I’ve been searching a lot lately on this topic, and have had some, but not all, of my questions answered.
I finally found the halved longboard I’ve been searching for to make a short 'n stubby fish. It’s a nose section of a former 9’0" that is 5"1.5" long (and believe me, I’m milking every possible quarter-inch). It’s 19or 20 in the nose, 22 in the center 22.5 (thickest point) starting about 5 inches south of center (and going all the way to the “tail”) and 2.75 or so thich from center to “tail.” The glass is still good to about 7" south of midpoint, and I’d like to keep it intact if possible (since I’ll be glassing myself, and the nose is just as round as I want it to be).
Basically, I’m trying to shape the thing into a 5"1’ fish with a retro tail (i.e., deep swallow). I’m wondering how narrow amd thin I need to make the tail. The problem is that I’m 6’2", 190—yeah, a little big to want a 5’1", but I’m willing to take the chance for the sake of art and experimentation. What I really want is something that will be as fast and floaty as possible for how small it is. The “tail” is pretty flat in the bottom, and the nose has minimal rocker and no concave, so I’m a little worried about pushing the nose down if I leave the tail too fat (although, as I said, I’m leaving it round in the nose, so it should float ok up there). Then again, I’m scared of taking too much off the tail, since I tend to oversink tails when they’re too flimsy .I’d like to keep the natural “pig” shape (i.e., wide point behind center) mainly out of not wanting to strip more glass, and to see what happens. Will this still cause the board to lose speed if I keep the tail fat?
Right now, I have the tail templated at 19", and then 13" from point to point at the tips, which I obviously will save for last. Does this still sound too wide for a guy my size? Should I put any tail rocker in? Should I make the tail a whole lot thinner, or can I get away with leaving it thick? Would I be better off making it a roundtail singlefin, or is that just silly? Don’t tell me its too small for me, because I’m too amped on trying this out to stop now! Thanks in advance.
I rode a 4’2" and later a 5’4", at 6’6" and probably weighed 210#, my bro the same though he was a little lighter. But it was so long ago, late sixties…
The board essentially won’t paddle at that length. You’ll have to fall into the wave. Leave all the meat you can; all the length too. This will not be a board you’ll surf much if anyone else is around, they’ll paddle on by as you grovel.
The template, and even the rails, will be so overpowered by your size that it really doesn’t make much difference what you shape.
BTW, thickness has no effect on the way the board rides, since once you’re planing, displacement has no role. Thickness only puts your rear foot a little farther from the surface at which the pivotal action is happening. I think you’re gonna want all the thick you can keep.
The fins are about the only thing that will influence theboard. I dunno what to suggest, but my 5’4" had a fin the size of a cooking banana. Fortunately, side-slipping was cool back then, and we did a lot of that . My brother eventually took the board out in moderately large Bayfront (Hilo) pre-cord days, lost it and no one saw it again after that.
…it would be good if you could join a foot of foam to it , like the guy here in kalbarri does , so you could make a 6’1 or bigger board / fish ! A wide squaretail might be worth considering , maybe [you would have six or so inches of leg not dragging in the water , then , if you forgo the fish tail 6" bumcrack everyone here seems to enjoy]…
…Do you know anyone else who has snapped a longboard they don’t want , lately ?
…or , better still , can you get the OTHER half of THAT one ?
Yeah, I guess I’m guilty of jumping on the bumcrack-fish bandwagon—but it’s because I shaped my first board last year, a 6’2" retro fish, and I LOVE it. It’s both fast and responsive, really a magic board. I definitely got lucky with that one; I’ve been surfing since the mid-'80s and it’s by far the bast board I’ve ever had. I’ve just been curious about going shorter lately, and I love the idea of recycling a busted longboard. Thanks, Charlie, for your call on keeping thickness in the tail and your caution on groveling on suck a small board—I guess that’s what I kind of expected.
On the other hand, I hadn’t thought about joining two pieces. I’m a little nervous to do it over the stringer, but if I keep my oh-so-painfully-trendy fish tail that’s worked so well for me, I could probably go up to 5’5", since the break in the board is diagonal from 5’1.5" to 5’5", and I could easily make a tip on one side from extra foam. I’m stuck on the fish tail because it rides so unlike all the boring squashtail thrusters I rode over the years (shittily, might I add). I finally get the zip and snap I’ve always craved, and I think it’s the combination of a nice floaty tail with those two pins and sharp edges. I’m wondering now if those 3.5 inches will make any difference, though. I’m just so fired up to make something, anything, out of this board piece, and ride it. It’s not like I have anything to lose here beyond a bunch of resin, fiberglass, and braincells when I inevitably try valiantly to glass the sucka.
Thanks for your posts, guys. It’s nice to know I’m not alone.
… caught nose rails a few times on late drops [about the only option …it / I didn’t paddle / float really well ! ] *
I was 5’9 and 145 lbs at the time , too , so good luck with YOUR size , and a 5’1 board ?!
So…WHERE is the other half of that mal ??
By the way , did you see the thread by Ben [‘Shipman’] on the snapped mal [‘longboard’] that HE did a fish out of ?
cheers
ben
I still reckon if you put out a call for a back half of a snapped longboard , you could do a bigger fish that you could have a bit more fun on ! …but that’s just me . If it “doesn’t work” [well] , as it is , for you … it could still DEFINATELY stoke out some grom for a first board , I’m sure !
Thanks to my new Aussie friend for the tip on joining pieces of the other half of the broken mal to the new “fish.” Although I’m still reluctant to join it at the stringer, I can pull off making up to a 5’8" if I make the now-cliche 6" buttcrack, since the stringer itself goes up to 5’2", which only leaves the necessity of shaping two tips from the leftover foam. That will also push the wide point closer to the lengthwise center, and if I take off a little more original glass, I can even take the rails in a little and put the widest point a little north of center. I’m now looking at a 22" wide point, with a 19" tail. Pretty wide, I know, but that’s what I wanted to experiment with anyway. So this brings up a new question: Since the new fat point is probably down around 2-2 1/4" (it’s a longboard nose, so I can’t do much about that), do I need to take a whole bunch of thickness off in the back? I don’t want to go too crazy with tail rocker, but shaving some of the 2.75" thickness in the back will do just that, I think. Is it ok to have that much thickness in the tail? The way it “planes” now, the thickness in the tail is caused by an upward slope in the deck, since it sits relatively flat. I wonder if that thickness is going o make a difference? Sorry to ask all these silly questions—I’m just really getting into this!
Better to strip it, and epoxy some of the length back on. Too small for your size.
I stripped a buckled 9’3", left the break intact so it would add on an extra 8+ inches. Got it to a 5’10". I built for my wife, she wasn’t sold on it, but a friend was, sold it to him. Good luck–
All right, Chipfish, you talked me into it, sort of… I decided to go with the stubby version: a wide diamond tail—because of the way the original board snapped (diagonally), it’s the one way I can get the most possible length out of the fragment. I’ll try to borrow a camera as soon as possible. But I decided against gluing sections on: if this one doesn’t work for me, so be it—chalk it up to experience, and stoke out some open-minded grom. I am just so amped to make something out of it, because it’s there. So there it is. wide diamond tail, 19" in the tail, 5’3" long, 22" at its widest, around center point, and 2-2.25" thick from center to tail. (That’s what I meant in my last, admittedly drunken, post. Sorry for the crypticism.) The nose has a bit of a scoop in it, and the tail is FLAT in the bottom. I’m thinking of throwing in a single fin box, since I’ve done one of those before and I’m curious. If, by some off chance, it floats my fat ass, I’ll test it out and throw in some twins, just to see if I can do it. Man, this is fun! I can’t wait for the nex one (which, I’m sure, will be something more like a 6’4" disc or something.) Thanks again to everyone who gave me his 2¢ so far.
Thanks to all of you who helped me with my fat 'n ugly stubbie project. I’m happy to say that the board is shaped and glassed, and I caught the aftermath of Hurricane Daniel on it.
The final product is a 5’3" (yes, 5’3") stubbie with a wide 'n shallow diamond tail. (the diamond only comes in 2 or 3 inches, but the “points” are at least 16 inches apart. I think I said the nose was 19" or something akin. The tail is 19 or 20 (don’t have my tape on me at the moment), wide point is 2.5", smack dab in the middle, and the tail is BIG AND FAT. I put in a single fin box and glassed a layer of 6 and a layer of 4 on the deck, 2 layers of 4 on the bottom. It’s my first glass job, so it is UGLY! I mean ugly.I screwed up the glassing on the rails pretty bad, and the ensuing sanding made the rails somewhat asymetrical. I have a while to go to reach craftsman status, I guess.
But that’s ok, because much to my surprise the thing floats me like a dream—better than any of my other shortboards. I took it out to 1000 peaks (a relatively weak brreak on Maui’s South Shore) this morning and the other day, and it held in both waist and head-high surf. It’s definitely squirrely as hell—the tail is so fat that even I, a pretty heavy, back-foot surfer, don’t sink it. I’m happy I put in a single and not twinnies, because it’s already like riding a little skateboard—actually, more like a snowboard, since it turns more by pivoting than by carving. It’s definitely a novelty board: it won’t win any speed contests. But I was catching more waves this morning than many of the longboarders out there, and I can whip the thing around like a champ . . even took it off the lip a couple of times (and mind you, I’m no sponsored surfer or anything). It definitely doesn’t like strong offshores (the trades came up at 8 or so, and kept bowing me right off of the waves). But overall, I’m extremely happy with it. Thanks, chipfish61, for talking me into the stubbie shape.
Thanks again for all your help. Kickass website. I’m still working on getting some photos, but the thing is so ugly that I’m afraid I’ll get laughed off the internet. But I don’t really care that much, since the thing actually works. Next project: 6’4" egg from a 6’9" EPS fish blank. Can’t wait. (And this time, I"m dropping the bucks for a decent glass job. The experience definitely heightened my already-lofty respect for the glassers out there!)
