I was inspired by the Tyler Riddler and decided to make a longboard with a 7" square nose. Now while my finished version will be nowhere near the level of a Tyler, I was wondering if I should keep the bottom flat or add a concave because I want it to be a great noserider. Now I’ve read the entire thread on flat vs. concave (and even the blended vs. dish concave) but aren’t sure if having a square nose changes the game. Thoughts? Thanks!
-Hanlon
Or, the first guys to do a square nose. Frye, Hynson, et al at G and S with the mid 60s “Stretch”.
Sounds like a question for Herbie Fletcher, I can see him on the cover of Surfer magazine mid-seventies in my mind, Maui; looks like; “the thrill is back”.
Hanlon,
check out some of Zeph Carrigg's boards, he does alot of sq nose logs
Howzit hanlon, Hand Shaper used to do square nosed longboards and I don't know if he still does but I glassed one for a good girl surfer who had one of his. You might PM him and get his input since he is a member. Aloha,Kokua
I have a Herbie F. Stub Nose Pintail from the 70's. As I remember it's 7'10"
It has a concave in it, works good.
If you like a pic I could do it tomorrow. Let me know.
Les
Les, if you had a pic handy that would be great. The Tyler Riddler has a HUGE concave that is more of a “U” shape than the typical teardrop concave and seems to slow the board down for those great noserides. However, adding a great concave takes work and precision, so I figured I’d get some other opinions before I fired up the planer. Thanks!
-Hanlon
I had an 8’10 Herbie in the late seventies that had a big concave in front and it was great.
I cried when my friend snapped it in half a few years later.
It's dark now. I'll get a pic for you tomorrow.
When I first started making boards I made a 9'10' longboard noserider. I had read about the Harbor nose chanels so did that. It rode GREAT but when I got to the nose it didn't slow down but it slid around alot. So... to experiment I made another board as exact as the first as I could, except that I put a concave on it. Yes, when I got up there the board slowed down (maybe flaten the rocker at the nose more?). I went back to the nose channel board and learned to control the slipping. I like that design a LOT better.
Les
Howzit tridles, I had a longboard that I put the concave about 8 inces further back than normal and I wish it wold have just slowed down because when Igot on the nose it was like someone threw out an anchor and the board would come to a stop and I would go flying off the front of it. It was the fastest board as log as you stayed away from the nose. Aloha,Kokua
Those Stretch models rode great. Classic. I rode one several times… even rode it in a Classic Longboard Contest at Manasqan Inlet on year. I don’t think it had a concave, although it noserode fairly well… had a lot of other design elements going on I guess.
But I don’t think there’s any reason why you can’t put a concave under a square nose. I was told that the idea behind the Stretch square nose was to nip off a few inches of length to get a bigger board to qualify for comps.
So much longboard history in one thread, awesome! It sounds like a nice big “U” shaped concave is the way to go. What’s the best way to approach that? Start off with some initial planer passes, then dial it in with the shurform?
You may want to make a template first out of 1/8 tempered hardboard, and then pencil it out first. That’s how Takayama does it, and that is about as good as it gets. That way you’ll get some consistency, instead hacking away at it, which is fine when you’ve shaped thousands. I know people who take the stringers down first the the perimeters, and I know people who do it just opposite. I comes down to how comfortable you are with your tools. Phil Edwards was the first to do it and should have put a patent on on them.
zeph/boarddesigns , IsIs and YYZ (both square noses ) both have huge concaves
wonder how i know that (just finished sanding and polishing 14 of them!!!) :o)
and the IsIs gives unreal noserides!
Pauluk, do you have any pics of the concaves? Thanks for the tips GhettoR! I definitely need to make a template of some sort to get this concave symmetrical. It will be big and that needs to be traced out. If it’s good enough for Takayama, it’s good enough for anyone. The first board I ever shaped was a copy of a Takayama NR2. I love his boards.
[img_assist|nid=1057013|title=Herbie Fletcher Stub Nose Rocker|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=0|height=0]So here's the rocker. I think the nose rocker is a bit much. If it ws lower it would nose ride better.
[img_assist|nid=1057014|title=HF Outline|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=0|height=0]
Here's the outline:
[img_assist|nid=1057015|title=HF concave|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=0|height=0]
Here's the concave... not much and you can't really see a sharp edge the way you can with a lot of boards that I see now.
[img_assist|nid=1057016|title=My Harbor Nose Rails|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=0|height=0]
Here's my best nose rider... well, it was befor I went over a boil and the nose got sucked under and broke! You can see 3/16" rise about 2" in from the rail.
As I remember the nose rocker was about 3"
Les
Thanks for taking the pics Les, I love vintage boards. The concave is really subtle, much less than the Tyler Riddler which is pretty dramatic.
I rode my G and S stretch model( there are only serial numbers on it so it is hard to say what model exactly) today just like I do most days that I want to long board. It has the very square nose, pretty intense down rail in the nose, and it works like nobodies business. It also has almost no visible rocker in the front half of the board. The tail has alot of tail flip in kind of upturned rails. The board was one hell of a craigslist find.
Every time I pass some old timers on my way to the beach and back, I can almost hear them hurting their necks with their double takes. In conclusion, the board looks weird but works great. It looked really funny a few years ago before square nosed logs got " re-discovered" by the whole crowd with tight pants and polaroid apps on their i phones. Darren