Hi there people. I’ve been a long time reader of the discussions on this site and I have garnered much useful information over the years. I’ve been making boards for about ten years for myself and my friends. I also have a passion for chasing an area of surfspots near my home that are rarely ridden. Generally I have to surf by myself on the big days, although from time to time I can get someone to paddle out with me.
Many of these spots hold 8foot Hawaiian, and there’s a couple which will hold significantly bigger. They are all pretty mutated as the reefs here are very uneven. The water is very deep just offshore, the swells can be rather raw and the offshores strong. I have a nice thick 7’4" that I made about eight years ago that has served me well in waves up to 8 foot. Unfortunately when it gets bigger than that the only way to take off is to swing round under the lip. generally I get pounded but I have made a few.
To cut a long story short I want to make a real gun for the really big stuff that arrives four or five times a year. Unfortunately there’s nobody round here that owns such a board for me to copy. There’s no shapers here making really big guns either. I can’t source a decent rhino blank either as they don’t get imported into this country and the manufacturers have ignored my emails. I’ve had to order a longboard blank which I may have to cut the stringer out of and make a new one if the rocker doesn’t suit.
I have searched this message board and I really haven’t been able to find the information I’m looking for. If there is a topic somewhere that I have missed then please accept my apologies. Basically I want to make a 9’0" Thruster. This is what I would really like to know:
1/ Some different fin set outs.
2/ Some different sets of dimensions, eg width of tail, nose, wide-point and location of wide point.
3/ Some photos of some boards looking side on so I can check out the rocker.
4/ Some basic bottom contours for a thruster. I was thinking of a very simple V bottom.
You could make your own blank. As for the rest, there are lots of different thoughts on guns around here. I made my first 10’er as a scaled up version of an 8’er I loved - Turned out good.
here’s a good hint – look in the resources section of Sways, in the photo archive, there are lots of 9’ boards, and then check out guns made by Hand-Shaper, Resinhead, Balsa, Greg Griffin and others. (They are also on quivermag now, here’s a sample link:)
my personal thinking for a 9 foot gun, depending on what kind of surfer (midget or gorilla?) general ranges = 19 to 22 inches wide, nose and tails in the 9 to 12 inch range, thickness in the 2.25 -3.5 inch range… fin cluster a bit on the spread out side. A lot depends though…and as always, your mileage may vary!!
Good guess, yep I’m in New Zealand. Lower North Island. I lived in Margaret River for a while and the waves here are similar in power although a bit more mutated. They don’t get as big as often as Margs. We don’t get Mavericks size, I guess 15 foot would be the biggest, and that’s only a few times a year. 10 foot is quite common though during the Autumn and Winter. It’s the rawness of the waves here due to the bottom contours that make them so challenging.
I am of average size and build.
Anyway, thanks for the link. Some very helpful information there.
Talk to Bill Thrailkill. He comes on here frequently, and i had the privelage to talk to him a month or two ago on the same subject. He is a wealth of knowledge and could help you out a ton. thanks again for your time on the phone a couple months ago.
My board is non existent at the moment I will build for next winter, but he talked to me about square tail guns and it seems to be the way to go. search the archives and I'm sure there's a ton of info. good luck
There was a guy who used to post quite a bit named LeeDD. I can remember several of his gun related posts that made a lot of sense. One thing he mentioned was the importance of balance... I.E. avoid the extremely pulled tails commonly seen in some Hawaiian designs for extremely fast hard breaking waves. For most of us a board with too narrow of a tail causes the tail to sink in to the face on take-off and causes late drops. A wider tail will get you in quicker. Adequate rocker (nose and tail) can be a help on steep take-offs. I've also found that a bit of belly about 2/3 up from the tail keeps some of the longer boards from getting 'slap-happy.' Keith Melville is correct on fin layout being more spread out. Lining up your sidebites more parallel with the stringer makes for a faster but slightly less maneuverable board. The final tail outline (square, swallow, round-pin) is less important than overall volume, outline, foil and rocker. In bigger waves, being able to paddle around and actually catch the darn things is key. A big board can really help.
The rear rocker is REALLY key, it lets you push down the wave hard without risking pitching.
2 7/8" thick (snappage protection and easier paddling)
Trifin setup with rear fin at 5" and front fins at 13", only toe in the front fins 1/8" and set them 1 1/8" off rail and use fins with narrower base widths (NOT meaty fins, gun fins). Note: fins are spread 8 inches fore-aft.
Max width 4 inches in front of the middle and in the neighborhood of 19.5"
Tail width 12 inches, nose width 11. Modest reverse Vee contour.
Contour, however, is less important. Rear rocker, widths, thickness, etc. You could also scale this down to as short as 8’ for this type of wave if you have arms of steel and brass balls. If you scale up to 9’ be sure to add a quarter inch of rear rocker and 1/8" thickness.
HTH. This board worked great for me in waves like those you describe. YMMV,
Thanks for all the advice. I finished the board a couple of weeks ago. Took it out for a test run today. The waves were double head height at best so I was way over-gunned. Still it seemed to go okay.
The board’s dimensions are 9’2" by 20" by 3". I adapted a 9’6" template from the Blending Curves site. The board has 3 inches of rocker in the back and 6 in the front. I ended up using a longboard blank. I had intended to make a 9’0" but the extra two inches seemed to make better use of the blank’s rocker.
It’s a thruster.
It is glassed with two layers of 6 ounce cloth top and bottom.
When you see it next to my 7’4" and 6’3" it really looks long! Hopefully we’ll get a swell to really test it by the end of this winter.
Template and numbers you provided are in the right range. Should handle faces up to 30-35 ft true face height (or would under my feet - you may be better than I am). Should turn like a Mack truck in waves double overhead - that is OK.
I got some pretty standard fins and set them out using your dimensions, although I did stretch them out a bit since I made a 9’2". Other than a bit of a bottom turn I couldn’t turn the board in the DOH waves. I’m hoping to be riding it in at least double that size so I’m not to concerned about it’s turning abilities.
I got some pretty standard fins and set them out using your dimensions, although I did stretch them out a bit since I made a 9’2". Other than a bit of a bottom turn I couldn’t turn the board in the DOH waves. I’m hoping to be riding it in at least double that size so I’m not too concerned about it’s turning abilities.
I couldn't turn the board in the DOH waves. I'm hoping to be riding it in at least double that size so I'm not too concerned about it's turning abilities.
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At 9' 2'' I'd be real concerned if I had ANY difficulty turning in DOH waves. The planshape looks quite functional, so you may have a fin, or rocker problem. Or both. My observation is based on considerable experience with big wave board design, and construction. I hope you get it worked out.
I had a 9’10" that was real tough to surf in DOH waves, but was not really a problem in much larger waves. The 8’6" I posted dimensions of had no problems in DOH waves but was tough to surf in 8-10 ft face waves or smaller because it could not turn well. As the water speed increases, so does the fin action, so that any board designed to be ridden well in very big waves will not turn well in smaller waves.
