Hey guys,
I am new to Sways and I have been having a discussion among friends that I thought might be great to bring to the community. Being a NJ local I am used to dumping beach break and I have always questioned if it would be worth building a finless board for NJ? I would love to hear thoughts and see pics of anything people have tried. I look forward to seeing some fun designs.
There’s really only a couple places in the state that I’d even attempt trying it. I think for the most part your instincts are right… fast, dumpy beach breaks are not ideal for finless boards.
Yeah…I would agree. From what I gather from speaking to a few people regardling alaia surfing is that the ideal wave for finless is a nice shouldery pointbreak.
Check out the Tuna by Tom Wegener.
However…I think you can play around with some EPS foam from a hardware store, some fiber glass and easily come up with something like Ryan Burch’s block…google “ryan burch styrofoam”
obviously he makes this look easy wehn Im betting its difficult…but heaps of fun.
We are going to mimic this kind of design over the next few weeks in a couple of little blocks… Litterally a tiny bit of nose rocker, and a nice concave towards the back, like in the tuna for some kind of bite.
cheers,
j
the boys are right, those waves are the opposite of what ya want when surfing with lessfins, you want a shapely wave that isnt too steep and hollow, but they can be managed once you master things and get ya skills with no fins up…right board for the right waves is the GO…
Tom Mahady built one a few years ago and let some people try it.
http://www2.swaylocks.com/forums/little-something-different-finless-catagory
The board looked insanely good, but as mentioned our waves usually aren’t appropriate for that type of thing. I remember one of the california guys, I think it was Ian Zamora, brought an alaia to the first AB3 and had a beotch of time with it. Later he said to me that he was surprised that even when our waves are small they are still shortboardable. The mellow type of wave appropriate for those things, just usually isn’t found here.
Depending on where you’re from in the Garden State, I must say that there are a bunch of waves (mouth shut), days and tides that allow for “finless” surfing. If you want to make one, make one and wait for the day.
Ive made a few pine and white cedar alaias, and I’ve also made a few “fish” finless plane shapes. They worked great depending on your ability and wave choice. And the sustained speed is arresting. I thought I could kill someone on the wood ones when i would hit max trim.
After reading some threads and some of wegener’s instructional pieces, the most important element seems to be the rocker and then adding “bands” (please pardon my ignorance) on each side of the hull’s rail line. I’ve made some that we’re flat from rail to rail with a singlemconcave starting in the middle through the tail and the suckers would slide ass every wave, every attempt.
Wegener and other people noted that once you roll the hull’s entry and mid section (i do a single concave then through to the tail), you then should add said “bands.” Once I did this, the board would roll over (like a finned board usually does) and it would also redirection fairly well. The best way to describe the design of the bands is that they catch on the wave’s face- sometimes.
Im aware how over simplified this is, but I just wanted to knock out the classic excuse of a locale not warranting a board to be conceived, and then another dream gets tossed into the “should have” bin. Make it, ride it and adjust from there. Also, search the alaia threads with regards to bottom contour- The pros know and the semi pros have a great deal of time to give. Bless them all.
Best of luck!
Charles Mencel
ride one of those before you decide to make one similar, best to try one if you can, especially in the waves you think you will surf it in…
I do a few and you can check em out here if interested…mine are different and I wanna surf em different to most , but alot of fun, but in the right waves and the right approach from the surfer…
Points for sure. Here’s Scott Caan (Hawaii 5-0, etc.) riding one at Malibu
surfstory, I think everyone on here has a good point.
I’ve tried one of the Wegener finless boards in Belmar and had a tough time with it–it’s really different and the fast pitchy waves don’t lend well to setting a rail and layin’ down a bottom turn.
Then again, there seems to be a few days (hours?) out of the year when riding one of those could be a lot of fun.
If I were you, I’d build one and leave it in the car on those few days where things look like they might line up. Then, if you paddle out and it seems like it might work, go grab it!
Either way, make it look real purty and if it sucks you can just hang it on the wall…