Hey Gang…Its been a long time since I posted.
I’m thinking about shapping a 9’8" EPS GunLog with 2.0 foam…
Its not really crazy huge surf, just overhead beach and pointbreak surf, that comes in quick.
As kooky as this sounds I would rather “overgun it” so to speak for those days that I’m just sitting way out.
What do you suggest for nose rocker?
Thanks in adance
-Basswave
Just a personal opinion after having spent the last decade testing out HPLB’s for use in bigger, hollow beaqchbreak, from 9’0 to 9’8.
Low, progressive rocker with ample tail rocker the key.
When you jump to your feet going over the ledge and weight the rear rocker, due to the fulcrum effect the rear rocker lifts the forward area, making plus nose rocker ( which tends to plow) unneccessary.
Some mild single to double concave to straighten that bottom rocker out for enhanced water flow, good to go…
9’ 8’’ Gun
Nose rocker- 4.5’’ min, 5’’ max
Tail rocker- 2.5’’ min, 3.5’’ max
If I were making the above board for me, to ride in big Calif, and small Hawaii, I’d have 5’’ NR, and 3’’ TR--------13’’ nose, 21.5’’ wide, 12.5’’ tail, to a 6’’ square tailblock. Fin 7 inches deep, with a thick foil. You’ll have all the fun you can handle.
lcc — is correct concerning the rocker on such a board. What you seem to be describing is a 9’0 progressive longboard that is pulled in a bit and can handle larger waves. A shaper I Supply shapes a model up here in th Pacific Northwest that sounds similar. His customers do ride it in larger waves. The problem is the 2.0 EPS. Without the proper stringer you will snap a board like that in overhead surf, sooner or later. There is a lot of BS posted on the site about flex patterns, “spring back” etc. But the simple truth is that Poly is more likely to buckle than snap. Poly does not spring back to where it started. Hence more buckles than snaps. On the other hand EPS springs back to where it started nicely. The problem is than it takes less stress to snap EPS. The solution to the snap factor in EPS is a proper stringer. After seeing a lot of these boards snap up here in Oregon we settled in on a “glue lam” type stringer of either 2- 1/8” or 3 1/8” Basswood laminated together. The other problem with a board like you are describing is weight. Hard to make the drop when offshores are blowing that EPS back off the top. Even harder to plow thru boils and chop on the face. You need at least a little weight. That’s automatic with the proper Poly blank. You have to work harder to get it out of EPS.
Thanks Folks…I appreciate this.
Even in my Rusty EPS boards, I tend to go double 6 deck 6.4 bottom…
I like that soild feel and all that glass around the rail.
I talked to Roger Beal and we are thinking about going with this blank.
https://usblanks.com/catalog/guns/106ax/
This would be a thick board (like finishing around 3 3/4")
I’m not sure when we are going to get to this but we this winter for sure.
Basswave; I would like to suggest that you look at the 9’9"A for 9’8" final shape. Also, natural rocker is really important for bigger waves as there is no “step” in the rocker to catch on the drop. Bill’s dimensions are really good. You can do a single, quad or thruster layout with that shape. All of the newer “gun” blanks have a nose kick in the first few inches but are really around 5" nose rocker (old school). I would also shape a little “vee” (more like a belly at the rail) into the first 24". Just my 2c…
those kind of board need to be heavy. if you start with a “light” eps blank you will have to put lot of glass+resin to have good weight, it’ll cost you lot of money even more if you use on of those pricey molded blank. you can keep money with an hotwire generic blank. you can do utlra strong board without traditional stringer, i made big guns for heavier european waves without stringers that had many years of use, but for your board and traditional shaping technique, a stringer wich keep the blank stiff is necessary while shaping and glassing.
all in all, for a log, pu/pe or epoxy would be the best compromis for me.
This might be where a heavy innegra layup could come in handy.
No need to over-do or over think. If it’s Poly and a true gun(not a log gun); make sure you have a decent stringer, the rocker you think would work and a solid glass job. Watch some recent footage of 2019 Mavericks or Jaws. 9’6 thru 10’6. Pretty normal guns with Quad fins.