le mal's dimensions ...ca n'est pas tres bien .....

General Discussion
1

Well , following on from Josh’s initiative to have you post your mal [“longboard”] photos , so I could see some outlines [thanks to all who did , by the way] …

Here are the dimensions of the blank I have to work with… [Hicksy measured the blank for me last night . Thanks mate !]

18"n x 9’2 x 21 1/2" x 14" tail [thickness c.2 3/4" -3" ?]

Has anyone made a mal [“longboard”] with these dimensions ?

Today being another surfless onshore grey day , I figured I would draw up a template or two , to see what that would look like . First mal I will ever have made .

thanks for any and all help !

cheers !

ben

p.s. - the tail is a rounded pin …it’s already been cut out and partially shaped [the bottom only] , which is why the dimensions . By a 15yo girl.

It is a 9’2 burford blank , if that helps , among the aussies here who make mals.

p.p.s. - for those wondering about the title , “mal” is french for “bad” (the rest is supposed to translate to something like …“it’s not very good” …[stop laughing at my franglais, Monsieur Balsa !])

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Quote:
Here are the dimensions ...18n x 9'2 x 21 1/2" x 14" tail [thickness c.2 3/4" -3" ?]

Has anyone made a mal [“longboard”] with these dimensions?

It would be good for…

Quote:
a 15yo girl.

Otherwise, its a little narrow…

Sorry :slight_smile:

Is is a double-stringer blank like the moonrocket? I don’t remember. If so, split it & put in a 3" center foam piece instead of that 1" piece…or balsa or cardboard or whatever…

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thanks Benny , you ol’ barnacle you !!

yep , as soon as Grant said “21 1/2”, and 14" tail , I went “yikes!!”…

it’s a single stringer …

I’m hoping my light weight will mean this will still work as a mal [ / ?“semi mal” ?]

I wonder if people rode them like this “back in the day” [Bill ?]

… cheers !

   ben
4

depending on the tail rocker , I suppose I could always cut some of the tail off , and square , or rounded square , the tail pod [end] .

Maybe then , I would end up with something like a 16+ " measurement , 12" up from the tail end .

…How does THIS sound , "better " ??

cheers !

ben
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Quote:

18"n x 9’2 x 21 1/2" x 14" tail [thickness c.2 3/4" -3" ?]

Has anyone made a mal [“longboard”] with these dimensions ?

Hey Chip This ones pretty close although it’s only 8’ long and 2" thick at it thickest point… Made from a single sheet of 2" 1lb EPS glued up to a stringer on a rocker table. My brother doesn’t like boards he can’t carry comfortably under his arm so 21"-21.5" is the masx he’ll go. The board float him at around 165lbs but it’s more short board like in feel… bottomline it can be done… you look smaller than 165 anyway… One problem too narrow and too long… you get a toothpick or a long plank i,e, not very manuverable… Just my .02

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thanks for that bernie !

…is that REALLY only a 14" tail on that ? [it looks wider , maybe because of the shorter length, I guess ?]

yep , I’m just on 154 at the moment [70kgs / 11 stone] , so float shouldn’t be a problem , I hope]

cheers !

ben

I’ll pm you in a minute too Bernie [on another subject dear to your heart]

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FWIW, my longboard (harbour Simms “slimmer” model, i.e. narrower than the usual model, now known as the Diamond Tail model) has the following dimensions:

length: 9-0

nose: 16 3/4"

width: 21 1/4"

tail: 13 1/2"

thickness: 2 3/4"

I weigh 150lbs and can ride this board even in ankle high surf. It has quite a bit of rocker and isn’t designed to be a board you just stand there and trim on (it’s a 2+1 set up) when the waves are tiny and so it kind of sucks in small weak point breaks when there are other people on the wave and I have no room to manuever. (santa cruz pleasure point anyone?). But in stronger beach break surf up here in Pacifica it is ok even when wave size is small.

And of course at that size and shape it is really good as the surf gets larger!

I think 21 1/4 is plenty of width for my weight in a longboard and the 13 1/2 tail does not hinder wave catching much at all. I’m not much of a noserider but I have got some good ones on this board even with the fairly narrow nose too! I know some guys like 19"+ noses and widths up to 24" but I’d never go for something like that.

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…thanks a lot for that Mar , that’s very helpful !

what kind of nose and tail rocker [in inches] would that have , please ? [it would be interesting to hear how it compares to a burford blank]

cheers !

ben

was it 2 layers 6oz deck , 1 layer bottom ? polyester resin ? [this is what I will be using]

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IMHO if you aren’t going to ride competitively and that is the blank to work with ;

8’6 ish 21& 1/2 whatever nose, whatever tail ,whatever thickness you like . If you want something for summer try that.

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Quote:
what kind of nose and tail rocker [in inches] would that have , please ? [it would be interesting to hear how it compares to a burford blank]

I’ve never measured but since I want to shape a “copy” of this board, I guess now is as good a time as any to measure! Hang on a few minutes and I’ll go look for a straight edge long enough, ha!

11

Sorry for the delay: had to shoot over to the hardware store since my longest straight edge was 48". I don’t know what typical longboard rocker measurements are but here’s what mine has. I measured 12" back to to give some idea of how severe the rocker curve gets at the ends:

Nose 4 1/2" (11.5cm)

12" back 2 5/8" (6.8cm)

12" from tail 1 6/8" (4.5cm)

Tail 3 3/8" (8.5cm)

The actual length along the bottom is 9’1" (including the bevel at the nose to the deck) and the width measurements are actually all a little less (1/4" or so) than what I quoted before (from the stringer notation).

BTW, these measurements were taken with the Barnfield method - pressing down on the stick at the board’s center point. The stick I was using appeared to be straight - with 1/4" or so.

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That’s very helpful , thanks a lot Rich !

I’ll write them down for when I go out to Hicksy’s shed .

… meanwhile, from out on my balcony, again…

the beginnings…



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tail to nose view… [nose is white]

nose to tail view…

…this may still be further modified…

ben


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at present…15 1/2" n x 9’ x 21 1/2" x 14" t x ??

15

chip-

currently my favorite board / longboard has like a 14" to 14.5" tail on it…not really sure as to any of dims other than the tail (only know that one since it has the same tail as the shortboard i came to be a care taker of at the same time.)… I will try and get a picture in a few days…it is a great hp longboard and well I really have come to like it… my $0.02

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Chip, as you know we’ve already pm’d on this one…but since the thread is growing, I figgered I oughta chime in again. :slight_smile:

When it comes to logs, I can’t help myself …

You already have boards to ride deep in the pocket & snap turns. A ‘high-performance’ longboard would only add an element of frustration to your quiver. You’d try to ride it the way longboarders do when they want to ‘ride it like a shortboard’. But it will never be a shortboard, and to a 20+ year shortboarder, you won’t like that.

For your summer experiment, you want something wide, flat, and stable. Something to ride leashless, knee paddle on, and walk back & forth. Keep all the width you can in your blank. I’d shoot for max. width in what you have but shorten it to a 9’0" for your size & to widen the tail. Square or squash the tail so its not tracky - 5" pod at least & 6" is better. Make a big upright pivot fin and glass it far enough back so that the tip is even with the edge of the tail.

Quote:
Here are the dimensions ...18n x 9'2 x 21 1/2" x 14" tail [thickness c.2 3/4" -3" ?]

You can probably push it to 9’0" - 18x21.5x14.5 6" pod. 2 7/8" thick…maintain the volume out to the rails - no big domes - and make the rails soft. Pinch/foil the last 18" but stay away from hard edges. Slight belly all the way - no vee, concave, etc.

Otherwise, you won’t have fun on it. Contest longboarding isn’t guys who say to their shaper, “Take my longboard and make it lighter & quicker.” It is guys who say, take my favorite shortboard and stretch it to the absolute minimum it needs to quality as a longboard.

BTW, 8’6" ain’t no longboard. 9’0" or more, pally. :slight_smile:

17

benny-

I agree that the majority of the boards labeled “hp longboard” are really just streached out shortbards… but I feel that after watching this board be surfed by my friend (who the board was actually built for…I am just babysitting)I think it actually may be a board that while retaining the turnablity and tail of a shortboard, I have watched my friend nose ride it very well and I guess he has even knee padelled it…it is a strage board, but deffinatly not a traditional log…or a normal hp longboard…there is something special about the rails that i think heps it keep more of the traditional longboarding traits. I think what i am getting at is that a toatally functional and possiably fun board should be salved from the blak that chip has indicated he has to work with… now if he could get any blank at all i think we would be getting back to being able to build a ‘perfect’ traditional log.

anyway, I am still learning so I will defer to your comments

18

hi again !

I just posted this as a p.m. , but then thinking about it , thought maybe this information will have some sort of bearing on people’s advice on the forum , so …for what it’s worth …

““Keep all the width you can in your blank. I’d shoot for max. width in what you have but shorten it to a 9’0” for your size & to widen the tail. Square or squash the tail so its not tracky - 5” pod at least & 6" is better. "

I’m not sure if the tail is already [partly] “shaped” curvy …I just pm ed hicksy about that .

What would be the measurement say 6" up from the tail pod [end] , if you have a 5-6" pod and a 14" [allI have] tail , please ?

…do you have any that "narrow " in the tail yourself , Benny1 ?

I was thinking of drawing up a wider nosed and wider tailed template today , following your advice in the last p.m. you sent [thanks for that , by the way !]

I see you get nice point breaks to try yours in . Lucky you.

Mine , however, will be ridden exclusively in shifty summer windswell beachbreak …

any thoughts ? design tips for that ?

they are ocassionally “punchy” waves with short steep shoulders and, like i say , the lineup shifts .

For knee high and under glassy [rare , this time of the year] ,or light onshore days , the noseride thing may [hopefully] be an option ?

The mals I have ridden in the past few years are ones i’ve borrowed from the guy at the longboard shop down the road [ from 8’6-11’ers , basically, wide nosed things.]

I guess my local beach is a tricky mal wave at times, for the above mentioned reasons . But I figure , if nothing else , having something long and floaty will get me in the water… paddling , even on “totally” flat days.

And , yes, come to think of it …the “knee paddling” option sounds good . (I’m glad you reminded me of that !)

cheers !

ben

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If you want to kneepaddle, I think you’ll need some width and volume, more than in that board of mine we were talking about above: I can’t kneepaddle it at all. It’ll want to sink a bit, tip side to side… heck, maybe someone could do it but I can’t seem to learn to kneepaddle on it myself. (and no, i’m not the kind of guy who topples over for seemingly no reason while sitting on my boards waiting for waves, ha!)

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Quote:

Here are the dimensions of the blank I have to work with… [Hicksy measured the blank for me last night . Thanks mate !]

18"n x 9’2 x 21 1/2" x 14" tail [thickness c.2 3/4" -3" ?]

Has anyone made a mal [“longboard”] with these dimensions ?

That wide od a nose and that narrow of a wide point sounds very straight board with no curve.

My suggestion is pullin that nose in…Like a lot…16" maybe