As you’ve read many times, long time reader, first time poster and about to embark on my first surfboard. Well first 2 actually. I have purchased 2 6’ 6" KF blanks from www.surfblanksaustralia.com which I am expecting sometime next week. Now comes the difficult decision about what to shape. The 2 boards I am currently riding (I will post a photo of my quiver once I upload it) are a 6’ 6" swallow tail (the yellow one in the soon to come photo) and 6’9" MSF (the other yellow board in the photo). I only recently had a good session on the MSF and I reallllllllllly (like really) loved it once I had figured it out. I love how easily it picks up waves and once it’s in trim it’s incredibly fun. I bought it in Indo this year and really, it’s too big for me. The smallest board I surf at the moment is the 6 6" I mentioned and am ready to go shorter. I was pretty much thinking to make a shorter version of the MSF for the first board. I found a 6’4" rounded pin template on Greenlight and the outline looks really good to me, although with the conditions I usually get around here on North/North East Tasmania (windy, 4 foot, onshore/ strong offshore and dumping/perfect peeling and tiny) I think a single fin won’t work great and will perhaps go for a 2+1 set-up.
And then I found this:
http://bp3.blogger.com/…s1600-h/P1060834.JPG
and from behind
http://bp1.blogger.com/…s1600-h/P1060832.JPG
and I think this may just work alot more and take my surfing somewhere it hasn’t really been before. I haven’t surfed something this small, or a quad fin, but I want to go faster, and skatier, but not as loose as a twinnie, and want to be able to surf it in lots of conditions.
Has anyone had experiencing surfing a similar shape? Or even better, shaping a similar shape? I’d have to come up with my own template for this which adds to the workload but I’m sure I will manage. It’s pretty much a toss up between those 2 ideas, and the more conditions I’d be able to surf it in the better as I’ll probably take it with me as my one and only on my next trip. So, 2+1 MSF ‘ish’ type board, or something similar to the 6’0 Hanel Speed Egg? Any advice would be greaaaaaaaaaaaaaatly appreciated.
** so here is a link to a photo of my quiver. the main 3 boards i use are the longboard and the 2 yellow ones. i want something thats going to be different to the boards i have, something that turns easier and is a bit faster, but still fits in with my quiver - meaning it’s not too small for a slightly overweight and underfit bloke like me to ride.
http://findenjoyment.blogspot.com/2008/12/tools-of-trade.html
good shape man, maybe i would try a 2 to 1 set up with a longboard adaptor to surf it as a thruster at times
id go for a greenough style flex fin with a more upright stablizers
ive found quads a bit finiky and lack drive but i tried some of Larry probox “john Bellick” fins and they worked a treat with a thin tail and deep swallow, flat bottom
heres the shape i was talking about.i posted it on the slater thread as well
its 20 wide by 5 10
So the blanks arrived today. I was freaking out all day thinking of getting home before it rains as the guy that dropped them off said he would just leave them in the yard. Thankfully I got home to 2 perfectly dry blanks. It sure is weird pulling out the foam from the box, seeing what a surfboard starts as. Definately brings home the reality of the work ahead of me. I’ve decided to go for a 6’4" round pin using a template from Greenlight. Here comes the first of many (many many many) questions… Should I plane down the foam to roughly the thickness I want before cutting out the template? I’ve seen it done a few ways on here and as a beginner I want to go the easiest and most cautious way there is.
Well I started hacking into the foam today. For anyone else who is starting their first board and thinks they will skip some things, I will tell you 2 things not to leave out.
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A sharp saw for cutting out the template. Mine was blunt as it gets, and while it got through it was a hassle and I ended up cutting way outside the line meaning lots of work to tidy up.
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Buy a respirator!! Buy it as soon as you order the blank. Even though a lot of people wouldn’t use theirs for cutting out the template I was coughing and squinting for the full 2 minutes before I gave up and went and bought the respirator.
I’m not sure if I am entirely happy with it. I have pretty bad eysight to begin with but I can see faults all over it. I am not going to do anything about it until tomorrow with a fresh outlook, and wont adjust the template until I’ve planed it down a bit.
Speaking of which, can anyone in Australia recommend what sort of planer I should pick up? I had a squiz around Bunnings but I couldn’t find anything there. I know its there but that place is too easy to get lost in.
There are a few pictures going up of the template on my www.findenjoyment.blogspot.com … if you see any faults in the photo… let me know!
hey mate i skin the blank before the outline
just a cheap planer, weight on the blank
face the nose of planer to striner on forward diagonal
make passes lengthwise down the board from rail to the middles
this takes of a few mm evenly across the whole bottom and is how you get your thickness and rocker
make a long block with a peice of wood and spray glue some 40 grit
use that to clean up bottom a bit before tracing outline with a sharp pencil
cut with a saw and sit it in the stands on the rail and use the sanding block to true up the outline
shape your bottom edge 2 bevels with a surform, you dont even really touch it at the nose ( later with sanding scree)
flip the board and clean up the deck with the block
then use a surform or planer to cut the bevels on the rail
make the first bevel about 1.5 to 2 inches in fro the rail
and the second 3.5 to 4 inches from the center of the first bevel
then cut the next bevels on those bevels
then get a piece of soft foam and put a sanding scree of sandpaper on it and press hard as you run it up the the board in long deft strokes… this will round every thing off nice
then turn the boar up on its rail and cut a couple of micro bevels to get the rail shape
and then round them over with a sanding scree
