First post, hopefully first board

General Discussion
1

hi everybody,

been searching and reading a lot in the swaylocks forum, wow! there is a ton of knowledge shared for free here, inspiring! 

so… decided i want a new shortboard for me an average surfer, this is so far my approach

a- been riding a fun board but its aging, cant duck dive and tryed a friend’s shortboard and got stoked

b- want something custom, easy to paddle and for not the best waves in the world

c- want to do it myself, blanks available here suck, shortboards made by locals dont fit my idea of a shortboard for an average surfer and cost like if it were shaped by big names

since came here learnt what a sandwich vacuum bagged surfboard is, thank you Bert and the other guys. never saw this technology here in Uruguay, so the effort will be put on trying to replicate the same kind of “compsand”

talking about shape, you can name this post as the “yet another post about a white diamond copy”

there are a lot of posts talking about the white diamond shape, the pros, the cons, how its been around for years… i’d like to avoid that here.

there is something i just like about this board

i would like some advice about the outline, profile and the famous single deep concave placement and depth. been playing some time with boardcad and here is a draft based on collected photos from the net and some dimensions found here and there. 

outlineprofile

I have some questions

1- how deep is deep for a single concave? 

2- start/end positions in the board for the concave?

3- what exactly are “full rails” ? (mind sharing a pic?)

 

many thanks in advance

rodrigo

2

  Good start, much better than mine.

  Tail might be thick for head high powerful surf.  Great for mushy slower waves.  Rocker as is is good for slower smaller waves.

 1.  Nothing is set in stone, but a shallow concave generally provides better lift without stalling the board than a deep concave.  Maybe 3 mil max.

 2.  Again, it's not ONE set of dimensions.  Depends on how you want it to surf.  Mostly 6" from nose to wide point, or just behind if waves are really slow.

 3.  Look at windsurfer or SUP rails.  Those are "full".  General rule of thumb is, slower waves need harder edged (bottom edge) rails, while faster/bigger waves need rounder, softer rails.

  Good luck.  My first ended with over 420. 

3

  Good start, much better than mine.

  Tail might be thick for head high powerful surf.  Great for mushy slower waves.  Rocker as is is good for slower smaller waves.

 1.  Nothing is set in stone, but a shallow concave generally provides better lift without stalling the board than a deep concave.  Maybe 3 mil max.

 2.  Again, it's not ONE set of dimensions.  Depends on how you want it to surf.  Mostly 6" from nose to wide point, or just behind if waves are really slow.

 3.  Look at windsurfer or SUP rails.  Those are "full".  General rule of thumb is, slower waves need harder edged (bottom edge) rails, while faster/bigger waves need rounder, softer rails.

  Good luck.  My first ended with over 420. 

4

Hey LeeD, thanks for the comments man

I dont get much head high waves around, but would like the board to “hold” decent those days, do you think narrowing the tail and adding more rocker should be safe? Maybe for a second board I can tune in your idea, like having something similiar but better suited for bigger surf

So 3 mm is something like intermediate depth for the concave? I mostly read that a “deep” whatever depth it is tend to generate more lift at the expense of making it harder to go rail to rail, on the other hand Mr. Weiner went for it? Maybe being a “shorter” than your average shortboard should compensate for this?

In other threads people were suggesting the single to double to vee over a single concave, but then again why the single concave formula seems to work well in the white diamond.

thanks again

Rodrigo

5

  Well, generally, a shallower concave provide the extra lift without slowing down the board, like a deeper concave always does.

  The V in the back half of the board is to provide rail to rail ease.  The more V, the faster the waves you need.  Go shallow.

  More rocker really slows down the board, adding easier turning, but if you don't get a direct swell with long periods, a flatter rocker will perform much quicker and snappier.  Thickness helps catch the slower waves, as the tail lifts and you paddle downhill.  Thickness is limited by what you can sink on a turn, so it depends on how you surf more than body build.  And thick wide tails turn fine, if you apply the power and you stand far enough back, and your fin sizing is big enough.

  You made a really good template, so you should be able to shape pretty well.  Just delegate some time for your first 3 boards, then you can speed up and do the 45 minute specials, once you dial in the blanks.  It's not unusual for #1 to take over 5 hours to completely finish and sand to 120 grit.

  A board is all about compromises, so whatever you do in one direction helps there, but hurts when the conditions are polar opposite.  Get that first one out there, in the water, ripping the waves, then figure out what changes to make it better you'll implement on your next one.

6

amen, hopefully soon I’ll have the place for shaping

7

  Yeah well, that's always been a problem.

  We can rent a shaping room at  a surfboard making shop.

  We can use and destroy the garage, to Mom's dismay, and need to clean it every step of every board, and still make a stinky mess.

  We can partition off the garage with clear vinyl from hardware stores, and contain some dust but not the fumes.

  We can build our own shaping rooms in the backyard, out of mostly 2x4, and cover it with 1/4" ply, and use sliding doors to slow the dust.

  I've done them all.