As much as I’d love to surf with my wife, I think it’s better that she doesn’t surf because I go crazy when I take my girls surfing. I’m always worrying about their safety. Not so much about them hurting someone, but someone hitting them.
I guess my brother and I were lucky that my dad didn’t surf. He just did his thing at the beach house while us kids played in the water. I don’t even think he worried about us getting hurt. But then again, by the time we were surfing outside, we had quite a few years behind us. They did watch us when we were little water rats playing in the shore break.
I’m making a board for my older daughter who’s away at college. She didn’t like riding the boards I had during the winter break ( all single fins). I’m making a 7’ 4" x 21 1/2" x 3" with an outline pulled from a Parmenter stub vector. It’s another Home Depot Compsand with a woven bamboo bottom skin. Don’t know what the top will be yet, maybe balsa, maybe wiliwili, maybe more woven bamboo. It will be like all my other boards, long single fin box and 2 side bites. I hope to have it done by spring break.
Be careful man, a surfing girlfriend is not all its cracked up to be. Where you gonna go when your in the dog house? Are you going to go and sit next to her in the lineup? just my .02
On the other hand post some pictures when your done.
this is a classic thread, makes me laugh to hear some of the best board builders around throw their .02 cents in about women :) some of it is really wise and some of it could use some adjustments haha. im only in the high school years so take it as it comes, but my first girlfriend ripped and that was really fun (got alot of shit from my friends) but who cares right?... second girlfriend really wanted to surf alot but wasnt very talented and never got motivated, that was kinda lame. my most recent one just sits on the lifeguard tower at riviera and reads or runs around the trails when we are down at lowers. it works out well and i really like coming in to somebody who isnt trying to explain to me about how somebody burned them or how they got the best wave of the day. i guess there are the right times to go surfing with a girl... im waiting for a hot, 2 foot, summer day at san o to expose her to surfing
have you thought about beefing up the nose rocker on her board? it wont paddle as well, but in whitewash i dont think it matters that much and if you are pushing her in. it will definitely reduce the pearling. also, i do a kids surf clinic during the summer and we paint lines on the boards so the kids know where to lay when paddling, obviously it changes if we get a really big kid or a small kid, but for the most part we just say keep your body behind the line and it works out well. helps to have something visual there to boost confidence... just my thoughts
“Dude, Bro, Guy, Pal, the beach is radical.” “Gnaaaarrrrllllly campsite, dude.” HAHA Just kidding.
I let my wife mix my tints and she loves it. All my boards are her favortie colors. Whenever I’m showing off and telling about my builds she loves to chime in and tell how she glassed them! God she’s so funny. I swear I married lucy. “Honey I’m home. Where are my resing buckets?! You got some splaning to do.”
Here’s a cautionary tale to whoever is thinking about that summer surfer girl. My good friend has a hangup about fat people. He’s a little weird and has lots of quirks. He’s been dating a surfer girl who when I first met her, she proclaimed how she goes every day and is a “hardcore local.” That was last summer. Now she doesn’t want to surf in the cold water and has gained like 30lbs. My friend is flipping out and can’t handle the relationship anymore. She also drinks a gallon of beer a day and has lots of bros. I told my friend to find another girl
The number of girls who paddle out once anymore than a fullsuit is needed is extremely small. A girl I took a class with a year ago ran into me at the gym. Her parents bought her a board, suit, gloves and booties, and she wants to take me up on my offer to teach her. She has a phenomenal backside, and I don’t mean her surfing
I've been with my girlfriend for thirty years. Married for almost 25 of it. She wanted to learn when we were young. I told her o.k. First, you need to learn how to paddle. That's as far as she got and I'm glad. I admit to being very selfish when it comes to surfing. I don't want to surf with my wife. I don't wait for ANYONE when I'm going surfing. I don't wait for them to get up, sip some coffee, read the paper, or anything else. I get up and go surfing. I want her to stay in bed, go run, do whatever she wants, but I don't want to take her surfing. It's my thing. I like it when she tells me I need to go surfing, or I've noticed you have not built a board lately. YEAH!!! I love you. I'll be back after a while. Mike
Thanks for the input, everyone, I definitely see a theme starting to develop, with a couple of outliers, such as Ken, who obviously is enjoying the best of both worlds :) I should say that although she sucks at surfing and has no balance, as well as gets visibly and vocally frustrated the few times she's been out, she still has a little kernel of interest left in her. Every time I've started a new board, she asks if it's for her. I hold no delusions that she's going to be a "surf mate", or someone who'll join my small crew, but the couple of times that she goes out in the summer, I'd hope that she would have a little fun. I hope I didn't come off like an ass in my original post, I enjoy my time without her in the water while she's doing stuff she likes to do and I feel like I bring a little stoke back from the ocean into our relationship every time I'm out, although she's still disgusted by the onset of sudden post surf nasal drip. I may have been exaggerating when I said that it's putting a strain on our relationship, really it's only a strain when she's cussing up a storm in the surf. So, despite everyone's cautionary tales, I'm going to go ahead and make the board. I'll try again to post the AKU pdf in full size:
Well, close enough. So, I should say that I've been making my own blanks from insulation foam, so that limits me to 8', or just under. I like scboy4382's suggestion of beefing up nose rocker, I've taken it up to 7" and move the "mid-rocker" (is that a word?) point up about a foot forward. What I'm wondering about is thinning out the tail, like in th pdf, will that help prevent the the tail lift that's causing nose to drop and the pearling in the first place? What I've noticed, especially when I'm surfing a longboard, is that setting up the bottom turn immediately after take off prevents me from pearling, and since she can't even conceptualize a bottom turn, and will initially only be going straight, maybe I should not only flip nose rocker to help "catch" when she starts to pearl, but also do something with the tail to make sure it's not lifting and causing the nose to drop in the first place? Would increased tail rocker help in this instance?
I realize that I'm asking for help to design a board that will basically surf waves in a different way than any of us would ever want to, but I appreciate everyone's thoughts nonetheless. And Ken, good tip about the sidebites, I'll lose them. Would twins work, or should I stick with a single fin? Any thoughts on fin setups would be much appreciated, too. Thanks again, everyone.
my “2” - for lots of folks, it actually kind of sucks to learn on a new custom stick - something about the newness, they’re just too much pressure. How about this - you shape yourself a new nifty board - but make it a wide thick floaty one, made for small dumpy learner waves (kind of like the one you have planned!) - next, buy her a used one, preferably a soft top. Now you have the perfect learner set-up, you can paddle out and have fun with her at the learner spot on your surf-coach special, and she can learn the basics. I’ve done it both ways with my kids, and I must admit a softop is pretty sweet for learning. It can take a couple years to get someone comfortable, so patience grass-hopper.
having said that, I couldn’t agree more with Rooster! - when I want to go, I’m already gone - I’d rather surf than eat!
ken made a good point, single fin would be perfect. rubber prevents "injuries." if you increase the tail rocker (because of bernoullis principle) the tail will be pushed downwards and the fin will be kept in the water. there are a bunch of great threads on noserider concepts and design that would help you alot with this project. i dont know if this applies as much when the nose rocker is increased so much, but i would look at those threads. the best way to make a board like this is to think the entire board is the wing of an airplane and you want all your upward thrust focused on the front 2 feet of the board so when she goes straight down the physics will help the board lift. what kind of wave are you teaching her on?
Gold indeed Sak - That, and as Doc re-defined it, doing your own thing in peace… Something to be said about allowing others, and being allowed, to be as we are.
As for the board - I think the entry rocker is to much. You can get what you want in the first foot - lot’s-o-flip and vee, but bing it together, low and flat by @ 18".
