I stoked to say that I’ve been sucked into the art of board shaping and can’t wait to shape a board.
Below is the “rough sketch” of the board I want to shape.
Length: 5’9"
Width: Probably around 20"
Thickness: around 3"
Subtle singe concave all the way through, with a little more rocker than a retro fish.
I’m not really sure on EXACT dimensions, or rail shapes with this being my first attempt at shaping a board. I’m about 5’8" and weigh somewhere around 130-140 (haven’t checked in a while), and would ride this board in mushy or small waves that Wrightsville Beach oh so oftenly has.
We surf at Topsail. Got blanks from Greenroom. Also got boards made by Jimmy Keith. Whiskey fish and the carbon rail shortboard. I would suggest you download AKU shaper and develop your outline there. It can print out the outline on paper for you to make a template. Everything you need to shape your board is on this forum but it can be difficult to find. Be persistant and use as many different terms and phrases you can think of when you research each part of your build. You can read about every aspect of shaping but will not really understand what these guys mean until you do it. Usually it is after you do it you realize you did it not quite right and the result is not optimal. It really is quite mind boggling how many mistakes you can make. The easiest is to get hold of a Whiskey Fish and copy it's dimensions and I mean all of them like every 2-3 inches on the board. The problem is that these are only measurments and when you map it all out you still have to use your eye to make it look right. The artistry involved is the hardest part. Then have at it and compare the two and see how far off you are from his work.
my thoughts on this are ditch the single concave. ive been shaping alot of fishes and boards of that general size/shape lately and ive found that with the width and thickness those boards, they really dont need a single concave. i would go with a flat bottom for speed. maybe slight double concaves in the tail or even experimenting with channels. what is it going to be intended for? small and mushy conditions? in that case a flat bottom is the best bet
We surf at Topsail. Got blanks from Greenroom. Also got boards made by Jimmy Keith. Whiskey fish and the carbon rail shortboard. I would suggest you download AKU shaper and develop your outline there. It can print out the outline on paper for you to make a template. Everything you need to shape your board is on this forum but it can be difficult to find. Be persistant and use as many different terms and phrases you can think of when you research each part of your build. You can read about every aspect of shaping but will not really understand what these guys mean until you do it. Usually it is after you do it you realize you did it not quite right and the result is not optimal. It really is quite mind boggling how many mistakes you can make. The easiest is to get hold of a Whiskey Fish and copy it's dimensions and I mean all of them like every 2-3 inches on the board. The problem is that these are only measurments and when you map it all out you still have to use your eye to make it look right. The artistry involved is the hardest part. Then have at it and compare the two and see how far off you are from his work.
[/quote]
I actually own a 5'11 Whiskey Fish, and I love it especially in hollow waist-high and bigger, even up to slightly overhead it still works like a charm. However, I figured that since this is my first shaping attempt that I try something like a fish - but I don't want a twin fin. And a longboard would cost a lot more material-wise.
Like I said this is my first shaping attempt, so I’m not too sure about the dimensions. I wanna make sure that it’ll be really fun in small/mushier waves, but if i can go a little narrower and thinner, than I’ll be glad to adjust my measurements.
How much shorter could I go if I keep the width at least 19.5" and the thickness at least 2.75." I want a retro feel to it, but I also wanna be able to smack some turns and cutbacks.
[quote="$1"]
my thoughts on this are ditch the single concave. ive been shaping alot of fishes and boards of that general size/shape lately and ive found that with the width and thickness those boards, they really dont need a single concave. i would go with a flat bottom for speed. maybe slight double concaves in the tail or even experimenting with channels. what is it going to be intended for? small and mushy conditions? in that case a flat bottom is the best bet
[/quote]
Yes, mostly small and mushy but maybe small little hollows like those nice shorebreak waves that have their own sandbar and break like 15ft from the beach. but I wanna be able to do more than cruise, I'd like to be able to do cutbacks and etc.
BTW, thanks so far for some constructive comments, as this is my first try at this and most of it is so new to me.
Google AKU shaper or just use the link for the boardcad above. It is also a good program to play with. Last board I made was sort of a modern fish shape 5'10" x 20x 2.5" but quad fins and I used the Mckee formulas on their website for fin placement but sort of messed up the fin cant using FCS fusion plugs. Did more research on Swaylocks and Surfermag to correct this with the next board I try. It has a flat bottom for our type of waves with slight v in the tail and a little less than 2" tail rocker ,4" nose rocker. Flat bottom is easier to shape and the there are some good instructions on this site about doing a v panel. It rides ok, pretty fast and turns pretty well or so my son says. I am a terrible surfer so I rely on him for feedback.
And for fin placement, the rule of thumb is fronts about the same place as on a thruster (11-12 inches) with the back fins changing based on how you want the board to feel. If you want it too feel more like a thruster, keep them further back and towards the middle. For a looser, more twin like feel, move them up and out towards the rails. McKee’s site is a good starting place and a wealth of information, but in my opinion will lead to a more performance oriented feel. (The link I posted is definately to his site, but either my browser is messed up, or it has been hijacked by some Turks.)
For the concave, I’ve heard that a single all the way on a quad may not be the best way to go, at least not through the back third of the board. I recently shaped a quad and heard that out the back third you should deffinately go with some double concave or vee. This almost acts as a small fin (not literally) in that it helps recenter a quad or twin after a turn, something that happens naturally on a thruster, but not on a board without a center fin. The single concave will be good throughout the first half and from what I’ve read should transition to a double about 18 inches from the tail, putting the “sweet spot” right between your feet.
Disclaimer
(This is all based solely on what I’ve read and heard, so if any of you design gurus think this is a bit off, please don’t hesitate to straighten me out.)
For your first board, keeping it simple is probably best. A flat bottom will plane easily if the board is wide. Your sketch is very out of scale, try drawing on graph paper or using boardcad. I drew boards on graph paper all the time when I was a kid; you can plot your dims and sketch in lines to connect the dots, or draw freehand and then pull rough dims off that.
With a really wide tail and very thick board for your weight, it's going to be hard (impossible?) to put on a rail, and it certainly won't be quick or sensitive. This is a common mistake in designing small wave boards, thinking that thickness is going to magically make it livelier when it actually does just the opposite. 5'9'' x 19.5''-20'' x 2.25'' will be plenty of foam and much more surfable.
And please don't call it a fish, we don't want to get that controversy going again.
for the conditions you stated above it sounds like you want a pretty general condition surfboard that can still perform in bigger waves (haha dont we all). i would start with a flat bottom (single concave is not as favorable in smaller mushy conditions). change your tail dimensions, the design that is there right now wont be very good for making a cutback or doing hits. and make the board a little narrower. i dont know the thickness of your board, but if it isnt going to be very thick 50/50 rails are probably pretty good with hard down rails in the tail. if the board is thick and you have big thick rails, you might experiment and make the entire board hard down rails. many fishes have this and work very well. when you get on rail, the rail will act like a fin and hold in steep sections and when the shorebreak gets more hollow. i can send pictures of everything im talking about if you want. but have fun with it! first board is always the most fun one.
Honest opinion? The widepoint is ''forced'' on the outline, and too far forward. Rocker is very low also, not conducive to turning on rail. What you have is going to give you a retro feel, which is not what I thought you were looking for.
I’m trying to get a board that I’ll be able to do nice flowy turns on, not snaps and fins-out per se. I actually want the tail a little wider than what the AKU shaper already shows, almost so that it looks like a retro twin fin but with a diamond tail, although not AS wide. Perhaps by widening the tail the curves won’t looked as “forced.”
A wider tail would help the curve, but at your weight it'll slow the rail-to-rail a lot. I'd just move the wp back to slightly ahead of center and that might clean things up. Now that you're in the CAD program, you can play with #s (pulling in the wp a little etc.) until you get a clean curve.
I just re-worked the shape until it looked alright. The tail is a little wider though, or else this board would turn out looking like my other board.
I don’t mind if this board doesn’t ride like a shortboard, I actually prefer it to be more on the retro side. Perhaps I could shorten the length and this would decrease everything else proportionally?
Good job cleaning up the curve, looks much better. Should be a skatey little board but you're going to have to muscle it onto the rail. A little V in tail would help if you feel up to shaping it. Just blocksand it in at end.
