I’m heading off to shape my fourth board, a Thruster Longboard for a guy who as been surfing for a year or so with a 7’4’’ funboard, but wants to move up to a longboard.
The guy is 28 years old, is 5’11’’ and weighs 176.36 Lb.
I was going for 22 1/4’’ max width and 2 3/4’’ max thickness, with a round tail.
As for bottom contour i was going for a nose concave, flat mid section and a very mild vee at the fins. Does this bottom contour work?
As for rails, since i am going for a mildly rolled deck, they will be low and soft.
For fin placement, the info i have points me to 13’’ from the tail, 1.25’’ from the rail with 0.175’’ toe-in and 4º cant for the side fins and 4’’ from tail for center fin.
what do you guys think? Will it work? What would you change?
…in my opinion, the concave nose bottom is useless, kind of marketing thing…anyway, the guy do hang tens?..
…the fin position depends where the guy stand up or if he really walk the board, also the tricks that he does, and work together with the rocker, the bottom, and the outline, the rails too…
The guy has been learning over the last year on a 7’4’’ funboard and never rode a longboard. I’m trying to shape im a board that can be nose ridden, that turns well and that can be ridden from anywhere on the deck, so that he has a chance of trying everything out, basically an all rounder.
for a ‘trying everything out’ kind of board, I would go with a 10.5" center fin box with side plugs (2+1). Ride it as a tri, ride it as a single, ride it as a twin…whatever. If your friend isn’t into messing with fins, you might want to remind him that a single fin is often associated with better turning from a forward position and more tip time.
IMHO there is nothing wrong with the concept of this board.
You might consider making it 22.5 and adding a little of nose and tail width to the measurements I’ve called out below but with 22.25 mid point I think
the nose measurement should be around 16.5 to 17.75 inches and tail between 14.25" and 15.25" depending on how easily you want the board to get into waves unless you want a board that will handle bigger surf then you’ll want to narrow both nose and tail measurements. As you keep the lines more generous the board will more of a small wave board. I think that an 17.25" nose and and 14.75" would be just fine. Personally I think the rounded tail is an excellent choice simply because it’s what I prefer to surf. The bottom contours you’ve choosen make good sense to me. Keep the concave in the nose very subtle and remember that as you add concave you loose rocker. Morerate rocker on this board will help it perform but put enough in tail so that the rail fins will help it project in the turns. About 3.0" of tail rocker and 4.75" of nose rocker should be close to what you need.
There are those that don’t feel nose concave helps a board nose ride. Like anything it’s all in how it’s done. There is no doubt it does help the nose plane earlier and aid with catch waves earlier. If done right it also make the nose lighter in the water and IMHO facilitates high performance nose riding in clean water. When I gets choppy it doesn’t work well at all unless your board is an old school single fin with some substance.
The bottome mid section (flat) and tail configuration (slight Vee) you’ve choosen will work beautifully as long as you keep the lines very smooth and don’t put too much vee in the tail. 3/16th of an inch at the tail on either side should be max for the vee in the tail and I would tend to go less than an 1/8" if I were doing it.
More modern rails work better with side bite fins. So rails that tend to start to get hard a little behind the center of the board but aren’t too severe will work nicely. Soft rails in the nose will help the board will give it better grap and let it fit into the wave face more easily. Keep the rail lines flowing with the rocker and outline and the board will work well. Don’t toe the rail fins in too much cause they will just push water and interfere with achieving maximum trim speed.
I hope some of these suggestions will help you with your project. The attachment is of my 9’0 so you can get an idea of what I’m talking about.