I just finished shaping my first board with all the useful information from sways archives. Ended up with a mini simmons type of board for my girlfriend. As I am waiting for the fin boxes to arrive I’ve started to think about my next board which I need some help with. Really enjoying the building/shaping so far, ive had alot of fun despite I hardly know what I am doing.
The boards are made from EPS 200 with the dimensions of 3000x600x100mm
And in inches that is about 118 x 23,6 x 3,9 (Length/width/thickness)
The board is for the Swedish conditions that I am surfing. Windswell with mostly weak small mushy waves in sometimes shoppy conditions. What would you guys make out of this?
Iam thinking of a classic shaped longboard with as much volume as possible, the problem I see is fitting the rocker in a maximum of 3,9 Inches?
Is it “ok” to go 3,5 Nose / 3,5 Tail rocker?
What shape would you use to catch the weakest of waves? As early as possible.
I used hotwire to cut the stringer shape with the help of 2 stringer copies on the EPS sides. Used a old planer to shape the board but turned to surfoam/sandpaper after a while since the surfoam pulled some big chunks of eps out.
Watching the picture you attached it seems hard to fit the board in my foam?
Isn’t 3.5" nose and tail typical for old school longboards?
You only need one fin for small conditions. Do a pig-type template, not a noserider. You probably won’t have time to get up to the nose anyway, so you might as well go for some turns.
Agree with GDad. A pig will fit your conditions better and 3.5" is WAY too much tail rocker for mushy waves. You will need all the speed and glide you can get. I wouldn’t go more than 2.25" and if they are always mushy even less and a square tail
Standard balsa thickness, in the day, was 3 1/4th inches thick. If your wood had 3/4th inches of rocker before glue up, you would have a pre shape natural rocker of 4 inch nose and 4 inch tail. After shaping you’d be very close to your 3 1/2 inch nose and tail rocker. And yes, a Pig shape is your best bet.
I’d copy the rocker of a proven blank from one of the blank companies. I have very little experience with longboard rockers so perhaps one of the veterans who do such boards on a regular basis (like Bill T) would point you in the right direction.
You can copy the rocker image and import it into BoardCad as a background template for your (bottom) rocker curve. From there you’ll have to figure out your deck rocker and foil on your own.
PS - Ditch the D-fin. If you want to go for the turns a high aspect pivot fin will be easier for that.
What I found with the wide point back designs in the CAD software is that I could get a better curve forward of center and for the nose if I added another control point about 6-9" from the tip. It’s basically adding another “curve” to the combination, similar to the additional control point that’s at the tail block. From there you can shape the nose somewhat independently of the main curve.
Gentlemen…Please… Get out a tape measure, a framing square, some pencils, and an eraser(as needed). Start drawing lines on some masonite. Use your eyes, your mind, and your imagination. Work through it. You MAY have to struggle, or you MAY have a natural talent for it. Find out, eh? Best of luck.
With great respect, I spent years making masonite templates (still have them all) prior to working with the CAD programs. I can do templates either way - so no, there’s no struggle in doing a hard template. I just find the CAD programs much more flexible in terms of refining the curves to get exactly what I want. The CAD programs have enabled me to envision far more designs than I could ever possibly build. I actually tend to spend MORE time on a CAD design than I was spending on making masonite templates, because I enjoy it.
