I just picked up 6’6’’ kneeboard blank for a 6’2’’ fish. The rocker is 5 inches nose and 2 1/4 tail. This rocker was listed on the rocker chart as a fish rocker, but i thought fish was supposed to have a flatter rocker. How will this much rocker affect the paddling and wave catching ability of the board?. im guessing it will turn better, but, im not sure how paddling will be. Dims are 16x22 ( 3’’ up from centre )x16x10 between tipsx 2 3/4 thick x 6’2’'. Mainly for 2-6ft beach breaks. Here is a pic for you ben!
Well, the farther back you place the template, the more of that pesky nose flip you can cut off. Also the tail rocker will drop a bit relative to the center of your board. I would make the tail wider at the tips if you can.
I don’t know what you are used to, but fat little boards seem to me to paddle pretty good. A flatter one will glide a bit more, but a curvy one will go good too, just a bit less old school like.
Hey Beerfan, whenever I do a fish I usually use a 7’ surfblanks blank. I find that I can move the template around a bit more and get a more desirable rocker and up to 22" in width. You can also order fish blanks with “Keyo” rocker from Surfblaks Australia - and I’m told that they’re not too bad as well. Hope this helps. Craig.
That rocker doesn’t sound like too much, I find the overall bottom curve is more important than the numbers at the ends (especially the nose) because most of the nose isn’t engaged when you’re up and riding, so the actual entry rocker is most important. It’s more important where the rocker peaks, I’ve always understood that on a traditional fish the rocker, thickness, and widepoint all peak at the same spot. I’m really a fan of a flatter rocker, they will take late drops better than you would think (and you can usually get in a bit earlier too) and it doesn’t seem to hurt maneouverability at all in a shorter board.
Thanks guys. A fish just seems to me a board that i will really enjoy. I see soo many positive things about them, and it’s the board i most want, i guess for easy paddling, wave catching, but still good manouverability, and good on small mushy waves. Sounds too good to be true. I cant really widen the tip distance, as i’ve already roughed out the template to about 1/4 over the above sizes. What effect would that have to widen the tip to tip tail width??.
Well, if you have a bunch of nose rocker left on the thing, your wave-catching may suffer a bit, since you’ll be pushing water right at first, but I think as long as your wide point rocker apex is 3 foot or less from the tail, it’ll be fun once you’re going. And if it’s thick and wide, and you’re floating on top as you paddle, the wave-catching won’t suffer from the nose rocker. Widening the tips would give you more planing surface back there and possibly more volume. Straighten out your rail release behind wide point, cut drag…
Because , personally , I prefer curvier outlines , narrower tails and butt cracks , a bit more rocker for winter waves , and the option of interchangeable fins , instead of glasson keels.
Im also thinking of lower rails that aren’t too boxy, all the way along the board. Would they be better suited to small-medium waves than boxier, higher rails??
The nose rocker boils down to personal preference like everything else. Everything is a compromise of some sort. I’d push the template back on that blank and shorten in to six foot or less. 10 inches between tips will be fine for a Lis type keeled fish. Anything less that 10 is a swallow tail in my view and you can put any fin combo you like on it and it will probably work. They’re pretty easy to ride and are tons of fun to pump and soar on hollow lined up waves. The keels are married pretty well to the wide tailed deep crack fishes. All mine have keels except my 5-8, 12 inches bet. tips has canard quads. It work killer, too. Mike
Beerfan. 4" of nose rocker for a retro type twin keel is a good starting point. … my main fish last summer only had about 2.75" of nose rocker, it was a little on the flat side but it was fast as-all-get-out but not to great on late or steep take offs. Since you are into making your own boards you can build, ride , decide, keep it, get rid of it, make another one or whatever. I love Swaylocks!
Thanks guys, the advice is great!. Dont know if it makes a difference, but im planning on setting it up as a quad, with rear canards, no toe, no cant. . Thanks again guys. Just put down a batch of beer after a 3 month lay off due to surfboard building, and im naming it “swaylocks bitter” . Love the pics ben, nice shape there
My buddy recently picked up a Pavel Classic Keel model fish. I had him bring it over for an inspection.
I remember measuring 4 1/2’’ of nose rocker. Less than 2’’ in the tail. Only about 3-4 inches of dead flat rocker in the vicinity of midpoint. The rest was nice and curvaceous. Quite a piece of craftsmanship. Vee to Flat to Single Concave out the back. If you are interested, I can give you all the numeros via PM. I have them written down at home. The board absolutely FLIES in beach break conditions. We’ve had it out in chest plus clean beachies (Hurricane Florence thankyou) for the last 4 days. Sick board! I also have a 6’ pavel canard quad and a 5’8’’ pavel superbank but I’ve not put the ruler to those yet. His boards are great and worth every penny.
Mate, some measurements on the fin placements would be awesome, i think a few people would like to see those!. I did get measurements from another thread here, i think it was “journey of a quad” for a canard quad, i think they might be the speed dialer set up, but i cant be 100% sure. But more quad canard fin measruements would sure be welcome. Im finishing up the rail bands at thre moment and im super excited about it !.
Cool, I gather the info this evening. I’ll pull all the dims on my speed dialer. It was a custom Pavel done about a year and a half ago. I know this board will be quite different from the classic keel model.
Some pics of the progress of my fins. These are the front fins. They aren’t done yet, how do they look to the fin makers here?. The ply is 6mm, i dont know if that is thick enough, can i just add more glass??.
P.S they are single foiled. Comparing them to my g-5’s, they feel about the same thickness.
