Open letter to Greg Loher: Thanks for the new design

General Discussion
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Not so much a letter, and kind of self serving to ol resinhead:

Greg I want to thank you for the new surfboard design, WMD timberflex design is by far the most exciting thing i have surfed in a long time. I ranks up there when i went from a single fin, to a MR style twin fin…mind blowing. Today is the 6 day I’ve have had a chance to surf the new board/design. Today was by far the biggest, thumpy day at about 1 1/2 OH (10ft faces) chunky storm surf, Resinhead the only guy out, everybody else just watching…WTF, sunny, light off shore…toxic after rain surf…I think I paddled over a dead cow, a wooden pallet, only to be clogged by a tumbleweed…what’s a tumble weed doing in the lineup…I digress. The other days the surf was maybe up to head high and below and soft. Surfing the board in smaller surf was a blast…loose with drive. Big round house cut backs that kept energy to blast out of the turn off the white water and keep going. I thought hey this will be a great small wave board.

Well today I pushed it real hard, I mean real hard, Our Winter has been the worst in 50 years, so I had a fricking mission. Long story short, I had a shit eating grin for almost 2 hrs. No more staged bottom turns that have plagues my other EPS boards, no more lack of projecting out of the bottom turns like other EPS boards. And after my leash broke…yes my leash broke. My board washed up and over the cobblestone of Pickleweed Pt. As I swam in, I watched it take 6 or 7, 8ft high tide shore breaks waves right on the spine, smashing, driving the board up against the cliff, only to be dragged back out to sea…as another wave smashed it. I was freaking…and swimming like a madman

Well the board came away with a slightly cracked nose, and a rail crush that can be fixed with a small glass patch… Nothing on the bullet proof deck, or bottom. WTF, this board should have been obliterated. If it was poly, I would have just left it.

So I get back to my point: I don’t know if its the combination of a flat bottom with a quad fin, or if it’s the combination of the WDM with a quad, of if it’s just the flat bottom., but all of the above is fricking amazing…This time i really stepped out of my comfort realm, and stepped into the future. Let me ask you, when was the last time you saw a non-pro, over 48 year old guy, full-time employed person doing floaters, cutbacks, roundhouses, laybacks, stalls, late take offs, etc, etc, etc…you get my drift, this board made it feel easy. I thought my EPS lightweight was a blast, this thing leaves it in the dust. Greg this design took 25 years off my surfing, and i still havent messed with the Probox set up?

Ok so I’m rambling. 1) Greg doesn’t know me from a hole in the ground, I get no bro deals, or free RR epoxy. I’m not connected with Segway Blanks or any of that crew. 2) I’m just a guy building surfboards for fun, and my bros. So heres the deal, if you know how to build a surfboard you owe it to yourself to try one. if not, have someone make you one. The beauty of having “your favorite shape” in the Firewire type design is amazing. Make a big one, make a fat one, make a wide one, make a long one. Just make your favorite board. Theses things are tough, lightweight, lively, loose, stable, and fast as shit.

Thanks Greg, Ken, Cindy, Sam, Tate, and the Cerritos JC crew. It’s taken me 4 years to find the right material for my big guy design, I think I have finally found it…I’m so pumped!!!

I sound like a fricking cult Mo Fo. well maybe I am now?

Resin “Jim Jones” Head

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No pictures, didn’t happen.

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kool aid

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harsh

(laughing)

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OK Resinhead … I’ve taken the bait, hook line and sinker !!!

Sounds like the board that will take me back to a mis-spent youth

I’m the wrong side of fifty, but I’m backing oceanrider for pictures of magic carpet (Board)… (lol) (lol)

man one of the few postings thats put a smile on my face in a while … God Bless and hope you have more install

W

PS Don’t 4get the pic’s of the beast

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I’m so pumped!!!

I sound like a fricking cult Mo Fo. well maybe I am now?

Resin “Jim Jones” Head

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Cool story! Great surf.

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Listen you seal porkers,…What you want pictures of dings? or a picture of the board. The board is on the WMD thread. the dings are drying out in the garage. Why would I Bull Shit on something like this? I don’t sell boards, I get my fair share of waves, I can hold my on at most crowded surf breaks, no one pays me to talk about this crap…My goal 4 1/2 years ago on Swaylock’s was to make sure the art of surfboard making didn’t die, I wanted to pass along some of the knowledge other showed me. All for the love of surfing, and to rub the nose of those in the industry that thought they were too cool, to “untouchable”, those guys that wouldn’t say hi, on give you a nod in the line up…I fight for the common man, I fight for SWAYLOCKS! oops i digressed again.

Anyhow, making this board was a pain in the ass as making surfboards goes. I’d much rather do a poly board…just drive down to Mitch’s, get a semi preshaped X’XR what ever, couple of passes the thickness, turn the rails, maybe a little concave what have you. Glass it, sand it, fin it, surf it, all in one day with UV. No problems…right. the WMD thing…takes 2 days to make a big board blank, slab it, cut it, stringer it, clamp it, HD rails clamp…more Hd rail, peice the HD rails together clamp glue all over the place, ever try to get Gorilla Glue off your fingers? Then you get to shape a square block of foam. Then you get to source some cracked checked veneer from another state, then source a vac pump of e-bay that might work or not work, then you need to buy 200.00 worth of expensive epoxy, cloth, extra fin boxes, then wrap in 4 oz cloth, just to be sweating that you going to sand through the 4 oz the first time your mind wanders…you get the point.

Making poly boards is easy, and for most of us guys it’s fine. Most of the DIY surfboard makers here on this site will never make a really good board. Some have the skills, but not the time, some have the time but not the skills. The compsand thing is insane too, I’ve yet to see a DIY compsand that looked like a shaped foiled rocker surfboard. rocker boards, vac bags Divicel this balsa rail…there light, but not a refined shape. HWS, well I’ve never seen one that has a good nose…why is it that the HWS boards all have that fucked up nose thing going on? So you Throw this WMD thing into the mix, and like I said, make one if you can, or buy one from someone that can, or is willing to try.

Jim Jones maybe but those that know me know i like to try new materials…not so much new shapes. I wouldn’t use this material to make a keel fish, a classic longboard or retro single fin pintail. I personally stick to my tried and true shape that I personally know work. So with that said, any little change in design or material really stick out. And this WMD thing really sticks out.

As i said before, maybe it’s the combination of the entire surfboard that i made. Maybe i made something that can’t be reproduced ever again? I do know that i’ll be keeping this board in a travel bag, and I’m not afraid of taking it anywhere, and i will be finding a source to scan it in to an APE2000

So take it for whatever you want. I know one guy in Point Loma that won’t even shape an EPS board…and he’s sitting on 1.5 gallons of RR epoxy, and 200 yards of 4 oz cloth. to each his own and that’s what make us so special…isn’t that special? Ok this is my last post on the" my great board thing". i will post any details about the shape, fin placement, cant, toe, rocker thickness, foil, etc etc.

Did i mention that i hate seals? Repeal the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1974 before it’s too late.

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I take offense!

And BTW Greg opened us up to a new construction method, not a design…

I’m not trying to start something. I really liked the board you posted. I’m thinking the stoke you feel may be the flat bottom. I’m a flat bottom kind of guy. Fast and predictable. Now put the hard tucked edge the full length of the rail and replace the two big rear trailing quad fins with three small fins in line and you have a little bit of the Greg Griffin secret sauce.

PS I know what you’re talking about with the HTW. I think the funky noses on HTW has to do with not have anything to clamp on to beyond the nose. You know to get a fair curve you would need to extend wood battens about four feet beyond the nose to continue the curve. Or at least that’s what I’m thinking.

Please do post detailed dims of the board. I’m about to start a reiteration of my PV Cove fun gun and it always looks like you’re walking down a similar path.

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you’re sooooo lucky paul cannon quit the internets…

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well sooner or later allot more out there are going to to have decide on what they are willing to give up…

playing around here or feeding your family and having a roof over your head.

believe me

he’ll be back when things get better down there…

I think he started his own blog to get by

I think you can blog from your cell phone…

I’m happy for jay

I can feel his excitement especially since he’s done the whole stock EPS board thing and suffered their pluses and minuses.

I really feel sorry for the seals now.

I think foiled aluminum or stainless steel fins will soon be making a comeback cause its cheaper than G10 and cuts just as nice when sharpened correctly. We used to jam them in our old woolworth skin ripping styrofoam surfboards back in the 60’s for fun and control as groms… But I think it’ll be seal sushi now that Jay’s all psyched… :slight_smile:

I heard in the lineup this weekend that there’s a new game in town called “SUP railing”. It involves getting as much speed as possible to see how far you can drive your fins into the rail of the out of control beginner SUPper dropping in or snaking you. I heard the record is 3-4 inches if you’re good and got some beef behind you… Can’t want to get my big stainless fin done to try it…

Maybe Resinhead should adopt shooting SUPs in place of the seals… :wink:

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Plus you wont have to deal with all that dust when foiling them! I can only imagine what foiling stainless steel would be like, sounds like fun

Should the board be rated by the # of seals taken out or how young it makes you feel in the water?

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Hey now! i didn’t take a swing at Paul? From what i have seen Paul is pretty good at the compsand thing. he’s got a website, and he’s trying to sell a board or two. That puts him in a different category. I’m going after the buy my foam at home depot in 3 sheets, bought my balsa at Michaels craft shop, using west System epoxy, rocker table supported with bricks and sand bags, and vac bagging it with a 1968 Hoover upright…and a bag made out of an old Blue tarp, held together with duct tape. I mean it is the spirit of Swaylocks, and I tip my hat to the thrifty…But the possibility of quality work is slightly diminished under these conditions…Not impossible, but diminished… although repeatability is next to impossible.

Gotten way off topic here…Go make a new surfboard you pigs.

Now about that seal thing. Anything stainless steel and sharp has a place in my life. Maybe, just maybe we could use one SUP to destroy another SUP. We do a tow-in with a much larger, heavier SUP. We tow it in behind the Slayer 2000, and we outfit it with all sorts of those new fancy fins your talking about. This way we could just patrol up and down the beach…looking for SUP’s, seals, grey whales, dolphins…turtles, little kids. i mean anything that strikes our fancy? Kind of like an old Charles Bronson movie gone bad? Death Wish XXVII

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I think that with the heavy-duty exoskeleton of the WMD, you could probably just mount a harpoon gun on the bow of the board…

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I want pictures of you surfing 10’ all by yourself, and the crowd on the cliff in adoration. :wink:

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…Ok you caught me. I take it all back I was lying. You Seal Fondlers

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For the past 4 years I’ve been one step behind Resinhead…Today I find out that he’s older than me!!!

…Ha Ha you old FART…Leave those seals alone…Take out a few SUP’s!!!

Cole3.png picture by 1stingray1

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Seal Sniffer. Nice board…what’s that red tape for?

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Ok lets not pick on resinhead when we should be picking on those nazi right seals!

BTW I want to make a timberflex so bad, but I don’t even have the money to glass my last hws, I am a terd!

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No, No, Nooooo go ahead and take your best shots… I don’t give a shit!

There are those that I have surfed with on this forum. And then there are those of you for all I know cybersurfers in Kentucky on Huck Finn’s pre-pubecent soiled stained mattress pad??

Funny how the guys I have surfed with aren’t the ones questioning the validity of my comments. so like I said, take it for what it’s worth.