I’m shaping my 1st mini and this thing look fun!
keep it simple if it is your first shape ever, start with the right blank so you can get the volume-width and rocker…
pridmore is right. It looks like a tough shape- getting that asym nose just right.
Really I’m just poking fun out of jealousy. My ability in the water is about 6% of Dane’s.
thanks , yeah I’m leaning towards a 5’6" mini simmons. shoud be picking up a US blank this weekend and just trying to get a feel for the dimensions guys are using to choose the right one without wasting too much foam just hacking a log!
The standard mini looks like the most forgiving shape to start with and looks super fun to ride. no way I’m going to try and replicate what merrick can do haha
any tips on bottom contours and rails for a proper mini?
thanks
d
whats proper ? a traditional replica mini ??? ride one or a few mini type shapes and make any changes you think would be good for you and your local waves …
go forth and create ‘YOUR’ version, after all shaping is meant to be creative…good luck with it…
yeah proper like traditional replica, but I’m finding some more modern hybrids on here in the bar of soap/mini post that look fun too. I’d love to try one but I’m out of the water with an injury hence time to try my hand at shaping. also don’t know anyone that owns a mini to try. I’m trying to understand them as much as i can on here before i give it a go. other than a basic outline I know I’ll end up grabbin the tools and totally winging it based on what just feels right in my hands when i hold it. whatever happens will be fun I’m sure… worst case i’ll have a nice new piece of art! which leads me to dig around the next forum on how to do fabric inlays and resin tints!
thanks for the advice
d
Hey,
Might be a little late, but I am actually shaping a replica of one right now. I used photoshop to create an exact replica of the outline to use for my template from a picture of the sperm whale straight on.
I spent a lot of time studying this thing at a surfshop in huntington the other day. Bottom contours are pretty strange. Single in the nose, small flat section in the transition to a double concave to a high rolled vee fading towards the tail vee.
I have only cut the outline out at this point, but I will be posting pictures this week as I begin the real shaping.
If you have any other questions or need more explaining, let me know!
Looks to me like a “retro” deal, yeah/no? Simmons was a master of “planning hulls”. I rode plenty of Greg Liddle hulls in the day. Looking at the Dane video it appears that” once the board slows it gets “sticky” i.e. poor release from turns after the roundhouse slows things down. The photo’s don’t show the under fin area. It occurred to me that perhaps we have ignored the father of modern surfboards fine tuning. Also the rear potion of the template is strangely familiar to the “Velsy Bump board” which seems to help a lot with the @ speed vertical turn
If you are trying to advance the concept, you need more mass and any lift you can get.
Photo: Simmons, Quigg and Matt Kilvin (red) boards. NOTE concave on Bob’s. Most people think it made them go fast and indeed they did to a fault. However Mr. Simmons may have had something else in mind?
Mahalo Nui
