River Surfboard Design

General Discussion
1

Hi,

We’ve got a nice little river wave down south in New Zealand now thats shown to be quite a good fix for when you can’t make it to the coast. A lot of peolpe are surfing these foamys, from 4’8" to 6’ twin fins with the fins hacked down…and some on their normal glassed boards. All boards go well, as long as you’ve got some volume and width. The shorter foamys seem to be the go so far. It’s not as wally as the German wave, but good enought to trim, carve and spin till your dizzy. My question is, does anyone have any suggestions on board design for shaping a glassed board? Rolled entry with a bit of concave in the tail…flat bottom…boxey rails…etc? Most of the foamys are quite standard bottoms and full rails, but I did see a guy the other day with this Mullet Fat Cat foamy, 4’8" I think, with some concave in the tail…ripping it!..kind of Mini Simmonsesc… I thought it would be fun to shape something for this wave, and I can’t seem to locate much riverboard design info online. Any of you fellas have any ideas? Cheers!

 

2

Been looking at the same thing here -we have a waterpark going in on the local river. 

Here are some of the shapes I have found so far. As with the other Eisbach boards I’ve seen, wide and short seems the way to go (as you noted). 

(You will need to click on the pdf icons to bring up the Montana boards.)

800×500 36.7 KB

652×1018 76.8 KB

3

 Sweet, Cheers Moss!

 

4

Almost forgot about the online magazine:

http://riverbreak.com

 These were via the magazine:  http://www.fatumsurfboards.com/boards/fish/eisbach/  

http://riverbreak.com/gear/boards/tuf-river-surfboards/

Similar shape on the river SUP boards. Some good videos via Badfish are around. Actually looks pretty interesting. The new 6’6 Cobra is intrigueing 

http://badfishsup.com/river-surfer/

I have a nice, super thick fish blank I’m going to use. Will wait to see the wave(s) before shaping, and try to use a bomb-proof glassing schedule. Minimal paddling, so flotation isn’t much of an issue at the waterpark-style waves. The one here will have four adjustable waves in series. Upstream riders and boards will be washed through downstream waves. Maybe kevlar fabric and cork rails all round.  :0) (only half-joking)

I’m wondering if something along the lines of Tyler Warren’s bar of soap boards might be good for the river and okay for ocean waves, too.

5

Go with wakesurf boards - if it’s a river paddling in the conventional sense isn’t really possible… best river-waves are surfed with the help of a “tow-in” (rope attached to a tree upstream is perfect). 

Actual river SUPs are made of molded ABS plastic or PVC for durability typically - Jackson actually makes a few river boards that way. As far as a regular surfboard goes though, I would think you want high volume and very short swing-weight so something around 4’6" x 21" x 2 1/2 - 3/4 would work really well… everything outside of that will be in the shape of the rails