I surf Virginia Beach and the Outerbanks mainly and want to shape a board that makes the small punchy days fun. I surf a 7’6" hull mainly as well as a 9’6" Jacobs 422, really dig the hull the most. I want to create a short board that glides like a longboard but steers from the middle like my hull. I was wondering about a Simmons insired single fin with side bites that has a rolled front to a planing middle. Want the single fin for the speed and glide down the face as often the mushy waves (and my lack of skill) mean I just cruise down the face before I turn so I dont want a super skatey feel.
If you’re building your own then you can assert complete control over how much hull you add to your board. You can dial it in for the full and rail profiles you think will work in those conditions.
If it were me I’ve had good luck using a little roll in the nose, a basically flat bottom through the middle fading into a subtle vee panel in the tail and then coming back and adding a subtle chine (Less than 1/8th) along the rails to smooth things out. But if you like the hull action you might want more roll than that.
6’5" and 170??? You already have a shortboard, it’s the 7’6" hull you currently have. I surf mainly VB and OBX as well and cannot figure why you would want something even smaller, and a hull no less. As you know, VB waves are super small, and fast. I can’t see where a short, hulled board would work in those conditions. As for a simmons shape in those conditions, I agree: nice float, wide tail, easy to paddle/catch. That will work. I have a 5’0" simmons-esque board and it works great for those VB groveller days. Also, a majority of those grovelly days are going to have some sort of bump to it, not conducive to a hull with sharp rails. But to have a board that follows the simmons philosophy a little closer, means having more than one fin IMO. It needs to work with that wide tail. A single fin simmons seems counterintuitive, unless there was a good amount of vee in the tail, then maybe…
Don’t get me wrong, the boards that came up as examples look fun, but not for small mushy days. I would love to take one of those boards out on a hurricane swell, when you need the ability to duckdive and to hang on to a steep, racing wall. Then they’d be fun. But whatever you do, upload pics of the build.
edit: VB waves are not always ‘fast’. I meant on those low tide summer days when knee high zippers are peeling through.
Great response! This search for a board came from a day where the waves were fast and hitting the sandbar and standing up super fast, the long board and the hull kept nosediving. I have a 7’2” thruster but it always wants to steer from right on the tail. I tend to weight my forward foot more (obviously I should learn to not do this) and the thruster wants to spin out. I’ll look more towards a Simmons design then. The Deepest Reaches Pizza Box?
I don’t think of hulls as being well suited to trashy waves of any size. They’re using the long rail line behind the widepoint and the flat tail rocker to generate drive and it’s more like a long windup to get to speed than a sprint off the line. The fin and the narrow tail are there for the control, not drive. They’re more closely related to traditional longboarding than to the shortboards.
There’s a reason most hulls are in the 7ft+ size ranges. They need the length, or more specifically, the length of engaged rail line to get their drive on because the one fin isn’t doing that for them. By contrast, the fish and simmons designs can go super short because they have a bunch of fin area out at the rail, which in combination with their large surface areas and straight - albeit shorter - rail lines in the tail is where they get their drive. What those designs can’t do is be controlled from the center of the board because their keels are out at the corners.
Then there’s your position on the board to consider. If you want to put the board into trim and make the board do most of the work in small conditions that mostly means a more forward stance - not necessarily at the middle but also not on the tail block. If you want the board to trim from that position then it needs to be foiled that way so that the distribution of the volume will support where your stance is. Hulls are foiled with the “s” deck that’s much thinner at the nose and tail but heavy in the middle (hence the “s” shape of the deck rocker from nose to tail) because the riding position is in the middle. But they have the length to do that.
It seems to me that for the conditions described you would want a board that is shorter in length to fit the curve, fast off the line, but can be surfed further forward with that close longboard type stance. So basically a shortboard for singlefin riders who don’t want to change their style to actively work the fin cluster. An actual singlefin will be too slow off the line, especially if the rail line is shorter and curvier, so that’s out. The GeeBee and Burrito designs are short and straight so they’ll be “all engine” when they have enough room to run but they do need that room to run due to the singlefin, so that’s not the conditions you are describing. If you like hulls you should still probably do something like that at some point, but I don’t think it’s going to do much for you in weak conditions.
So at the end of all that I’m wondering if maybe a good compromise would involve a more moderate template (for control) and a multi-fin setup that put more fin area out at the rails (for drive) but further foward and closer to your stance.
Watch how this guy surfs - he’s a tall guy with a close singlefin style stance and he’s surfing shorter lengths. He’s surfing more actively than you’re describing, but the board is setup to accomodate his stature and stance. The design has a more limitedmax top end speed than a hull, but that’s not a factor in what you’re trying to do. These are fast and powerful waves, but watch the clips where he just sets a rail and lets the board run - notice how the board handles the more forward stance and how the fins still provide plenty of drive even when he isn’t pumping them or trying to pivot a turn.
Funny the way things work, the board he is surfing in that video is so similar to my 7’2" thruster except the fin setup.
I have a factory 7" fin that doesnt work with any of my boards, would modifying it and sticking it in the 7’2" with side bites maybe push me in the right direction? I’m rocking some Tru Ames Boomerang fins on it right now but with my heavy front foot I tend to spin out more than I’d like.
It’s not just the fin cluster and template that’s in action here. He has chosen a specific rocker and foil to support his style. It’s not as simple as swapping fins.
Look at how forward the fin cluster is and the size and rake of the fins. It’s not a standard combination.
If you google it I think there are some clips of him shaping one of these boards - look at his foils; that’s not a typical high performance shortboard foil, so slapping fins on a shortboard isn’t going to quite do it.
Or, perhaps a different direction entirely, like a MyCoy type design. He does a fat assed board with a flat tail rocker and he puts the volume underfoot, except you surf those more off the tail. But it’s a comparable situation as far as riding them goes - you pop up and surf the board from one position and without moving around. He does these as singlefins or thrusters, but they’ll also work as a 2+1 or quad (I liked the quad setup best myself).
I sorta see these as a Simonsish high perfomance 1958 surfboard with a few twists…This is a 6’6" HULLYGULLY I ride a 7-6 and a 8’8". Not really a flat rockered hull did not want that. I really like how they ride. But I am old what do I know…
Geeze those boards are nice ace. Don’t you have a twingle board similar to the last one in your pics? How’s that first board ride with that fin? I’m guessing there’s not much rail turning on that one.
You guessed wrong on no rail turns. That was something I wanted to keep in the boards. One reason for moving the fin back was to be able to set a good turn. Rail shape in the last part of outline contributes to that as well. I did not want a top turn only board. The KEEL fin works really good in the board. I have tried several other “normal” fins and it does what I want. When it is in the right spot you can feel the fin entering a turn following through the turn than exiting the turn. Plus it does some nice functional speed pumps. Pretty sure the pictures are same board with a couple different fins. I have a couple more upright fins that work too for people the KEEL scares off. But after trying lots of em I like the KEEL best and have designed the board around that fin…Here are some pictures of a recent fresh shape that hopefully shows all the contours…https://flic.kr/s/aHsmDSHvBi… Hope that works.
