Charlie helped me epoxy on the nose. Used a piece of balsa and two pieces of wiliwili. The wiliwili came out really nice,
Finally sanded down the nose. Should get the fin boxes in this week.
Griffin just posted one of your boards and short review on the other bulletin board
whatcha think?
got rid of most of mine
hopefully I can revive my GG quiver again
Hi Oneula,
Short review:
I like it.
Longwinded review:
I went to him asking for a board, that was shorter, i.e., not 7-8 ft, can handle 3-5 ft, and can also handle less than ideal conditions. Specifically shifty peaks, and a lot a current. I didn’t tell him what type of board I wanted, I just told him what I wanted it to do.
Pros:
He made me a 6’2" shortboard with thruster configuration. When I first took it out, It took me a little to get used to the extra volume. He hid the volume well, and when I lay down on it to get ready to paddle it doesn’t feel corky. I feel like it just fits. I really didn’t notice much of a difference until I surfed it a bunch, and realized my wave count had increased. The board has a really good rocker. It isn’t too flat, or too curved. I have actually paddled into waves, which probably sounds silly, but I mean I have made a bunch that I would normally be too far out for. There hasn’t been any consistent 3-5 ft surf, but I was out at Kaikos a couple weeks ago, and managed a couple nice 3-4 footers. It worked great. The waves were 50% wind swell 50% south swell, it seemed, and were coming in all over. Having his board really helped in those conditions. Interestingly enough, I have been surfing it consistently for the past couple of weeks, and have surfed some relatively small stuff, like some waist high, and it was pretty good for those also. It is a pretty good all around board, especially since it came with a set of fins made specifically for the board at a really good price. It is now my daily driver.( until I finish this balsa board:) )
Cons: None really. I still like my 5’11" firewire unibrow, for particular conditions, since it has thinner rails and a little less volume. When the waves come in just right for it, the board flies. But then again, the Griffin board is better in the conditions I surf daily.
I hope the review doesn’t come out as too biased, but I was pretty happy with the board. Now all I need is a something for > 5ft :)
your review seems about right
been a Griffin design convert for almost a decade now after seeing one of his 5 fin boards in action at my local break surfed by a friend.
Speaking of bigger waves boards, I had a 6’8" custom step up thruster he made me that I sold on consignment last year (kind of out grew it)
Most of his other boards(and they were truly his) I sold while recovering from my appendectomy in 2012-2013
Its weird but the best griffin to this day in my opinion was the original fish he made me in 2004/2005 that my brother now rides.
5 fin with super flat rocker but the thing just flys once you get in.
I have several 6’4" 5 fin modfishes and I have ridden his rockets, thruster longboards, high performance 5 fins, even a twin back in 2005
but my brother and I are still in love with the very first boards he made us these super flat rockered 5 fin fishes.Mine was 6’2" and his was 6"
Other than the crazy Gemini’s I discovered just before, they were the only boards that let us “mind surf” them. That’s is you see, and you do with no extra thinking or energy required. Plant your feet and just go anywhere you want on a wave at what ever speed you need to get there. No spinning out and no loss of power. It’s like my VW Turbodiesel Sportswagon, step on the gas and you just blow by traffic, close outs, and other tricky situations. It really turned me on to the notion of riding something extremely short, wider and flatter than I would normally ride in head high to double overhead conditions. The five fins, full sharp rails and flat bottoms have been an inspiration in most of my homemade boards along with the Gemini quad setup in others.
As I got older, fatter and more out of shape , I had to switch to other designs like my new soft 8 channel bottoms and assymetricals(anything to help) , but I am still looking at adding one of his 5 fin longboards and his new ultra short and wide felix tri-quad thruster to my quiver one day.
And yes I have a Firewire Potatonater that’s fun but its no Griffin 5 fin. Funny story is that I bought the first twin fin fish Firewire put out and it rode like your typical corky EPS buoy but I then took it to Griffin and he made me two custom G10 keels set way back like his normal twin design and the board smoked. But after getting my Griffin fish and a custom balsa fish from Shwuz, I traded in it to Barnfield for a more traditional alternator design. I thought their pump and flex was the best until I discovered the Surflights the cadillac of flex boards.
I think this design you are playing with (Tomo Nano) falls in the catagory of short, flat and wide(relatively) with a stright rail line for acceleration.
Don’t know about the paddling, which I heard sucks with the Vanguards but its the direction of where things are heading.
Wahoo! Great start to a weekend, got some ‘hurricane’ surf Friday , and laminated my board today. Can’t wait to get this in the water. The wiliwili wood really popped out with the epoxy.
Got a hotcoat on, ad reached my limit of working on this board. Time to take it for a surf.
Thanks Charlie, Oneula, and Sharkcountry. Charlie thanks for showing me how to put the balsa on, amongst other things. It really made the board, Swaylocks thanks!
nice first one Jason
and welcome to the foam wood skinning club
with 1/16-1/8 out shells
these last a long long time
aslong as you don’t get water intrusion
to blacken and rot the wood
nice jod
i’m sure you’ll get allot of compliments in the lineup
i recommend using the lowest setting that allows you to cut the foam cleanly…
higher heat equals higher chance of snapping the wire.
Thanks, Oneula. It is amazing how much a difference it makes to have someone, i.e. Charlie, help.
I took it out for a spin yesterday, for a real quick session, and it was pretty awesome. Paddles pretty well. It took the best parts of my firewire unibrow, and green board, and combined them. It turns super easy, and goes right where I point it. It also came out really light, which I was surprised given all the glue I used. A nice compliment to my griffin board. Took some adjustment, though in changing boards. Going to take it out again tonight.
Any recommendations on preventing water getting in the balsa?
Thanks for the tip Chrisp. I am getting ready to start on a grom board for my friends son, he gave my boys a bunch of legos, and grabbed my one son from their pool when he got a little adventurous and jumped in. The kid is probably 95 lbs but rips. Going to do another split blank, and try 5 glue lines since I am going to do possibly no balsa and need the strength.
“Any recommendations on preventing water getting in the balsa?”
need to control the pinholes you can’t see
sealing with a super xylene thinned out epoxy coat will fill the micro pinholes
what Silly(Paul) did was to do a baste coat of slightly thickenned epoxy into the wood pressing it in hard with a squeege
then lay the glass over that to saturate
Don’t know what Sabs did but his boards were bulletproof and light too.
wood ogre used a roller glassing technique and also sealed his wood before glassing.
Bert infused his skins in a homemade autoclave (heat/pressure) to seal all the plant tubes in his wood skins before adhering them and glassing. This kept the resin absorbtion down during the glassing phase to keep the weight down Paul did it for the same reason. It’s called pre-treating your skins. I think Huie knows a little about this too.
But charlie believes in keeping things simple from a production standpoint as a one man operation he keeps things easy for him. Imagining him wood skinning Blane’s stand up paddle boards all by himself blows my mind. but he’s been doing that for over 10 years with no local recognition here. One of kind in my opinion.
Inspired by Huck’s post, here is a review after surfing this board for about a month, 2/3 times a week, in anywhere from waist high sillyness to OH+. I will do another review in a year, or after the winter.
Part of the motivation for this board, was I really like my firewire unibrow. It is 5’11", and it does most the surfing for me, as long as the waves are big enough. What I mean by that is that I have made drops that I didn’t put much thought into, I just make them, and I don’t try. The board naturally works. I have tried other boards, that will be too thick and I end up going prone, or just not making it. I also like to run it as a quad, yet it still turns very snappy for me.
When the waves get really good, and there is a little current, I can only last about 2-3 hours before I stop making as many waves because I get worn out from paddling against the current. It also requires me to be in a very limited area to catch the wave. My goal with the balsa creation, was to make the unibrow able to paddle better for when the waves get bigger. So far it has done that. The idea of having the real wide front part, i.e. like chopping the nose off a board maybe a foot longer works well. So far no pearling. The second board I made was basically the same outline but with a wide tail and more nose rocker. The new board is much better in bigger surf. I liked the wide tail when it was under shoulder high. For bigger, the round tail works well.
Now in small mushy waves it is not much fun. I can still catch them but it feels like the board is sleeping. I think that is from the soft pinched rails(or whatever the right terminology is) , from in front of the fins to the tip. Interestingly enough, it has the same feel as the unibrow in that I make drops fairly easy on bigger waves, and the board stays stable, and goes down the line. I would like to make version 3, by making the tail thinner, bottom rails sharper up to midway. I have only been surfing it as a quad, and it goes well, although harder to turn then the firewire. Might just be my foot placement.
Also another interesting observation, I have been running a set of the futures arakawa blackstix upfront, and they hum on the bigger waves. Kinda like the board is happy.
I am curious if I can make the board longer and a little thinner yet maintaining the same design to handle powerful 6ft surf. It is a rush to ride these smaller boards in pumping surf. They are easy to duck dive, and going through white water isn’t as difficult.
If you guys have any ideas on how to use this design as basis for a semi-gun, please comment. Scaling it by something like boardcad, would not work, as I think it would need to be not as wide, and almost maintain the same volume, just spread it out over a longer board.
Done ramblin’