I am a newbie, who will be soon making my first board with a mate of mine. We are looking to make a board around 8’- 8’6 max. We are just starting to get the hang of the basics of surfing, and are completely hooked!. Anyway, we need a starting point, and i was wondering if someone could help us out by offering some simple dimensions, even just a rough guide will do. The board will be simple, no fancy bottom etc, just a simple board. We want a board that will paddle easy, catch 1-6’ waves easy, and although it will be long, we would like a bit of turnability!. I have searched the forum for “first board planshape” but didn’t really get much info. If there is a site or link that can help me out, and save alot of typing, that would be great.
Go into the “Resources” click “Photo archive”, click “8’-0 - 8’-11”, find something that blows your dress up, check the dimensions, search archives for “shaping first board”, buy some board building vids, post the results when done.
Have fun with the process 'cause whatever comes of it will be from your own hands and will get you on the path.
It’s what we do for fun - screw what “they” say about any results of your first effort.
Follow Pete’s advice. Sorry balsa but a board uner 9 foot isn’t going to nose ride too well anyway so the swing weight of having a 18 1/3 nose won’t help. i would go something along the lines of 2 5/8 inches thick 1 3/4 tail rocker 5- 5 1/2 inches nose rocker 16-17 inches 1ft back from the nose 21 1/4 wide about 3-4 inches back from dead center. 14-14 3/4 tail. slight concaves running the whole length.
Thanks for all the advice so quick fella’s. I went to that website, the design tool one, that will definately come in handy. I typed in an 8’2 speed egg, then slowly took measurements at every 4 inches ( well, 10cm’s!, im used to mm’s! ). This will definately give us something to stick to i guess. Can’t wait to start, hopefully within a few weeks we’ll be starting. Thanks once again for your tolerance of a newbie.
Hi Riderofwaves, I don’t want to argue but that was just a rough sketch (done in about 2 minutes) and since we had no size or weight indications from Beerfan and his mate, I just went for a basic beginner’s board, the width up front helping with stability and ease of take-off. Just look at it as a base to be adapted to specific needs.
Sorry balsa but a board uner 9 foot isn't going to nose ride too well .....
rider…no one said anything about nose riding. I do agree though… where better to start on than a board that is stable and able to catch waves easily? Anyway, a beginner has much more to conquer before nose riding comes into the picture.
I agree… longbards are hard to shape for a beginner. More foam = more work = more chance for mistakes. I still find longboards harder to get right than shortboards.
I would recomend a fish. Very forgiving shape. Nice and thick and flat so you don’t have to worry too much about rocker. Gentle curves in the outline - in fact, most of the lines are nearly straight. Only two fins to deal with instead of three for other shortboards, and you don’t have to deal with a lot of cant or toe-in. The only real challenge is the big, deep swallow tail, which, again, is very forgiving. Overall, a fish shape has lots of room for error/error corrections. And… they cost less to build.
Plus, they “paddle like a longboard and ride like a shortboard,” which is what everybody wants, and they ride all kinds of waves, from 2 ft. mush to overhead barrels.
Go with a fish so you can worry less about design and more about shaping and glassing technique.
Yah, I agree a midsized egg or big boy thruster is better for a beginner than a long board. Long boards under a beginner is dangerous for everyone. Fish are pretty easy to shape and ride. But, they don’t paddle like a long board or even a nice thinned out 7-4 egg. At least mine don’t. Must be doing something wrong? Anyway get in there and build that board. Report back, too. mike
nothing paddles like a longboard except a longboard… but three inches of foam, 20 or 21 inches wide, under your core at least puts you high enough in the water to make paddling easy.
Wow, more replies!. Thanks for all the input fella’s. Our first board wil be a long board, basically because we like longboards ( at the moment anyway ). I did think about a fish, mainly because of the speed, easy paddling, and they seem to be able to catch tiny to decent sized waves, but that will come after ( also, im not sure how well i’d be able to ride it! ). Im used to my 7"6’ mini mal, and want something similar, but with better turning, and my mate has a 9" mal, so the 8" mark is kind of a compromise between the two. Once its done, we can always shape one each. Cant say thanks enough for the replies and opinions.
