Hey…Same old story as alot of people on here, lurking for years. First time shaping with EPS, have a few poly boards under my belt. Home made 2.0 lbs blank with a cedar stringer. I had intended to make this a swallow tail. Was trying to finish this board quickly as the girlfriend was out of town and was trying to advoid the dreaded " Why do you need another board?". As you can see end up straighting out part of the tail outline. I have all ready shaped the rails. Would the outline still work if I brought it into a rounded pin. So if anyone can offer up some corrective action it would be appreciated.
Since the rest of the shapes are representedated already, I vote you round off the corners and edges, sand it and glass it with the wide squash and versa-plane fin configuration. What are the dims, though?
Quite a bump going on there (depending on what pic you look at). Actually the most optimistic view is the last one looking down at it as straight on as possible.
I agree with the diamond tail approach if you want to keep the entire length. Another approach is to cut it shorter and make a wide swallow tail. Yet another approach is to take masking tape (if you are good at pulling a true curve) and mellowing out the bump from mid point back. Yes this will result in a narrower back half but that ain’t my fault.
If you go the last approach (narrow tail), and you aren’t surfing Acid Drop or Cojo, you will need to look in the mirror and honestly access whether to go on an Acivia diet for 6 weeks.
From that angle the board looks like it could handle a full roundtail. Yes, again, a diamond tail…and your new redline approach (if you want to glass it).
Onthe red lines I would have the wing cut angle a bit more toward the tail. I would keep a pretty full curve in the outline behind the wing, and I would use your nose template to give the vee cut some curve opposed to a straight ‘dovetail’ cut…like a fish tail.
She’ll clean up pretty decent, but I still suggest the Activia for at least a month.
The diamond looks very retro…it would turn sharper than the round tail. The round tail would roll into turns…so if smoother is what you want then the RT makes sense.
And boom! You have made a good looking swallow winger out of what was a mistake. The swallow wing will get up nicely on a plane, the wing provides a forward pivot point, and the swallow looses area out of the vee notch allowing water to flow over the “dual” pintails…providing hold with the turning ease of a wider tail.
