so , after shaping boards for all of my friends for a couple months , things finally chilled out enough that i could do a fish for myself , a 5’6 .Had it out last week , about head high and really steep , not really the place for a fish , but thats besides the point.My first wave , i paddle for , stand up , lay into a bottom turn and boom , slide out and face plant , as im getting really worked by the wave im thinking , hmm , there’s no way this board could be THAT loose , so i finally get to the surface , turn it over and see that i snapped a keel clean off , so i go and grab another board and surf for a couple hours all pissed off . After my sesh , i go home and order some futures boxes and i just put them in and measured a thousand times but i must have had my resperator off too long or something becuase the fins that i thought i toed in 1/8th of an inch came out to almost 3/4’s! So im asking you , how bad will it be , its already to late to rip them out and move them, any ways to save it or is the board just gonna suck?
that really sucks.
thanks for the advice wise ass .But anyways,i went out there and checked it again after i cooled off and it turns out that toed them in 1/4 of an inch , it isnt an 1/8 but its a hell of a lot better than 3/4’s.
Yeah 3/4 inch, and you’ll want to kick both fins off, and surf the thing upside down. It all depends if its a retrofish with big ol slab fins, then its still too much toe. The whole deal that make fishes fast is that there flat & and the fins are straight. Not so good for turning, but if you make them small enough you can power/ overpower a carve type turn…I really don’t like fishes…hate working that hard to surf.
If you made a “modern fish” / MR type twin fin which I like to think of as a funboard / hybrid, then you’ll be fine.
3/4 inch…good thing you were just lame on the tape measure. Would have surfed like you were dragging a huge clump of kelp from your leash.
-Jay
Measure thrice, cut once. Mike
No.
Definitely I think you are CORRECT!
(you’ve really screwed the pooch)
but cheer up, it could have been worse…
…(it could have been me!)
Now,
Seriously, you can shallow-router some cool-looking geometric shape, football? oval? using a wooden jig taped over the offending area. Yes, this means routering out the “f”'d-up boxes too. Then just glue in some slab pieces of surfboard foam and glass them. After hotcoating, install the fins and use “glass-overs” to trap the boxes. Should look just fine (not that I would know from, er, experience…)
Good luck.
Maybe you could make some fins with a twist in them ie so when fitted, the base is towed at 1/4 and the tip is straight?
This is one thing that amazes me. I work around a score of “Pro” shapers and they all set up fin postioning with a square.(in short distances, a pencil line width can be an error of inches in a small distance) I have a set of fin angle taper jigs, each with more increasing toe. They lay next to the stringer and CANNOT be wrong from side to side or have too much toe.
A surfboard builder in Fla. and the brother of one of the first big eastcoast companies, used to whine to other employees that I would spend 4 hours making a jig that wouold save me 2 minutes work. Well after 35 years, I still have the jigs and use them every day. Accuracy counts
Grind them down to little sides & install a center.
I’m on the same program as Jim. I spent about 45 minutes one day making templates from 0 to 1/4" in 1/16" increments. Makes life simple. -Carl
Ok jim and carl, I think we really need to see some photos of these templates so we (I) can wrap our brains around what we’re talking about.
hey jim,
i doubt you’ll remember me, but i worked at channin for a while, putting in fins, and can attest to some of those obscure, if even there, marks.
would love to even have half a clue about your template. slots in a board?
thanks
here’s my shortcut. Print the page with the toe you want on a good laser printer using those clear overhead projector sheets. Make sure you get the ones for your printer. Line the outside guides with the rail 1.25 or 1.5" and square the other lines with the stringer, hold a straight edge down the toe in line and mark. Flip it over for the other side.
Hope this helps.
Rob
ps if you have concaves through the tail, you can spray glue the sheets to a piece of plexiglass to keep it flat
thanks a lot , i appreciate all the feed back. But in all honesty , is the board really goign to surf that terribley with 1/4 inch toe rather than 1/8th inch? They fins arent keels , just basically large thruster side fins.
thanks a lot , i appreciate all the feed back. But in all honesty , is the board really goign to surf that terribley with 1/4 inch toe rather than 1/8th inch? They fins arent keels , just basically large thruster side fins.
It will be looser.
In two or three months when you’re wearing the 6/5/4 wetsuit with 7mm booties, 5mm lobsterclaws, with the 5mm attached hood, you’ll want it to be loose as possible. Just go try it before you make your judgement. If it’s too loose to stand on, use it as a kneeboard. Everyone in NJ should have a kneeboard. It makes every wave chest high.
Thanks , im more concerned with just being able to ride the board. I havnt even reached board number 7 yet so im still working out some kinks, i just want something to use when i get board on the loads of thrusters i have. Also , i;ve got a bunch of wood laying around from the last hollow board i did and i was thinking about making some fins for futures boxes , anyone have any pics ?
Ride it and tell us how it goes!
There is no better teacher then hands on, real time experience, in reality.
Why bother with others opinions when you can know for sure.
i have a fish jlw rode it i hav e to fill the pin holes in the glass job before i do. any way it was ton of can’t like um maybe 15degrees and likea 1/4 inch toes in. this is a bastard of a board, the purple tint turned out lavender. it’s a hunk of crap but oh well. any way it should be fine.
JerseyGrom, personally I think you will be able to ride it, but with the amount of toe you describe, it will be in a more of skateboard style. What I mean is, you will have to keep the board flatter of the water, on a rail, the inner fin will try to steer the rear rail out of the water.