so i’ve kinda been getting a bit curious about simmons twins lately & i was wondering what sort of bottom contour they might have. flat? flat near the nose, vee thru the back? concaves? it seems to me that, being pretty similar to a fish, you’d want to keep it pretty flat, w/ maybe a bit of double concave thru the fins…
i was thinking of something in the 5’9"-6’2" range. i know that’s a wide range, but i’m not real sure on what i want to do w/ it just yet. i’m just thinking out loud.
round bottoms some with a single concave…
That is a beauty! Nice pics of Kenvin working it too. The whole thing sort of causes the saliva to dribble a bit…
awsome pics!! deff. gets the drool going!
one thing, tho…must simmons style boards be in the mid-length range or longer? i’m pretty sure i saw shots of smaller ones somewhere…
Simmons made some 8 foot slot twins, as well as some boards as short as 6 feet long.
Waterman,
check hydrodynamica.blogspot.com- it’s RK’s blog and there’s some good pics of him doing it up on the mini-Simmons (aka Casper). 6’ is the size Simmons made his, and RK has been doing them down to 5’1". I have a 5’5" and love the thing, surfed it this AM in slop and it was fun as you could hope for.
I just saw the 8’ twin keel Simmons at the Wavelengths shop in Morro Bay. If anyone is ever in the area stop at that shop. History is on the walls and rafters.
ok, now that i’ve got the bottom contour issue settled (that pic of the wooden one focusing on the slight belly/single concave thru the fins was fantastic!!), what sort of waves would it work best in? someone said that they rode their 5’5" in small, mushy surf…i figure the thing must fly like a twin keel fish. i’m thinking (for me) maybe something in the 6’0"x21"x2.5" range…just a guess, tho. prob. a pretty straight rail line on the thing & really squared off at the tail. a rounded, longboard-style nose. i noticed that a lot of the boards have really low-profile fins on them…much shorter than the keels found on most fish, but similar looking in base length. i think that’d be a hinderance in larger surf, tho…
just thinking out loud…
Here are some pics of one of my “Squish”, Simmons squared off fish, in action. This one is a quad fin. 5’6" x 21" x 2 1/2"
Waterman,
If you’re doing a 6 footer you’ll be able to ride it in just about anything you’re comfortable in- I’ve seen RK killing it on a mini Simmons in all kinds of surf, Joe Curren and Chris Del Moro on well overhead Rincon and easily the funnest day surfing I’ve had this year was my 5’5" in head high Rincon- the things just fly. I’d maybe suggest going a bit wider on a 6’0"- the original Casper was about 23" wide and it’s the belly/planing area that makes these little guys work. The fins are definitely more of a disc/low profile shape than a regular keel as well.
Ace, that quad modSimmons looks really epic!
That board looks great Ace. I am in love with these I am going to shape one soon. Jeff Mccallum also shapes a great looking one.
Hey Skip,
Is that pic of the Simmons you posted different than the pic of the board that Kenvin is holding. I don’t see the concave on K’s.
Roger
R-Mon - I think the pic I posted was done by Greg Noll.
Could anyone else do it so well?
I think the one Kenvin is holding is a Simmons.
Here’s some pic of one of the Noll Simmons twin.
Yeesh, I’d never seen the Noll Simmons- that thing is beautiful (thanks Epac), master craftsman isn’t even the half of it. Here’s another pic swiped from RK’s Hydrodynamica blog- Casper with a Quigg, A Kivlin and a Simmons slot bottom
I want to make a couple of similar boards soon and was wondering about what blank to use. I was planning on using a fish blank but after planning my first template - 6’0" x 21 with about an 18" nose and the point to point of the squared off tail about 15.5 inches. Assuming that is about right, it looks like I’ll have to go with a 6’9" (Ice-9) fish blank to get that tail and nose width. Does anybody have any advice on blanks? I was wondering if some people are cutting down the smaller longboard blanks.