I’ve looked a little bit but haven’t found exactly what I’m looking for. I’m going to shape my son a board for Christmas and wanted to get some advice on dims. He’s around 51" tall and about 60 lbs. I was thinking of doing a 6ft single fin egg. Not sure on width and thickness though. Is that size okay or should I go bigger or smaller? I saw a pic kensurf posted of a 6 ft funboard for his 6 year old which I believe was 6’x18x2 3/8. Should I go bigger for my 9yr old? Any thoughts,ideas, comments are greatly appreciated.
good point, he needs to be able to carry the thing, my son wandered home at age 9 with a 5’10" beat to piss single fin and asked if i could fix it for him to learn on----5 or 10 hours later he had a learning board. it was thick and flat and turned out to be a real wave catcher—i think it was called a WaveHog by some builder up on long island NY…next board i got him was about 5 inches too long but thin and speedy----how HE ws the wave hog! make sure he can carry it and catch waves–then watch out!
do it! he’ll probably learn to surf in a smooth, stylish way on that egg. hey, when we were that age we were totin’ around heavy longboards-he’ll do fine…
Thanks for the input guys. Haven’t 100% decided yet but I’m picking up the blank later this week.
Start him on a little single fin. Small doesn’t have to be an egg like lee said. He will learn to surf properly and smoothly on a small single. It will force him to learn how to surf on the rail rather than off the fins. Or put in multi boxes so he can grow into the different styles.
Thanks for the input guys. Haven’t 100% decided yet but I’m picking up the blank later this week.
Start him on a little single fin. Small doesn’t have to be an egg like lee said. He will learn to surf properly and smoothly on a small single. It will force him to learn how to surf on the rail rather than off the fins. Or put in multi boxes so he can grow into the different styles.
That’s exactly why I want to start him on a single rather than a thruster. Putting multiple boxes in is a good idea. I was looking at the shape of merricks msf or something like that…Would you recommend giving it a wider tail? Like some of your singles I’ve seen?
Heres a few i did, one for a friends sons and one im working on at the moment. The one with my boys is a 5’1" pill.I forget the exact measurments and the other is 5’0" and i can get the dimensions if your need them. I pretty much decided on nose, mid, and tail widths and slapped a couple longboard templates and made them work. Pretty flatish boards with moderate late nose kick and flatish tail kick with 50/50 rails… pinched at the tail. Sorry for the repost and quality of pic. Hope it helps…
If the latter, I would say a 6’0 is too small, especially if it’s chippy. I know because I made one (a 6’0 scaled down Takayama Egg single fin) for my 11-year-old son, and it just didn’t have the volume and stability. He even had a hard time just sitting on the thing. And this kid has been swimming competitively since he was 6 years old. But he could paddle and surf a 6’4 fish that was 21" wide.
I second the go longer and wider. I made a small board for my son (9 years old at the time) that was shaped similarly to the pictured ones. He was at the point that he could take off and trim pretty consistently. That board set him back for a long time. I would recommend something at least 7’ and 20+" wide. I would put in soft rails so the board doesn’t pick up too much speed (it freaked him out).
Starting with an egg is a real good idea IMHO. I’d go 6’6"x15.5"x20.75"x14.75". Give the board modern rails a nice gentle nose rocker and about 2.25" of tail rocker. Put a very slight vee in the tail and make it 2+1. Start him out with a nice flexible single fin and then let him put some little side bites on when he’s ready. You could always set it up as a convertible if you’re so inclined. I’d go about 2.625" for thickness. If you put a tiny bit of concave in the entry it’ll catch waves more easily and have a little bit of a longboard feel. Oh, and go with a thumb-tail.
If you want a little more progress shape go with a “Seed”
Thanks for the input guys. Haven’t 100% decided yet but I’m picking up the blank later this week.
Start him on a little single fin. Small doesn’t have to be an egg like lee said. He will learn to surf properly and smoothly on a small single. It will force him to learn how to surf on the rail rather than off the fins. Or put in multi boxes so he can grow into the different styles.
That’s exactly why I want to start him on a single rather than a thruster. Putting multiple boxes in is a good idea. I was looking at the shape of merricks msf or something like that…Would you recommend giving it a wider tail? Like some of your singles I’ve seen?
The cool thing about a slightly wider tail for the kiddies is you can keep the nose a bit narrower and the shape closer to what they will likely be riding a thruster/other configuration when they get a bit older. I would go abot 5’ x 12 x 19 x 15. x 2.5 double bump swallow single fin box with side boxes. You could also go with a round tail. The kid will be smacking the lip within six months if he wants it. I agree with whoever said…kids pick it up quick. Also girls pick it up quicker than boys at most any age.
