Fishes are conventional boards with the nose cut off.
Toe-in, if excessive, causes turbulence in the side fins, causing drag and slowing the board down. Toe-in more than 1/2 the distance to the nose is for small waves and vert performance, limiting trim speed and bigger wave riding abilities.
How far back do you thin the nose on a fish? I was under the impression that you should keep some thickness in the chest area. Wouldn’t thinning out the nose from chest area to nosetip screw up the nose rocker on such a short board?
Havaard - on my fish, I start to thin the nose around 14" back - mainly from the deck, only touching the bottom 3" or so from the nose so I get a little flip - in this way I don’t mess up effective btm rocker.
Just a thought, but how heavy are you Jeremy? - I recently made a fish with a friend that kept the volume all the way through to the nose ending up in a big beak - we were aiming for a retro summer mush destroyer that would catch anything. My friend’s some 20 lbs lighter than myself and a good paddler.
Weirdly he finds it more difficult to catch waves on than I do - it seems that the volume in the nose prevents him from pushing it down as he tries to catch one wheras I (with my extra lard) push it down no problem.
