DESIGN: 6'2" shortboard for steep/walled up NJ breaks

I completed this and thought you guys would like to see pics. Everything went as planned except for concaving. I had it where I wanted before glassing but it filled in some. I think the epoxy may be pooling. I was careful to level everything before the pour so at least it’s even, but a little flatter than I had hoped. I was going to try to sand to fix it but thought that would be a bad move. Also, my first build had too much epoxy overall so I started using more pressure when squeezing the lamination down, so this board has a thinner shell overall, and far lighter. I wonder how easy it will ding. Either way, it’s certainly an improvement for me compared to my previous build, #2. As mentioned, the jump from 7’6" down to 6’2" was a lot for me, and it will be a while until I can ride it with confidence, and I hope to feel the difference that the rails and bottom contouring make. Big swell coming tomorrow, so we’ll see how it goes. First image was taken after lam/before final coat. Second was taken after fins went on. Thanks folks for all the help. I learned a lot and my builds are taking less time which is a relief.

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My son got invited to surf and film with Jamie Obrien and Ben Gravy on one of the best winter days we had here in NJ last year.  I went along to shoot.  Jamie was riding a Tokoro.  I’m pretty sure it was the model X3.  He was riding it a little taller than his height.  I’ve got to say that besides the fact that he is an incredible surfer his board was performing better than almost anything I’ve seen anyone ride around here.  Jamie has his boards for hollow surf very dialed in whick let him take off and ride deeper than just about anyone I’ve ever seen.

 

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My son was riding his go to board which is a Sharpeye HT2 which has been a model that has performed well in hollow surf from NJ to Hatteras.  I would say my son was a little under gunned for the conditions wearing a 5mil wetsuit.  Jamie’s boar actually had a lot of volume in it which was a little surprising to me.  Extra volume and a pulled in tail would have helped my son for sure this particular day. 

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Jackaroe, congrats on a job well done, and a beautiful board! Do you think that’s enough glass to keep those fins on??

Mako - congrats on your son’s invite, that’s quite an honor. Both those guys have great vlogs, and were up for surfer mag vlog of the year (Jamie won). Jamie is a pretty big boy, maybe that’s why the extra volume? Nice shots too!

You did a good job.  Looks like it will do it.  But as I said;  You had a good design to begin with. Yes O’Brien is damned good.  Nice if you got a chance to run your hands over his boards. Probably all CNC’ed and dialed in via changes made with a mouse.  Easy consistency.  It’s nice when a guy comes back to you and wants to make changes that will dial in a shape.  Especially nice if a shaper can do it the easy way.  Ben Gravey’s name may be something to laugh at, but not his Surfing.  Isn’t he from back there in your neighbor.  He’d got a nice sponsorship from Hyperflex/Henderson.

Hi Huck, the two main points I gathered from researching this in the archives was: (1) two biased strips on either side is quite strong and superior to fin roving, (2) when fins breaks off it happens at the intersection of fin bottom edge and board top. Counting my 6oz that covers the entire fin and extending an inch to deck + the two 4oz biased strips, the intersection has a total of 14 oz of fiberglass. Those three layers run in different directions. One post in the archive asked if 5 layers of cloth is enough and he was told its far too much. Of course, the last thing I’d want is to break a fin, so if the general consensus here is that 16 oz is not enough, I’ll do some more work on it. 

Thanks for the compliments. It’ll take me a while to grow into this one, it’s so twitchy compared to my single fins and feels like it has a small center of bouyancy. I’ll look into Bens boards. I also just visited DaveSky and was impressed. And about CNC, Im sure it’s a great tool but I started this hobby to get away from technology.