The new board I made from recycled packing foam has been a real fun board. Took it out today in windy just overhead surf and I was amazed at how it’s working. I had quite a bit of squirt out of turns both from the bottom and top, almost as good as a multi finned board. So far, I’ve ridden it in small windy, small clean, just overhead clean, and now just overhead but windy. It has worked well in all of these conditions at 2 different spots. The biggest drops were probably 6 to 8 foot faces and I haven’t had any issues even taking off in the lip. I’m sure this board will handle the biggest waves I currently ride. If I stand on the back third of this board, I can really push into a hard turn. It has a lot of rocker, a continuous curve rocker. I have to move up to get it through the flatter sections, but I did an almost cheater five through a nice long section to make it through to a double up a couple of times. Being 7’ 5" long and a hair over 21" wide, it paddles great. It has tucked under rails and a hard edge starting about 20" from the nose. The tail is hard down rail with a sharp edge. Bottom is flat. This is going to make it tough on a couple of my other mid length boards.
…hi Chrisp and Huck, send a prescription for you both seems incorrect due to each one of you surf different types of boards.
I tried to say that you CAN put one of these set ups in your daily driver. The only advice is not to use a single fin in a wider tail daily driver; better a 2+1 (stabilizers) in that situation. So if your daily driver is a “normal” contemporary shortboard; would be a blast to use it a shape like that with a bonzer set up or a single in line set up. If you decide to use a twin set up with these modern shapes and with steeper waves, enlarge a bit the fins and widen up the “ears” or tips; if you shape a tail kick, and you put your rear foot almost on the leash cup (a right stance for a shortboard) better to let the same fin base and make more raked fins; if you surf smaller waves and have hot dogging action better that the rear cutaway (rear edge) be more curvy.
The feel for the single in lines (that seems a bit better than a single alone) is a total loose board so when you smash the lip there are no recovery like with the thruster however in gutless small conditions is not the best candidate only if you ride big boards.
The other first impression that you could have is when you bottom turn, so like bonzers, the “engage” feeling is perceived different than with a thruster; again I am talking about shortboards.
For bigger boars is a no brainer; modern semi gun with a single could be better than thruster due to rear foot position and the waves involved.
With big boards, small surf, and average surfers, still could be good because the operator cannot “be working” a thruster constantly due to his/her skills and the length of the board plus the wave gutless conditions.
-With the bonzer set up better that the runners do not pass 18º of tilt if not the paddling should be affected.
Hi MIke, no, I don’t have one of Bill T’s fins. I’m using a crappy, cheap, flexy FCS dolfin. I have it all the way back in the box and it seems to be OK. I have a couple GG 4As (7.5 and 9) that I could swap out or a Brewer style, but it seems to be OK. I also have several sheets of G10 up to 3/4 inches that are waiting to become fins.
One thing I keep noticing about my inline single( smaller trailer about 2.75 inches behind forward fin), on a 9’3" gunny but more traditional railed longboard, is when trimmed forward, and the fins begin disengaging, it is a slow process where forward drive is not instantly lost. It also re engages very smoothly too and I make the wave more often than not, with a little extra thrill.
This same board without the trailer fin, in the same situation, it just spins out and all forward drive is gone, and reengagement instant and usually results in a quick wipeout.
This board i dropped in FCS plugs behind the 10" FU box.
Definitely am going to make my newer fins thicker. One broken lacewood fin I repaired, making it significantly thicker, was highly enlightening in how it changed performance for the significantly better.
Aloha Harry,
Please contact Dave Town, and have him make a thick foiled fin for your board. He has several of my personal fin designs. One of those fins will light the afterburner on your board. I’ve used thick foiled fins in every major break on the North Shore. My fastest big wave boards have all had thick foiled wood fins. Dave has my blessing to use any of my fin designs you’d care to have.
Bill, I made this outline from a board I did using my interpretation of the board you made for Mike. I made the original as a gift for a friend, but I liked the outline so much I thought I’d try it. I moved the wide point a bit to make it less gunny, but I think I could have kept the widepoint further up. I have 4 or 5 square tails and they seem to work well with a single.
Here’s the board I originally made, and the board I saw on swaylocks.
Harry,
The template I’m sending you, is the one used for Rooster’s board above. The nice thing about boards made with that template, is that they surf like a much smaller board than they are.
What impresses me in the video is how they seem to be riding those boards the same as a thruster, especially Taj. I’ve never seen anyone double pump a single, but he doesn’t know any better.
I saw the same thing. There was a common maneuver, used in the ‘‘mini gun’’ era, which was a form of pumping. It amounted to sculling the (single) fin, with a quick rocking motion, to gain a little extra speed. It was not pretty, but it did seem to work.
I remember back in the day some guys were able to do that when they were slightly behind a section and make it around. I was only about 50% successful. I found if I went out just a little more and pushed as hard as I could, I would get more out of the bottom turn, and project out further.
I’m very impressed with the way these single fin boards were surfed.
I remember that prediction, Bill. I like some of the Alex Knost videos out there. I don’t know how to imbed them, but there are a couple in Central America with very nice single fin surfing. Check it out. Mike
