fill in the blank

a surfboard will tend to _________________ with an extra wide and extra thick tail.

 

Catch waves easy?

same as "He who likes beer"

ok, cool. i broke my 9.0 off at the skeg box and i just can not stand to throw it out with the rubbish... i am going to cut it down to a 5.4. the tail is going to be about 22" wide if i do not reshape it. (i am going to sharpen up the rear rails with resin beads.) wadda y'all think? fish tail? half moon? diamond? hack it off straight?

Disclaimer: I am an absolute novice.

I had a 9’0" that I shaped down to 6’0" last year.  I hacked off the rear 3’ and pulled it in to an egg shape.  The issue with this board was that it felt like a I was riding a see-saw.  Riding often felt like a constant battle between pearling and stalling, there was seemingly no sweet-spot for trimming the board.  I suspect this was due to very poor rocker and foil for that planshape.  Just something to consider.  You can see my failed rocker here: http://www2.swaylocks.com/forums/just-finished-my-first-board

If you’re talking of a traditional 9’0" longboard and you cut it @ 5’4" from the nose, I imagine you will have to ride it with your feet side by side (instead of one on front of the other) for the board to work.

If you would like to be able to ride it as you normally ride other surfboards (one foot in front of the other), I suggest you thin out the tail area a little bit, so that you can sink it into the water enough to be able to turn…

yep, thats what i think too... i am leaning toward hacking in a wide fish tail to cut down on volume in the tail.

if its still "corky" in the tail i plan to thin out the rocker in the tail a bit more.

any suggestions on where my breaking point should be? i think thats what its called... the spot where i should start thinning out the tail. a third up from the tail?

i'm trying to stay away from excessive reshaping and glassing on this one. i will start reshaping if it sucks the first time out. 

i know i'm not going to get a magic board out of this project, i just want to learn some fun lessons.

 

thanks for sharing your experiences huskell!

disclaimer: i am an absolute kook ;)

i have never shaped or glassed a board in my life...

this hack job is just a quick fix for a need to be creative.

did you give that board another go in better conditions? it LOOKS like a fun town board to me... but like i said, i am a kook and do not know exactly what i am NOT seeing.  

I did try it a few more times,  it worked “better” in mushy stuff but not good enough to continue taking it to the beach.  But, rocker is variable from one 9’ board to the next so you may well get better results.  Any chance you could post a picture of the foil on the board you plan to shorten?

Agreed. A picture will really help this creative process.

the bamboo stick is at 5.4"

some wax on the catch of a cheap tape measure will save some sanity... 

yep, and i DO want this to be a mushy stuff board. kahana bay mushy stuff specifically.  

OK.

What I had thought.

This is a pretty standard longboard, with a standard longboard foil. (Please mind, I am a shortboarder, so please excuse me all of you longboarders for my “standard” descriptions of the board. No sacrilege intended.)

The nose thickness thins out significantly when compared to where the bamboo stick is. If left “as is”, the tail will float so much compared to the nose that the board will pearl/nosedive every chance it gets.

Reshaping the tail would help very much with that. Especially thinning out the foil. That applies even if it’s made into a fish-tail.

Now, I got this idea: You could make a very cool single-fin by using the whole piece of board you’ve still got and making a round pin tail. The alteration needed would not be so difficult as the 5’4".

If the 5’4" is the way to go, then ask away whatever you need to.

Actually, I’m probably undertaking a similar project in a few weeks. I’ll be reshaping a T&C 6’4" x 3" x 19 3/4" into a… probably a 6’0" with a rounder nose. The board is massive for me, and I think I might make it more maneuverable with that adjustment. I’ve only surfed it once so far and didn’t have a “magic” feeling, so let’s see. If I do it I’ll post pictures to trip a little bit.

Saludos!

das a good idea castrillo.

 

i was actually contemplating like a 8.0 with wings using the existing tail as you mentioned. there will be much less reshape that way.

 

i am just aching to get my hands on a board that is as tall as i am that i can actually paddle at age 41.... (i do not get to surf everyday anymore either and i am not in the best of surf shape) 

 

i have no space to glass this thing if i do a total reshape... i dunno, maybe i will try the 8.0 with wings and if it sucks i will whittle it down to a 5.4 with a proper foil and rocker.

 

mahalo my friends.  

also, the break is right on the skeg box. i tried to have it fixed by a trusted ding guy up pupukea, but he said, "it ain't worth what i will have to charge because sooner than later there will be too much flex". will i have to re-glass the entire bottom of the board to solve this issue? or can i just put some biscuits in it?

and when, prey tell, will i stop trying to make a silk purse out of a sows ear...

You could make a fin, or buy it, and glass it on…

That would require less new glassjob than a new fin-box installation.

However, if a new finbox is to be installed, then the bottom would need to be reinforced with fiberglass before the new box’s hole is routed into the re-shaped tail.

I’d be happy to help you in a step-by-step, whatever you choose to do.

Saludos!

Strip off all the fiberglass, use the nose as a tail and reshape the thing the other way around converting the nose to a tail and the broken area to a nose. Has been done before many times and it will be a great learning experience because you will have to shape everything from scratch including the rocker. If it fails, well you didn’t ruin a new blank and the thing was broken in the first place.