I finally have room to take on a project and want to build myself an adaptation of a bi-directional kite-surfboard currently on the market, the Brunotti BumbleBee (pictures attached). I scaled the board up a bit to fit some dimensions that should work for my weight, but I’m not sure about the rocker. The board will basically be ridden two directions, but one will be the primary “surfing” direction. I can’t put too much rocker in the “nose” because it also has to serve as a secondary “tail”. Any advice?
Hi Bigkahuna
depends how much end flex you have, if there is some then you can drop the tail rocker down to 18mm. From my experience low volume boards really need sucky waves to work properly.
I have been riding a twintip 132 with very flexy ends for about 3yrs now, the rails are pvc with 15mm thicness in the middle tapering to full glass ends about 120mm long. The tail lift is 18mm and the nose is 25mm the board width is 43cm. there are thre fins on each end, the tail ones are wake style 45mm tall with a base of 120mm, the nose ones are outers 45mm with a centre of 35mm.
This is my favourite board and rides waves upto 6ft easily as long as they are hollow. I have a quiver of surfboards and special kitesurf boards to choose from, but because I ride beachbreaks all the time I love the small fins for inshore work and never break fins off like on the surfboard style boards.
PM me
Boardbumps
Good info, thanks. I weigh roughly 245 - 250 lbs (about 110 kg) and only kite in side - onshore chop and beach break waves (up to 6 feet).
I’m not sure how much flex the board will have, and don’t have enough board building experience to be able to predict what it will be. I’m guessing the flex characteristics will be largely determined by the layup and I’m currently debating if I will construct the core entirely from CoreCell or Divinycel, or I may add a layer of 1/8" marine ply to either top and / or bottom. I would like the board to have some flex, especially because we have a lot of chop here and the flex should help improve the ride. I’d welcome any advice on layups also.
As for fins, I have a set of Jimmy Lewis 3" surf-kiteboard fins for the tail and a variety of other potential fins for the nose.