On the subject of small... fixing my folly

I was planning to make a semi-replica of a lis fish. I made a ridiculous blunder when hurrying through some measurements, and to make a long story short, I’m now left with this 4’9" piece of foam to work with:

nose width is 11.5" (from 5 inches down)

tail width: 15.25"

widepoint: 21.5" (31.5" from tail)

thickness: 2.5"

Classic keel Lokbox fins already arrived for this one…

I’m 5’8, only 130 lbs (173 cm, 59kg), so i think i’ll still be able to do something with it.

So where would you go with it? Take a 1/2 inch off the the rails? right now my main fear is that the tail is going to be a bit too wide for the length…

4"9"?

I’d make one for each foot.

Cut it down and make a nice bodyboard.

In another thread (“How short is too short?”), Herb SPITZER wrote that his first board was a 4’9" twin-keeled rounded square.

Maybe you should ask him about it?

SA

Could be one bad-ass kneeboard. Shape it, fin it as planned, get some fins - for de feets, and ride it…

Great for those small tubey days with off-shores…

Pete

First of all, nose and tail measurements are taken 12" from tips of the board.

Then you can bisect it into 6", but you have to state that…

You didn’t mention the all important THICKNESS spec !

4’9" is plenty big, at 21" wide, but you will probably need a trailer fin if you surf hard.

Most keels being around 5" x 8", they are meant for tails around 16.5" wide (taken a foot up from the tip of the tail), and anything wider needs more fin.

You don’t need normal surfboard rocker, but a continuous rocker from tip of tail to nose is most desireable. You won’t pearl with such a short board, and flatter rockers catch waves and paddle much better.

Some really good 180 lbs surfers use 5’6" x 22 fish sizing, so your board is just fine for your weight.

If you want to get a few more inches in length you could add nose and tail blocks out of balsa or cedar or High density foam…

cheers

shane