Josh,
I’ll be up at Byron Bay for two weeks in late March probably - so I might come up and watch you guys toiling in the pit (if Bert gives me clearance to enter the facility). Thanks man, I will treasure this board - especially tomorrow, expecting 4’ at Flynns in the arvo!
Catch one for Wildy , then …his old stomping grounds !
and you may see my brother Simon out there if it’s good . [There , or at woolamai , otherwise !]
ben
that would be great
id love the measurments please pinhead
is the rocker pretty standard shortboard?
or a bit flatter
Very beautiful board! I cant see any joints In the balsa skins and that makes the board look even more beautiful. Are you using full length planks for your skins? are they much more expensive?
Jimmy yoshio shibata.
Yoshio,
Top and bottom skins are made of 4 long planks each. So only three longways joins are visible either side. A bit more expensive but less hassle.
Had another surf on this one yesterday. 3-5 beachbreak - high tide, a lot of water moving around with massive rips, a few good ones coming through, but everyone was spending most of their time paddling, the 5 footers were closing out. The board worked well, I could easily handle all the paddling, able to duck dive the big ones. The board definately gets in a lot earlier than any of my shortboards. On the bigger waves I could do big sweeping turns and could pump across sections. I had to adjust my timing coming of the top, but the board doesn’t hang. I couldn’t really find a sweet spot, the board seems to turn from anywhere. I was shuffling around trying to find a positive feeling spot for my back foot like on a thruster but couldn’t really find it. Shuffling is bad the board will track and take of on its own if you don’t keep engaged. Overall it does what I wants it to do - paddle and catch waves like a longboard but duck dive and turn. So I give it 7/10
good one pinhead
its cool giving some of those hasseling rippers a run for there money in the paddeling department. ha
and taking off later as well
7/10 is a good score
getting some sick waves by the way
i took the mini gun in some big fat waimarama and oceans closeouts.it was solid 4ft and the board worked well but i think it needs to be a bit bigger for it to be properly tested.had a few amazing surfs in the bay on the shorty as well
and more swell to come .sandbars are absolute bulshit
how bout you?
Hi Silly,
There’s always waves in Vic somewhere, now we are into these weather patterns where the wind is mostly from the SE to NE with a few days of very hot northerlys so the action is pretty much all on Phillip Island, Mornington peninsula - great banks but very rippy. I’ve been busy with work and family so haven’t been getting out much - School starts again on Tuesday so I’ll be taking a few flexys on weekdays. Where did you surf in the bay? Haumoana? Ocean can actually produce barrels but doesn’t have consistant banks, usually when its big and clean its just shifting peaks so you try to get on the end of one that’s peeling, and not get worked too often. But would be a good wave for the semigun at 4-6 though.
I love seeing boards being built and hearing how they ride , and what would be improved / changed …it’s what I learn from , and what makes swaylocks a good surfboard design forum , to me !
keep up the research Pinhead , and keep us posted on future surfs .
cheers mate !
ben
…I should post a few shots of this board to my brother Simon [if that’s okay with you ? ], so maybe next time you are on the island he could check it out firsthand [would you mind?] . Besides doing the surf schools teaching , he also works at Island surfboards , so maybe you will spot him .
Ben,
Sure send some pics to your bro. I get people coming up to me, asking me about that board all the time. What’s interesting is how poor their understanding of surfboards is, so many misconceptions.
I love seeing boards being built and hearing how they ride , and what ‘could’ be improved / changed …it’s what I learn from , and what makes swaylocks a good surfboard design forum , to me !
keep up the research Pinhead , and keep us posted on future surfs .
cheers mate !
ben
I should post a few shots of this board to my brother Simon [if that’s okay with you ?], so maybe next time you are on the Island he could check it out firsthand . Besides doing the surf schools teaching , he also works at Island surfboards , so maybe you will spot him .
Chip, would your brother be able to sell them through the shop , I wonder ?
cecil
Regarding the fin placement - initially I was going to set the fins at about 10". I got some advice from Shwuz - cuase I was inspired by his twinser egg, that his were set at 12".
I actually ran into the same problem with lack of drive on my board as well. It turned great, but it seemed like when I would try to drive it for some speed like I do on my keel fish and my bonzers it would just round up the face instead of generating speed. The nose of mine egg in more pulled in but the tail of yours is really quite similar. I messed around with a bunch of different setups (thruster, thruster with vector fronts, with c5 leading, futures FT1, with c5s, 7" futures “albacore flex”, with sidebites, with sidebites+c5s, 7.5" TK flex, with sidebites, with sidebites+c5) I wound up falling in love with the TK flex with the sidebites. It gave good drive, loose, positive feeling and fun!
Good luck with that, and for SURE let me know if you have any luck with a different twin or twinzer setup on it, I’d love to hear.
By the way, if I had an extra $50 waste on fins, I would probably try out the futures fiberglass keel fins.
Shwuz, I didn’t really have any drive problems in the more powerful waves. I think the board drives as well as any well rockered round pin would regardless of fin set up. I’ll probably put in a centre box and try it as a thruster for comparative purposes.
Cecil,
If only it were that simple. I think going into business selling compsands now, would be a serious undertaking that would take commitment and a fair amount of money.
You need to have a lot of things working right to be successful. Just with the boards themselves you’d need a superior understanding of the different properties of different combo’s of materials and construction techniques. So even before I made a board I’d be building samples and testing them – probably need to use a testing lab – might cost thousands. Next you’d need to refine your shapes, I’d have to build a couple of versions of each type of board for myself and then build a couple of versions of the best one of each for other people. I may be building 10 versions of each board – would need about 5-6 models to cover most surfers needs – so we are up to 60 boards just refining shapes. Once you get the shapes working great you’ve got to make them look great – more money on R&D. All the time you are doing this you’ve got to be refining your production methods to reduce per unit cost so you can sell these things at a price people are willing to pay. It’s a crowded market now, Surftech, cheap Surftech knockoffs from China, Flexlite, Aviso, Kolstoff, S-core, Resin-8, plus numerous other small start-ups, plus traditional boards made with EPS and epoxy. Consumers are going to be confused as hell about what all these things are and are going to gravitate towards known brands. Unless your marketing is very good (or WCT guys start riding your boards) you’ll get lost in the crowd. Sure you can build a local following, but then you are going to go up against local PU/PE shapers who will hang shit on your product at every chance.
Without serious capital behind you – I think the only way to do something like this would be to form a global collective of Swaylockers and tackle all of the above together. Collective R&D (both materials and shapes) and collective marketing.
well
awatoto has been looking like 3 ft
HT’S and overhead and crouching/standing barrels for the last 2 days with more swell on the way
i must say the funnest waves ive had in a really long time it really flares out even the little ones
the bank at haumoana is great but its been about 2ft there
still awsome fun though
a fella told me he hasnt seen a bank like awatotos for a really long time
you can take off get barreled do a few hacks get barreled
a cuttie and another hack step off board and walk back out to the peak .uncrowded as well Ha
i actually saw that big grunty peak at mornington(harold holts is it?) a long time ago
looks really heavy
i agree about oceans beach, any bigger than 3 ft and forget it
your gunna get eaten
Without serious capital behind you – I think the only way to do something like this would be to form a global collective of Swaylockers and tackle all of the above together. Collective R&D (both materials and shapes) and collective marketing.
wouldn’t that be a great idea , and use of this forum !
riding each others shapes , providing feedback , working together …
Hard I guess , with the tyranny of distance , and people’s busy lives , and own private ventures. The auslocks board going around oz , as well as the cali one , would give some indication …
cheers !
ben
Wow! I found some pics of Awatoto with Google Check:
http://www.isolated.co.nz/photos/view_photos.php?region_id=3&order=break
I can’t believe how hollow it looks. The whole time I surfed in Napier (about three years) I never saw a good bank at Awatoto. Which was frustrating cause it obviously picked up a bit of swell. If you get some serious swell - maybe a 6’ south easter in March - that semi-gun will come in handy.
Ahh now I get it, this one popped up on the same Google search:
They’ve been dredging gravel from Awatoto since 2002 - that’s what’s changed it.
OK, pinhead since I have started a small buisiness making balsa composite surfboards I want to be part of that global collective R&D…NOT much yet.
It has just started so havent any feedback from my customers(mostly friends) but they all now I’m new to what I’m doing and I’m not trying to rip anyone off.
I havent built that magicboard yet but I know that my boards ride better than pu/pe, at least thats what I feel. And I have had as many people as possible to testride my FIRST balsasandwhich and have only got positive responses exepct for one guy who was too lightweight for the board he said the board was too bouncy. I’ve even had a japanese pro to testride and he fell in love with the feel of EPS balsa combo and wouldnt give the board back that day. He came back to me later and asked if I could build one for him…I was more than happy to.
I am currently using 1.5 pound EPS to make shaping a little bit easier. Deck is 3mm balsa with 4 oz S over and under. Bottom is 2mm balsa with 4oz S over and under, and I reinforce the deck with extra balsa under the feet. I also reinforce finarea with extra balsa.
For perimeter stringers I use two strips of 5mm balsa for shorter boards and three strips for longer boards. But I think it’s waste to use 4oz S under the balsa but I only have one roll of S cloth so…
And I also think I can go 2mm deck and 1.5mm bottom when using 1.5 pound EPS. But I also want my boards to be durable so havent done that yet.
I vac one side at a time (bottom first) so the blank get a little stiffer and easier to shape.
Then when deck is shaped I vac on the deck skin. Sometimes when I hve a very flipped and crowned nose I have problems with cracking in the balsa or gluejoint. Guess prelaminating will solve this problem but more time achieving. So IF it cracks i fill with balsa nice and neat and you can hardly notice the cracking.
I dont like consumables so I nothing but a PVC bag and breather when bagging. I dont use any ecsess resin so dont have any problems with bleedthru. And I really like my breather wich is one of those spiral tubings made for putting several cords together works excellent.
I do my outsideglass by hand without vaccum, I feel like it takes less time to do it and I actually like handlayups. And sanding goes as usual but i think sanding is the most difficult part…I get sandthroughs now and then…how much sandthrough do you guys tolerate before going back to mix more resin to fill again?
Have attached photos of my shed etc…
Thats me to the left.
Enjoy, jimmy.
More pictures…
