i do.
but double enders have some draw backs.
my next proto will be more a 70/30 vs. my last sfi,which was a 50/50.
nice stuff here.
my next sfi should blow your minds.
it's that much more improved/different in concept design.
herb
[quote="$1"]
my next sfi should blow your minds.
it's that much more improved/different in concept design.
herb
[/quote]
you have a way of building anticipation....
Hey that looks interesting Pridemore, got any pics of the bottom, whats the two lines in it?
they are 2 scooped out grooves that leave the stringer as a little keel , did this on one board and liked how it felt…combining it with some low and long flexy keels I have been tinkering with for this type of board…there’s a pretty serious single running out the tail of this one…as well as my take on some chines, again a modified version of another one I did which proved surprisingly popular, I didnt love it but it went well for others, I want to spin and slide and drift all over the place, this one is for a bit of that but with much more hold and more down the line projection…but also plenty of options with the long and low keels as well as an additional little plug right on the tail…it’ll make MORE sense when its finished, I’ll post a few pics if anyones interested to see it all FINished up…
anyone else still tinkering with less finned boards ? here’s one I did a few weeks ago, it was made for a guy who liked a few of my other finless and semi-finless boards, but he didnt want it to spin too m uch, just wanted to enjoy a drift and bit of side slipping but wanted some hold down the line hence the "training keels " and back fin too…I have riddent this one and is totally suited to what he wants, but too much fin for me, I took the back one out, and reversed the TK’s and much much better for me, options are good…the learning curve continues…Fish-Finger logo by my 13 yr old son…I like it…
"There was a slippin and a slidin" !! Nice work mark!
cool board pridemore!
probably already posted this but just stumbled on this pic of a finless tail creation!
its so refreshing fun and addictive riding these boards, the amount of hold you want decreases all the time , as you get better on them, you begin to enjoy the lack of hold more and MORE, but in saying that, its critical to get that amount of hold just right …too little and you silde so much you cant get any down the line projection and miss sections…too much and you dont get the buzz from the drifts and spinning…fine tuning very small fins and keels is the current tangent within this type of design…
this one is a custom for a friend in Sydney, he is the perfect candidate for such a board and the surfing that goes with them…
from memory its 5’10 1/2" x 20 3/4" x 2 3/4" …he gave me free reign on design and dims…and we also had free reign on colours, spray etc… ( no pics of spray yet, hoping he’ll send me some pics of it when its finished coz I’ll be O.S when its finished up ).its a cool bit of colour and a little bit of a theme which suits the board and him I reckon, my sons idea , he has sprayed 3 of this customers boards…, its a fun board so we had to have a fun spray…
Aw shut up Cavey!
You keep giving glowing and at the same time intriguing ride reports like that and Pridmore will end up talking me into trying one.
The funny thing is, what you’re saying about riding your fin-less more in preference to your other boards is what has happened to me with my gst (gut sliding turtle) prone board Mark shaped for me.
There’s been quite a few times since I’ve got it that I’ve paddled out and ridden a few waves on my “normal” boards and gone in and taken my gst out and been laughing like a grommet again in no time at all.
Most surfers egos will never allow them to return to that embryonic kook level to experience the purity of a grommets stoke.
With that said, hand over your fin-less Pridmore…I’m heading out to fall off a few and get some stoke.
I’m the proud owner of pridmores most recent semi finless board above, the aqua spray with little fish all over it. Thats me in the picture inspecting the concave with a piece of wood 
I’ve been having an absolute ball on this board. Its a totally different type of surfing to regular finned surfing. Its another offshoot of surfing entirely, much like logging vs. high performance shortboards vs. alaias vs. traditional fish, etc. It has been very fun and addictive for me already, it has really helped me to get back to the core of surfing, why I started in the first place - the thrill and fun of it all!
Even though it seems to have some fin area, the depth of the fins is roughly one inch or just slightly more. I’ll measure it if anyone thinks they want the exact number (with pridmore’s permission of course). I have tried it totally finless and what the fin does is take it from very hard to find an initial trim, to giving just a tiny little bit of bite so you can set a rail on the drop-in. Backhand is VERY hard totally finless and these tiny little fins give just enough control to set a trim backhand, but thats about it. Gentle and gradual movement of weight onto the rail can lead into a gradual turn (e.g. a gradual bottom turn, or a slow cutback), but any more pressure starts to slide the the board sideways which is where the fun starts. If you’ve ever watched Derek Hynd playing around on his finless board, the same sort of surfing is very much achieveable with this semi-finless board. I can imagine with a little time I’ll give the fully finless surfing a regular go in certain conditions.
Its very very fast to ride, but its also designed with a lot of volume for my weight plus a lot of simmons’esque characteristics, so theres stacks of planshape lift already. I tend to surf more forward on this board to utilise a lot of the rail, so theres a lot of lift and planing area into play all the time. Its a different type of surfing, this is the best way I can describe it so far: On the takeoff the main goal is to try to get your drop-in angle, stance and foot placement just right so that you can set a trim and project down the wave in a clean fish-like drive. If you get it right, you can project yourself into a gradual bottom turn and shoot down the wave with amazing speed. Its a very fast and free feeling, feeling kind of similar to gliding over the wave.
Once you’ve set up that initial trim and gradual bottom turn, the rest is totally up to you and wave. You can immediately pressure the rail to start into a slide, you can transition into a weightless high-line trim and drop back down, you can shift onto the rear rail and do a part slide and part cutback (kind of like a skid). Once you start sliding you can just go sideways for a little then back into a forwards trim, you can slide into a 180 and go backwards, you can keep the slide going into a 360. Thats just the basic stuff on the face too, I haven’t even started trying things near or on top of the lip. Seeing as its so quick to slide, a lot of its dictacted by the wave and where you end up on the wave, you just have to do your best to work with wherever that is and make something up when you get there. Learning how to surf the wave very deliberately similar to regular
surfing, now that will take quite a bit of practice for me, mainly just
becauses its so different.
Theres a lot of falling, wiping out and making it enough of a challenge to really appreciate when it all comes together nicely. It took me a few surfs to get the hang of the set-up into the initial trim-line, and I’d predict most people will find that part quite easy with the tiny keels helping out. There are four different fin combinations available due to the 3 FCS plugs and being able to reverse the fins, so you can dial the amount of hold you like based on that. Even the option with the most hold is pretty slippery though!
It hasn’t had any detriment for my regular finned surfing on more typical HPS design so far at all. If anything its training me to be more sensitive to the rail and interaction between the board and water, so I noticed when I jumped back on a regular finned board it felt quite easy because the board behaves so predictably and in a fixed direction. The only detriment is that I’m finding myself preferring the (semi) finless surfing for the moment, even when the waves aren’t too bad! Theres something there, something in it thats really really fun, a type of fun that I’m finding difficult to find in regular finned surfing. I’m not quite sure what that is yet, but I’ll chime back in later.
I’ll take some better photos of the beast too, those iPhone photos are pretty crumby.
got plans for a newy for myself, been riding the old ones and still loving them but time for something fun and fresh and less-finned…
<Pedant helmet on>
Arrrg… this thread title always irks me.
It’s ‘Fewer Fins’, not “Less Fins”!!!
Less is for lumps of stuff:- sand, crowds, fin area
Fewer is for countable stuff:- grains of sand, people, FINS!
</Pedant helmet off>
(off to catch fewer waves and have less fun)
less fin area than what standard boards have
also its a swap around from ‘finless’ which some of these designs are not, but they do have less overall fin area than most boards…
if that still irks you, then you should just avoid this thread…its about the craft not the words anyway…
less fin area than what standard boards have
also its a swap around from ‘finless’ which some of these designs are not, but they do have less overall fin area than most boards…
if that still irks you, then you should just avoid this thread…its about the craft not the words anyway…
I hadn’t spotted that… finless, less fin… I like it!
No way! There’s some good shit in here!
I was just arsing about. The less/fewer debate is just flogging the stable door after the dead horse has bolted. 
Definitely agree there’s good stuff going on here. The less fin approach makes “Derek Hynd” type surfing more accessible for average surfers. Personally, I mainly break out the less fin during the offseason, when the waves get smaller and have less push.
Whether you build a board with or without channels & no fins/ with fins but cutting them down, it doesn’t matter. What matters is trying to generate a different way to ride waves in a wider range of conditions.
Thanks to all those who contributed to this tread.
yep, agreed…timfin, be interested to see what ya been riding ?
I’m guessing those circles are concave and for creating multiple points of suction/negative pressure. Have you ridden it yet?