Fourth board build thread. (now with video of the board in use)

General Discussion
1

I’m considering giving myself a (semi late) graduation gift. Luckily this summer was decent, so I probably didn’t need a longboard. But I want one still. The thing is, I’ve never owned a board longer than 6’4". I’ve been looking around at some things. Shaping it myself, of course. Should I go through, it’ll be my most complex, challenging build yet, mainly because of the size. I’ll try not to be too wordy.

First, about me. 22 years old, 5’5", 120lbs, in good shape, decent surfer. Not gonna win a contest, but, I can do cutbacks and turns, gotten close to airs. Light footed, enjoy sliding around through turns, that sort of thing. Long time skateboarder, easily can do airs and 360s on those. Unsurprisingly, I mainly ride shortboards, mainly a 5’4" and a 5’5". But I also have been enjoying my 6’4" single fin. And all the surf edits I have bookmarked are longboarding. I think it’s awesome, which is why I want one. Also, it’s getting towards winter, but it’s not big barrels all the time. Hoping this will be awesome in clean, but smaller waves with some nice wind blowing the appropriate direction.

What I’m looking for out of this? I just want an all rounder, slightly focused on tip time, for general NJ surf. I’ve asked on here before and people suggested something 8’ to 8’6". I’d agree that a 9’ board would be a bit much for me. I’ll likely keep it in calmer surf, or clean surf, and save the winter barrels and such for shortboards. I’m not opposed to trying my luck in bigger, cleaner surf, but I can’t see such a big board doing well on steep takeoffs for me. I’ve ridden a longboard once ever, many years ago, so I don’t have much too go on. I enjoy loose, sensitive, wider boards that are easy to relase the fins. but obviously that’s for shortboards, not an 8’ board.

Here’s what I’ve come up with. Influenced by some stuff I’ve seen on here (you guys kill it), the almond pinwheel, v bowls and other boards of this shape.

8’4x22"x no idea yet.

Blank: hopefully the (apparently?) new US 8’4" SP. It’s in the latest catalog off their site. Seems like a decent blank for what I’m after. I’d just try and use as much length as possible on it. It’s not a huge deal if I net an 8’3" or something. I see the 8’9" Y too. Should just take my shape out of the middle and flip the tail and keep the shallow nose rocker?

Outline: I figured I’d make the back resemble something that I might be able to turn, and the front resemble something that might do well when I move near the nose. I comfortably cheater five my 6’4" with a pointy nose, no concave or anything. That’s got a 15" nose, so I’d imagine this would work fine with appropriate rocker. I think the light hip, wide back shape might help me do something other than go straight. And maybe the striaghter section from the wide point to the nose won’t be so bad in trim or when I’m near the nose. Pintail for sensitivity. I’m light footed, used to skateboards and little surfboards. Might add some width to all dimensions, but keep the same proportions.

Rocker: I don’t know. Probably gonna kick the tail a bit, but not too much. Depends on the blank, but I don’t want to push the rocker towards any highly specilaized shape. More gentle rocker sounds about right. Definitely gentle through the nose. Like I said, if it’s not great in steep drops it’s fine. I have shortboards. Most of my boards have gentler rocker, though, even my hpsb. I like things loose and skatey.

Foil: somewhat thin? I’m 120lbs, this will have enough paddle power and volume for me no matter what. I’m thinking just keep enough volume in the nose to aid noserides and I’ll be good. Doesn’t have to be razor thin, but, I don’t need a barge/SUP.

Rails: no idea. Hard in the back, rounder near middle, same at the front? I know there’s various ideas on round rails at the tail, other rail shapes on the nose.

Concave: I’m thinking of a single in the nose for some lift, flat in the middle for simplicity, and vee off the tail for a tiny bit of suction and rail to rail ease. Nothing extreme. Would the teardop, spoon type concave be a bad idea here? That seems highly noserider specific. This is my 4th board. Still not trying for the single to double to crazy spiral v 6 channel combo. Taking it slow.

Fin: boxed single, of course. I have a 7.5" 4a, but that’s probably too tiny. I’ll look into that when the time comes, if it comes. I ride that all the way up in the box in my 6’4". 

Mainly I’m just wondering about that shape. General use longboard worthy, or is it totaly goofy? Is wide point back a bad idea? While design is important, I think most things of this sort will noseride to some extent when coupled with the right rider, which I hope to become. It doesn’t need to be the greatest noserider, just accpetable while not sacrificing other things too much. So any input is much appreciated. Thanks for reading.

2

Looks like tail and nose are backwards, to me. Is the tail wider than the nose?

I’d go 17 nose and 15.5 tail. Flat bottom downrail nose, but no edge. same in the tail, with a good edge from the front of the finbox, back. My longboard is an 8’0" I’m 5’10" and weigh 145-150. I can noseride mine with ease, as well as knee paddle it.

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Tail is 15.25", nose is 16.5", so the tail is skinnier than the nose. The wide point is back though. Not back like a pig, but, back nonetheless. Not sure if that’s a great idea or not?

8’ you say. Maybe I’ll just lose a few inches and take it out of this 8’4" blank. 

And that’s what I was thinking for nose rails. Down, but not right angle hard. That would be better than round rails sucking it down. 

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8’ 0’’ x 22’‘, WP@ 38’’ up from tail.     N  16.5’‘, T  15.5’'.      Pay attention to SammyA’s suggestions.       You’re getting close to overthinking it.      Keep it simple.       At your size and weight, I’d slip the width down to 21.5 inches.        But, that’s your call.      Go with what you’re comfortable with.

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Here is a board I made a few months back on the 8’4sp blank for a 130 pound rider who is still growing.  I squeezed all the length I could out of the blank and copied lines and rails off of a Bing and a Cooperfish that were handy and this is the board that resulted.  8’3   Tail 15    Nose 17     Wide Point 22 3/4        The 8’4sp blank is perfect for this application.

 

 

 

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OK. The outline in your drawing appears to have a squared end on the right, so I mistook that for the tail. Do you intend to do a squared off nose?

 

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I made my 8’0 with that blank and I love it. This board turns loose and trims well-I never even use my noserider (9’2) anymore. Dims are 18 x 22.5 x 15 WP mid. I use singgle concave in the nose to flat to deep doubles/vee in the tail. Reading how you want the board to ride, I would put bottom contours on it, as a flat board will probably be pretty stiff. My board is 3 1/8 thick, but I’m much bigger than you, but I would still look at a thickness somewhere near 3. About the fin-I use a 7 3/4 fin and it really does make the board turn well. I’ve experimented with a longer fin and it really does make the board stiff. When the surf is knee to waist I ride it as a single. Waist to chest I put in the side bites if it gets steep and fast. Rocker dims are 4 nose and 2.25 tail.

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Nice boards guys, and great to hear this blank is perfect. Liking the green/yellow one dcasey. 

Unsurprisingly, I listened to mr. Thrailkill and Sammy and it looks more like what I was after. 8’ long, 15.5" tail, 16.5" nose, wide point is 38" or so up from the tail. Never realized WP was all the way back there. I’ll definitely consider flat bottom, hard rails at the nose. Less for me to mess up and nice and simple, which is good.

I do intend to keep the block nose. That’s how I’ve done noses in the past. But if it’s a bad idea I’ll round it. I just like them. Done them on my last two boards, no complaints. These are shortboards though.

Those are numbers three and two, both with blocked noses. Side note, best time to photograph your boards is definitely before an early surf, especially in the fall.

Edit: I got a blank, so, I guess this is a build thread now. Progress will go at whatever pace I do. I got the blue density 8’4" sp. 

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“And that’s what I was thinking for nose rails. Down, but not right angle hard. That would be better than round rails sucking it down.”

Not sure I agree on this. You will occasionally see down rails in the nose on LBs, but they are the exception, not the rule. I would stick with 50/50 rail all the way thru. If you are a fan of downrails, maybe in the tail, but to me that is more for LBs with side-bites.

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While I gather info and such on the details of this board, I’ve also gathered my blank and a template.

My new blank next to boards 2 and 3. This will get a similar 04 numbering on it.

Template that isn’t as rough in real life as it looks here.

Also, is knee paddling like a desired trait of the board or something? Pardon the kookness. I’ve never really been on a board that could do it. Is it faster or something? 

 

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Take a good look at Dcasey’s board, that will be a fun 8 footer. Should be loose yet the length will give it great paddling. I like rails that are more down than 50/50. 70/30 or 60/40. I go with rails up to 80/20 and I like it because the boards are faster. If the rails are thicker (flatter deck), I’ll make them more down like 80/20, if they are thinner (more crowning in the deck), they can be more towards the 60/40 side, but always with a tucked edge.

Here’s a shot of my latest board 7 x 21 x 2.5. The board has a tucked rail starting about 18" from the nose, the tail has very hard down rails. About 4.5" of nose rocker, and 2.5" in the tail. Wide point is forward of center for a more drivey style of surfing. Single fin for now. Stringerless Blue Dow styrofoam cut into rocker slices and rail channels to give it extra strength (also stiffness).

Sorry for the bad shot, I left it in my car to post cure it in the hot Hawaiian sun.

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Here’s my opinion. Take however you may.

If you own a board that floats well enough to knee paddle, then you should. I see so many longboard owners who do not ever knee paddle and I think it’s silly. In fact, if I see a longboarder who does not/cannot kneepaddle I automatically assume they are a kuk.

Knee paddling isn’t necessarily faster. In fact, it’s harder to catch a wave on your knees. The purpose of it is mainly to switch muscle groups when you paddle. Prone VS knee uses a lot of different muscles. This allows a longer session without onset of ‘spaghetti arms’. Other advantages are: being able to see better when paddling out, being higher out of the water and thus drier. One thing I enjoy about it is the view you get. You can see what’s underwater as you cruise. It’s good for distance paddling and you can glide at a leisurely pace once you get the hang of it.

I can knee paddle my 8’ 0 faster than most folks I see prone paddling on a 10’ 0. But, I attribute that to my doing it for 50+ years.

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I’m more of a tucked edge down rail person too, I guess. I was thinking along the same lines as you said, since that’s how I’ve done rails in the past. I start the tuck near the nose too, and continue that through the center. Then I fade it out into a nice hard edge somewhere in front of the fins, and that runs off the tail. I believe that’s fairly common practice. Greenlight let me take some EPS scraps, so I’m gonna do a practice rail band and foil to see if the numbers I pick give me something that looks right. I saw some longboards in person today too, so I felt the rails to see what was going on with those. 

Also, excellent cure method.

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One thing about that particular blank, the 8’4sp:  You could take that blank, trim the ends of the stringer off, and glass it as is.  It would be a hell of a board all on its own.

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Longboard rails… I have a great 9-4 HPLB that has 50/50 rails along the mid section. They have a nice small diameter though so they aren’t big thick 50/50 rails. That board works great so the 50/50 rail doesn’t seem to be a bad choice. I think it’s the whole package, length, rocker, thickness of the rails.

I don’t consider an 8’ board a longboard, but for me at 5-6 it’s my prefered length for a longer board. I can turn it like a shortboard, but it paddles so much better. I try to make them more performance oriented, so I like flat bottoms, maybe a slight concave under the nose, and the tucked rails. I’m also going thinner from 3" in the middle down to 2.5 and thinning out the rails, ending with a hard edge along the tail. I made a 7’ egg recently that was only 2" thick then I added a 1/4" of balsa on the deck. It paddled fine, but it has very little rocker, so it’s more for small waves.

At 170 lbs, I have a hard time knee paddling my 8’ boards, but they are all about 21" to 21.5" wide. When I was 155 it was easier, but know I have a bit more girth around the mid section and I can’t get my arms nice and deep like I can when I paddle prone. I’ve been riding the short boards all summer so right now I’m going to try 7’ boards and see if they can be more of a one board quiver. If it doesn’t work out, I have a bunch of 8’, 9’, and 10’ boards. I just need something that a 56 year old, 15 lb overweight person can use and catch waves when most breaks are full of people less than half my age, and many are riding 9’ or longer boards. 

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That is somewhat how my rails are constructed. I bevel the front of the nose into the single concave, then it goes 50/50 into the entry rocker (ish) area, then it is 60/40 to the side fins where it has a hard edge just in front. I’ve been experimenting with this hard edge putting it anywhere from a couple inches in front to just at the rear of the side fin.

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I’m 120lbs so I’m fairly certain I’ll be knee paddling this out to the lineup. 

So, today was my first day ever using a planer. It went… the blanks still in existence, so it didn’t go too bad. I watched some videos and had a go at it. Gotta start somehwere. It did successfully skin and reduce the thickness a bit. I think I’ll take a bit more off the deck tomorrow. It cleaned up nice. I can’t complain.

Yeah… I tried. I appalud those who are so skilled with these things. 

I also applaud those with dust catcher systems. I cleaned it all up though.

Requisite shot when doing this. I cleaned up the planer lines too.

Not bad. I think the nose is slightly asym, but, I’ll fix it tomorrow or something. It gets dark so early now. We should just stay with the other time. Longer evening surf sessions. 

I sort of have a pact to try something new each time I make a board. Last time was stringerless/carbon fiber. This time is concave. I did attempt a sinlge concave in the nose, and this is my first concave. It’s actually not so bad after I finished it up. It’s single through the nose, blended to flat in the middle. Thinking of doing vee in the tail. Maybe, maybe not.

So yeah, today went decently well. I planer’d, made concave of some sort and it seems passable. I’m happy. Not the most precise work compared to some guys on here, but, it’s only my fourth board. Also thanks for the advice and discussion. 

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Good job with the concave. I would difinitely put v in the tail-it will turn much nicer. Are you going with a single fin or 2+1?

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I’m thinking single. Gonna try my 7.5" 4a fin, and if that doesn’t seem right I guess I’ll have to buy something else. 8’ board, 7.5" fin. seems close to being right. 

Got some work done today. On to the pictures.

Testing some rail band dimensions on scrap eps greenlight gave me. Thanks.

I did them with the planer, first time trying that. Soooooo much quiker. 

Did this with the planer, hence the slight crooked look to them. It all worked out though.

Going to stress that it was my first time with the planer…

Creating a 1/8" tucked under edge on the bottom. I like them like this. 

Fades out to a hard edge at the tail, about 14" up or so. That seemed reasonable. I could always make it rounder. 

Getting somewhere. Needed screening and such.

This is near the middle. They’re low, low apex, little tucked under edge but pretty hard still. That’s how I seem to like them. My other boards have it.

This is more towards the nose, before cleaning them up. I kept the tuck under hard edge profile all the way up. 

I decided to vee the last foot or so. This is my first vee, and this was before cleaning it up a bit. I’m pretty happy with how it came out. 

I gotta clean up the nose and some other minor touches. What I want to do is step awat for a day or two, then got take a look after I’m not as… blinded by stoke. I’m pretty with how this is coming out. Then I’ll finalize the rails and little things, and I’ll probably notice things that look fine today and will make me wonder what the hell I was thinking tomorrow. 

Cue dramatic lighting.

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Well It’s 60 degrees so, I had a chance to get this done.

It’s not as yellow in real life. The creame orange type colors are really white and shades of pink. This is kwik kick epoxy on normal density US blanks polyurethane foam with 1 layer of 6oz glass.

I’m happy with it. This was my first attempt at anything of this sort. That’s a lam up there, under some glass. Hoping it’ll all go away in the hot coat.

And doing that was a hell of a lot of fun. Can’t wait to do the deck. It’s getting 2 layers of 6oz.