6’6" x 22" wide x 2-3/4"
That turned out nice - I want it! What fin you gonna put in there?
Like the old hot rod guys that will build a car around a part that they scored, I have built these boards around a fin that I have had for a looooooooong time.
The Dobson 8" is pretty close. I am open to trying other fins if anyone nearby me wants to have me try something different . I have a few I have yet to test ride. Its old and ugly, but so far this one is still holding its own.
Hey Ace,
Luv those concaves…
My last name is Dobson, what can you tell me about the fins history?.
If you were to notch a V into the tail , you’d have a board with an outline close to a tOmO…
Hey kiterider, that would be my buddy Dale Dobson, one of the best surfers to come out of California ever, on both long and short boards. Dale is an amazing surfer, who can surf both regular,and goofy foot, and while in his sixties, he still rules the line-ups when he is out. He’s right up there with people like Nuuhiwa, Corky or Frye. He works at FU. Too bad you don’t know Dale the guys the real deal in the water. Dale Dobson is the man, and if you don’t believe me ask Jim Phillips…
Used to see Dale hanging out in front of Phils "Select Surf Shop" all the time '69-70. Of course in the water as well in the general vicinity. Dale didn't drive at the time and was sponsor poor. So although he was regarded by alot of people as being the best surfer in Calif. during that era; He didn't get the publicity and magazine hype that others did.
‘’ He didn’t get the publicity and magazine hype that others did. ‘’
I too was there then. There were a lot of really good surfers and shapers in the SD area who were overlooked by the media’s. We, oop’s have I gone too far, did not really care because they knew it was all BS even back then. Everybody just wanted to surf.
Back to fins. The Rainbow “Costa Azual” and Tudor “Papa Joe” are also good representations of this style fin.
Back to the board and fins; I've always liked that "Papa Joe" fin. I like your shape overall. Especially the "Diamond Tail". Another San Diego thing. I'm just not big on double deep concaves like that. I prefer soft V or single channel. Just personal preferance. Let us know how it surfs. You could probably surf it without a fin.
Geez, Ace,
Those are beautiful lines on that board.
Nose and tail about 18 3/4? Pretty much the same dims I’m thinking of for a fish blank I have, but thinking single channel/quad set-up for small, clean waves in the Strait. (Loooong, narrow swell window when it works.)
Funny, I was thinking the same thing as McDing, wondering what it would be like without a fin just for fun.
Thanks for posting.
Something looks funny in the forth picture.
Hm…the stringer is lined up crooked with respect to the shaping rack, so it kind of makes it look asymmetrical (?)
What that shot makes me think of is visualizing what kind of turn you might get out of it, (the vee and diamond tail) wondering if you’d get a subtler version of the effect of the old, original hot curl tails.
‘‘Something looks funny in the forth picture.’’
Sorry that my hand held wide angle lens snap shots are not perfectly set up and centered.
I know that I have taken another step away from the current acceptable normal surfboard. Is that what looks funny? I too was a shaper behind the BIG name for years. I have retired from shaping as a living, I do still make one to one customs because I still have the shaping itch, and have the luxury of surfing really good uncrowded waves for months at a time. Just me the wave and the board. Funny how your surfing changes when there is no one around to impress. That has allowed me the freedom make what the waves and the foam {or Balsa down south} tell me to make.
I really resisted taking the V panels I have used for several years to the point where they started to look like concave pods. I had gotten away from “Bonzer” bottoms, which I had shaped thousands of if you gotta know, and have made a couple of these. The feedback has been very positive. They have a smooth fast rail to rail flowing kind of ride that does not require a lot of unnecessary gyrations to make a wave. The slash and burn one big “sick” move guys probably won’t like em. But I like the feel of the ride.
The first ones were Quad fins and they work good. The one fin is something I really resisted BUT it works really well with the style of ride these boards have.
The “funny” thing to me is that while shaping the “Bonzers” guys would come in with boards they had removed the “runner” fins and swore the board rode better with out em.
There you go Mr. Rat. Have fun with it. I was a professional shaper for over 30yrs and grew up at the beach at a time when you had to be pretty tough to be a Surfer so I have a pretty thick skin.
As far as SD guys, T. Ortner has always impressed the hell out if me every time I've watched him surf. There was a shot of him dropping in on a big right, mid face and turning, all from the front third of the board. One of my favorite surf shots of all time.
Another classic SD surfer. Some pretty good footage of Ortner in one of the early Bystrom films. I think it was shot at either Windansea or The Lobster Lounge. He shaped his own the last years, but also rode Hynson shapes for a number of years. There was a quote in a mag interveiw once where Ortner stated that Hynson told him; "We're gonna shape your boards like a roll of toilet paper" . I assume that means one at a time, but one right after another.
Yea… neither one of those tail shots are from straight on. That’s what makes it look “funny,” I think.
Do your concaves have edges? It looks like they’re hard edged in the tail, then start to blend and fade as the concave perimeter rolls in toward the stringer. So the water sticks to the bottom of the board as it flows tailward?
Hey Ace the board looks bitchen, and I am messing with you a bit. What makes it look funny is the balance against the racks, and that’s it. Haven’t you ever picked up someone’s board, or looked at their board, and made a comment like: “this rail is thicker”, or “is that a bump or a dip right there”, yeah that stuff really twists a shapers mind. And yeah, the joke has been on me quite a few times; sadly, at times they were serious…
it’s all good. I felt honored to be ‘’ Ratified’'.
Most of the guys I shaped with and knew had WICKED senses of humor and would tear each other apart about twisted boards in adds etc, It was a tough group. But it kept you on your toes. One thing I never believed in was knocking someone else’s stuff to take work away from them. Face to face good natured ribbing in the same room or Baja camp-outs anything was fair game. If you could not hang you did not belong.
ace,
got a original greenough, "low ratio high aspect flex fin" that would go perfect with that board.
clean volan and all.
herb
Like to try the fin I think we have some distance between us.
i travel to i.b. from time to time.
my big bro still lives there.
o.b. is on the way.
doggies is my favorite break in those parts(a sucker for rivermouth breaks,thanks to the t.j. sloughs,seal,newport,etc.)
i was also putting together a volan fin sheet just for greenough type flexers in various sizes.
will have to do some testing,ya!
if time permits,give me a couple weeks.
i'll......ah........make it a short term goal.
i could one these days.
herb