So I’m about to shape my first board. Purpose: Jersey winter; shelfy moundy waves that race over sand bars and turn into death pits. Rider: 6’1’’ 170 (+4/3full), surfed around and know what I want. My favorite board has been the Merrick Flyer for years. I ride it 6’4" and in tufflite now (its weightless… I know, i know) The board responds great, but gets hairy in over head surf. The board I am shaping for this winter will weigh in at 6’6" with a wider round tail. Its gotta get up and go. I’m thinking a V off the tail, but I was wondering what my options are as far as the rest of the bottoms contours. (single to double, single all the way, totally flat, etc) what contour does what?
Oct
PS: I want this board to ride fast and responsive, with lots of drive down the line in overhead, variable surf. I’m not trying to screw with the Flyer, its still tits. I need the winter transition board
What blank are you using? For me, a lot of what I do on the bottom depends on the rocker…
I surf and build boards for here year around, too… and for my performance shortboards for typical winter, head high range surf (which is what we get 80% of the times there’s a decent swell), I like a single all the way, or a standard single to double. I think the vee bottoms should be reserved for semiguns, retro fish, and longboards. So at 6’6", your out of the semigun idea. You want a board for winter surf that’s still a performance shortboard. For something that’s (1) your first board, and (2) suitable for local winter surf, I’d go with a single concave all the way, with flat behind the trailing fin. Fast and responsive. Simple shape. Works great even when it’s overhead on set. But for the macking, solid, winter,8-10 ft. surf, I’m grabbing something bigger - like a 6’8 rounded pin or a 7’2 fungun.
But if you want the vee off the tail, you could go single to double concave, to a soft vee. (Maybe a mini swallow tail?) A little more challenging to shape and glass, but it will also work in thick winter waves. For a looser feel, extend the single and shorten the double. For more drive and speed, extend the double and shorten the single. Keep in mind that a wider tail isn’t really ideal in bigger surf, unless your looking at some kind of Nugget type thing. Bigger surf requires control, and slightly narrower tails provide that. So does vee.
For the ledgey kind of waves you are talking about, I like a pointy nose, around 11", 6 inch nose rocker, concave starting early, about 12" from the nose. I like the concave to end about 18" from the tail, it should be flat there. In those last 18" I like a 1/4" V with a tail rocker 2 1/2 to 2 3/4". It’s all about catching the wave and getting under the lip. Forget the concave through the fins, you will get too much lift in the rear and you will pearl.
Make sure you have enough foam under your chest. When you push-up, you want to make sure that the board doesn’t sink! If the board bogs at the take-off, you will loose speed, and go flying over the edge with the lip.
I like a clean rounded pin for the flow. Remember that you aren’t trying to turn on a wave like that, just get under the lip with speed.
i am also starting my first board for winter surf. my 6’4 fish is great and rocks until like you said anything head and above then it gets sketchy. good luck with your build let all of us know how it turns out.
single concave to very very subtle double between fins then flat out the tail, 13 7/8" tail, 11" nose, wide point a little behind center. I surf those conditions all winter that is my go to board when the 5’10 is no longer enough(my friends and I all are younger 17-22 with an outlier at 28) we are also all smaller than you and riding 6’0" to 6’2" in maxed out NJ. One guy is your size and he rides his 6’0 squash in those waves.
Assuming we’re talking about performance shortboards here, my answer is… double concaves provide lift, particularly from the wide point back. But they also produce more drag, so they need to be pumped from rail to rail, especially in mushy surf, to get them to do their job. Single concaves, particularly from the wide point forward, flatten the stringer rocker, making wave catching a bit easier and the board in general a little faster. In short, concaves are not thought of as control features.
Flat bottoms don’t need to be pumped from rail to rail to achieve maximum speed, while complex concave bottoms generally do. But flat bottoms on boards built for bigger surf can have issues with control, due to the fact that they plane higher… they get hairy at high speeds. Vee, or any other displacement feature, allows the board to sit lower in the water when on plane, and this provides more control than a flat bottom. The same line of logic applies to tail template shape… wider tails have more surface area, and plane higher. Pulled tails, like pins or rounded pins, or pulled tails with mini swallows, allow the tail to sink deeper into the water, providing more control.
Hey oct i surf and live in jersey too im having trouble finding a blank to get shipped or local pickup where did you get yours from? online?local shaper?..?
My current all purpose larger day winter board is this:
7’6" 2 7/8" thick
N 11 1/8"
W 19 3/8"
T 13"
round pin with not too thick boxyish rails
2+1 fin set up
about a 1/8" single concave that runs from near the nose to just in front of the fins then flattens out to just a slight vee behind the rear fin.
The board works really well except for this; Here at Ocean Beach S.F. when its on the big side, the waves are usually slopey mounds that suddenly jack up and lunge at the peak. You often get shot out into the flat with a lot of speed as opposed to being able to slide into a clean faced wall. Any little mogul or backwash and it seems like I’m fighting to keep the board down. I’m thinking that there is so much lift in that concave at 19 3/8" wide that at high speed the board just wants to come out of the water. When I’m on a clean wall the speed is great but OB is necessarily known for clean conditions.
My recomendation on a winter board in wave like these is to omit the single in the middle to front half and instead go with a very slight vee in the front half and then transition to a single concave or slight double concave/vee out the back.
I don't know if you have the rest of your materials already, but if you live in Jersey, you should get in touch with Tom Mahady of mahady surfboards. He runs a shaping studio for Essence Surf, (not sure what the www adress is, but search essence surf) and Tom's the man to talk to. Plus he knows his shit. The guy makes his own tools and paints commercially, so he's pretty much got you covered whatever answer you need. I shaped my board in Tom's backyard. (Pics should be up for those of you that asked) If you live out near NY, he has a partner Gene who runs a full size garage with multiple shaping bays. Between the two, you have all sorts of blanks to choose from. And you could probably get a better deal from them if you felt like buying a few at once. Talk to 'Dr. SurfBoard and SurrealG'
rkved, I surfed OB on monday the 6th, which was pretty much the same as a big day in NJ throw in some jettys to make the waves focus on a smaller take off zone, and make it dredge a little more and knock out the mix swell. no way you need 7’6" on the east coast, paddle out is a 1/4 as far and the drift is nothing. I was on my 6’2" and would have been happier on a 6’0".
btw how does one get rid of your sand? it is really sticky.
Those guys are great. Very good at what they do, and just damn good people… Got me out of a jam when I was stuck for materials and a deadline fast approaching. They didn’t know me from Adam when I cold called begging for help, but they treated me like blood.
There was a guy who used to post here about semi-guns. See if you can come up with anything by searching posts by LeeDD. A lot of what he wrote about made sense.
here is Nick’s (aka Keanu Reeves) shaped board
