I am making my first board for 7 years, I weigh 115kg so am shaping a 6’8" x 21" x 3" Nugget style board and just can’t get my head around what bottom profile to use.
I need a board that will float my fat beer and bacon bloated body, (I’m working on it) will paddle flat out, as my local beachie is very quick and has a lot of grunt as it gets bigger, (Anesty) but most importantly, will still whip around when the opportunity presents itself, as I still don’t want to ride a mal/hybrid.
From poking around on the net and my own basic understanding of bottom design, it seems most crew are still using a single to double to vee combo, but I can’t get my head around the process of cutting the damn things. Would a full single be fast and still turn?
Yeah dude, I think were on the same page with the outline, but I’m not sure what a venturi bottom looks like. I’ve attached a pic of the McCoy Nugget I’m trying to copy, his is 6’11", mine is 6’8" with a slightly tighter tail as my local wave gets pretty steep.
Fastest might be a dead flat bottom with very little rocker. That’s the least drag anyways, but in surfing, speed is not nearly as important as decent paddling, good wave catching, easy quick turning, and forgiveness in all situations.
Fast is kinda useless for most surfers on most waves, as we tend to drop straight down, bottom turn, go off the lip, redirect a cutback…instead of going straight down the line in trim.
Do you want quick and responsive, but could spin out or be hard to bank over at speed, or do you want solid control, easy to bank (lotsa V), but not nearly as lively feeling?
If you’re looking to improve performance on a 6’8" shorty, go for quick and lively.
If this is your first shortboard that length, then consider your surfing skills, preferences, the kind of waves you ride, how many you get normally (on similar sized boards), and how well you turn now.
Thank Lee, I guess we all want that magic board that fits every situation. Your thoughtful reply has helped me narrow my focus down to this - 6’8" x 21" x 3", continuous curve outline, centre 2.5" back from middle, continuous rocker curve, 5.75" of nose rocker, flat through the middle, 2.5" of tail rocker. as for the tail contour, I dunno, maybe just a single concave. But the big question is - How will it go?
I’d go wider. 2 years ago, rode a 22.5" wide 5’6" fish. It was fine for my 5’10", 152 lbs.
Single concave out the back needs to be very shallow, as that is a fragile turning bottom shape. Rails tend to catch, not turn the board, as more rail digs in than you need. Almost every shapers uses V out the back, with the tail rocker muting it to a flat. A double concave is, of course, a V bottom with concaves each side of the stringer.
Go over 3.25" thick also, since you weigh 240.
If you have lots of experience riding 6’8"ers, then you can go much thinner.
So if I go double concave/vee through the tail, do the concaves project through to the flat? What about concave angle? Or are they parallel to the stringer? What about outside the fins? Most importantly of all, how deep?
I’ll make it as thick as I can from the blank I get, then adjust the foil acordingly.
