I just shaped my first board (a 5’7" pod type board) with the help of the guys at greenlight and now I’m ready to move on to the next one. My cousin usually rides a 5’8 mayo keel fish but asked me if I could do something a little different for him. I came up with this outline (5’8 x 20 3/4 x 2 1/2):
I want to do a quad, which should give a little more speed to compensate for the pulled in rail line. My primary question relates to bottom contour. What bottom contour would you suggest, keeping in mind that the board will be ridden a range of NJ conditions? My instinct is to just keep it simple and go flat to moderate (1/4"?) vee out the back, but what do I know?
That looks like it should be alot of fun, esp. if you keep the nose and tail rocker relatively mild. I made one similar (also NJ) but 6’0" and a touch narrower. Mine was single concave to flat in the tail. If anything, I would have added a touch of vee in the tail to help initiate turns easier on steeper waves.
So if I were you, I’d go with a mild single concave (max 1/8") starting at about 1 foot from the nose and transitioning into a vee starting at the leading edge of the front fins. Keep us posted on how it turns out.
I was thinking the same thing; the vee might help in bigger conditions. Still trying to visualize how single concave to vee would look (and not to mention how one might actually go about shaping v…)
I would transition your single concave to flat at the leading edge of the front fins, then start the vee there. I like to have the single concave deepest at the “low point” of the rocker and reduce the depth of the concave as you get closer to the nose and tail. The logic is that the single concave “straightens the rocker” for more speed when the board is gliding flat and paddling.
Shaping a vee is relatively easy (compared to a nice symmetrical concave). I use the planer and do cuts progressively shallower from the rail toward the stringer, and each cut gets progressively shallower as I go from the tail toward the front of the board. I reduce planer depth continually as I go from tail toward the nose, zeroing-out the depth as you approach the flat transition area to the concave. Then I blend and smooth the cuts with a hard block to sculpt the Vee. Then use a softer block to blend everything together and make sure there aren’t any harsh/abrupt lines or transitions, particularly in the area where the V blends to flat.
But do a search as there are much more experienced folks on here giving good tips on shaping vee and concave.
The concaves I have not tried so no help there. As soon as I do mine I will let you know how it worked.
But the vee panels are not difficult to shape in. I just marked the bottom end of the boards top
end corners and made a mark. 1/4" is prob more on the hard end, so try maybe an 1/8"or more, and blend it in to about just above the twins, or even as far a third if the board!up to you. I’m going to try it. Use your sureform, I kinda stand behind my blank and angle the sureform at a angle and shape it in, but you can speed it up with a planer as well. Just surform and sand out the rough spots to finish. I would go with a moderate vee at first. Go deeper at back, shallower towards the front.but the vee will make a flat bottom board a bit looser.
What I found helps is to imagine the rail as if it was accentuating your rocker, it j
ust drops from the front to back end of board. It helps.
I think a flat bottom may be an unnecessary feature of this board if the reasoning behind it is to create drive and speed in mushy or gutless beach breaks. As swing knows I’m shaping a very similar board so I’m interested in any advice some of you masterminds may have to offer…
Im no expert shaper… pretty damn far from it haha but my feeling is that such a full shaped quad, with wide nose and tail, and pretty parallel rails , will have a ton of speed/drive to begin with… especially if the entry rocker isnt too nuts…
so maybe some single to double concave action may be a good idea?? from what i gather it will make the board a bit more responsive and generate a bit of lift?
Luckyzero- I’m no expert either, but you’re right about the low entry rocker being faster. I know this to be true because I shaped a board with too much nose rocker and it pushes water in slow slop conditions… But what I wasn’t aware of at the time was, too much rocker equals slower. So if you want fast, adjust the nose and tail rockers to flatter curves. Even then you don’t want to go too flat. Flat to vee can be loose and fast. Atleast in my surfing exp. Flat without features is prob atleast stable. But hard pressed for rail-to-rail type surfing. It will be more of basic surfing. It’ll still turn well if the rocker is right. But w/out features it is just won’t be as easy to tip over a rail is all. But I see some folks prefer a flat bottom for their own reasons. I don’t…
I took some notes on concaves online from a expert surfer/shaper. He says start a bit shallow on your concave 12" to 20" inches from the nose going gradually deeper in the middle, and deepest forward fin area, and out between fins fading out shallow to Vee. So I geuss the vee blends into the concaves.
Thanks Greg. Yes, I glassed it. The cage is where I keep Catherine, ha-ha…
Actually, I built this “cage” when we got DJ (our beauceron shepperd, for those who don’t know). I also bought a nice niche and he was supposed to sleep there. After three nights of moanings and barkings, we gave up and he’s been sleeping inside the house ever since… Anyone wants to buy a brand new niche and a brand new cage? Little used, great bargain.
all the boards look sweet, i have made quite a few for myself now. Low rocker single to double concave with a small stinger behind the front fins to pull in the tail. Also put the fins close together like a reverse twinzer style. Makes it feel like a twin fin but can handle better. 5’6"x 20"x 2 1/2" eps no stinger. fun fun in anything up to 3’ (hawaiian). I’m no pro just for the love
I have made I guess 20 of this style now and form my experince single to double or single to spiral vee works the best for me. The spiral vee is a little more smooth and the S 2 D is more high performance. I have a bunch of new resin jobs and boards but my camera broke
