I 'll pick up a new Swift widowmaker today which comes from a collaboration between Neil Purchase Jnr and Andrew Kidman. It’s called the “Shnub” and has no measurements on it but is 5’10" X 20 & 1/4. Need some calipers to figure out the thickness.
Awfully short for my 44 yrs and 82kgs but I have to see how it goes. Shame the swell which has had the points firing at Noosa for a week has finally dropped today.
I haven’t been able to find much information on widowmakers except for the widowmakers semi gun thread here.
Awesome, lovely looking board and you can have all sorts of fun with different fins in that. Let us know how it feels. I bet you’ll adapt to the length quickly- I’ve become a convert to the shorter, wider and thicker concept.
I only have a tape measure in cms on me and the leading edge of the fins are 40cms up from the tail and they are 8cms tall. An FCS M7 fin is 12cms to give a comparison.
The centre fin is an 8" (sorry to mix cms & inches) fibreglass which looks very much like a Greenough 4A fin I have in another board.
The board was actually shaped by Neil Snr and is supposed to have a similar shape as one of Michael Peterson’s boards as seen in Morning of the Earth.
how much did you pay for it? im asking because a japanese friend of mine purchased a swift twin fin for $1300 and hated it after a few surfs. he had been riding one of my twins for 5 years and i was away when he needed it… he wanted to sell the swift and we were interested in what we could get for it? p.s. he got a new quad of me last week and is totally stoked and back in magicland…
I’ve become a convert to the shorter, wider and thicker concept.
Hey consafos, my homemade fish is 6’2’’ x 16 x 22 x 16, and is 3’’ thick, with thickness all the way from the nose to the tail. It’s great!, it means i can catch tiny waves and have a lot of fun, which is my main goal in a surfboard. About the biggest waves i surf are probably a foot overhead, and while a bit sketchy at that size, its insanely fast and loose, it goes great.
Paid a measely $500 for it so I Know if I hate it then I can get most if not all of my money back.
I’d be suprised if I hate it as I’ll only ride it when the waves are juicey. My only concern is floatation as I have a 5’10" epoxy fish and a 6’4" single which are both very good paddlers.
For anyone who may be interested I rode one of Murray Burton’s weirder creations, a 6’2" Pipedreams cutaway fin, twin fin, “Trippun fish” out at National Park Noosa last Friday and the speed was sensational. So much fun having speed to burn on a reeling point wave. Apparently the quad version is even better.
Hey Chippie,
I’m pretty familiar with your boards and fin fetish as I read a lot and post little. Love playing around with fins as well.
Beautiful board you got there, i rode one of Neil Purchase Snr widow makers last year, it went great a touch small for me as it was 6’2", but the speed was amazing and the ability to get around sections. Last week i rode one of Billy Tolhursts widows they have a slightly fuller outline paddled very easily for a 6’2" as fast as a rocket down the line but a little awkward to cutback. I am waiting on a 6’6" Dain Thomas widow with a swallow tail 20" wide hope it rides sweet.
and as always, I would love to see pics of those two boards. I’ve seen a few of Dain’s widows and they look great- never seen one of Billy Tolhurst’s though. Mollusk Surfshop up in SF had a couple of the Neal Jnr. boards that were beautiful- I think there’s still one up on their site mollusksurfshop.com
