stand-up paddle board

Well, hello all.

It has been some time since I’ve had the privilege of speaking with you all. Does any one recall my questions about Outriggers?

Any way, I shaped a really cool two man outrigger using some of what I learned from the genius of swaylocks. I’m working on a stand up paddle board and wondered if any one had any input. I am going 13’ long by 28"-29" wide. I am shaping it out of EPS foam. I have very little experience shaping a board. I am a master craftsman and am not afraid of the shaping part, but am pretty clue-less in regards to the elements needed to make the board perform. i.e. rail profiles, rocker, nose/tail width, etc. Any and all input is welcome.

Have a look at the Munoz 12’. When the stand up paddle boards come out I see a lot of those in the water. And they’re usually…gasp…Surtech. I don’t do that kind of surfing. Just telling you what I see. Doug

Just think of scaleing up a 10 log, or better yet, copy an old Windsurfer One Design.

Just keep the curves flowing, soft everything, and you can’t go wrong.

Keep us/me posted on how that board turns out- I’m looking for a stand up paddle board myself and was thinking of just hunting down an old tandem board to start with. I’d be interested to here how this comes out.

Have a look at the Clark 12’ 3" blank as a starting point as far as rocker and thickness flow(foil) are concerned.

Think wide and thick with a rolled bottom(hull).

Might also want to consider a little extra cloth on the rails, those paddles can do a little damage.

P.S. Would love to see any photos of the outrigger canoe plus any info on the construction process. Why not start a thread about it ?, I’m sure many people here would be very interested. (Hey I know it may or may not be for surfing purposes, but it would be a lot more relevant than a lot of other stuff that takes up space around here).

I finished gluing up the blank tonight. As it stands, the blank is all polystyrene. I ran a 5.5" piece of the blue extruded dow board down the center to act as a stiffener. The rest of the blank is 1# EPS. I cut the pieces with a hot wire so the rocker is pretty much set. As it is it has about 6" of nose rocker @ about 2.5" thick and 2" of tail rocker @ about 3" thick. The mid point width and thickness are 29" and 5.5" respectively. I intend to give the tail rails more rocker by adding lots of “V” to the tail. Therefore as the “V” extends outward toward the rails it will create what I hope is about 4.5" of tail rail rocker @ about 2" thick. My thought was to essentially create ‘two’ boards in one. In other words if there is alot of “V” in the board, beginning very subtly from the mid section, growing and ending in the tail I would create two planning surfaces. I thought the board may be easier to handle/turn by doing this. My hope and theory is that when turning the board or trimming I will be on either the port or starbord planning surface. My other concern is the shear size and mass of the board. I am 6" 4", 230 lbs. The width of the board was determined by my shoulder width. from what I understand you need to be able to place your feet slightly wider than shoulder width. My 230 lbs. will obviously require some serious flotation. I intend to glass it with carbon to stiffen it up and keep the weight to a minimum. thats about it for now, but I will up date you’all as progress proceeds. Also a buddy of mine who makes the stand up paddles is taking pics of the process. I will try to include some if I can.

Most stand-up paddle boards in Hawaii are around 12’ x 27" x 4 1/2". The one you are making is way to big… I am 6’ and 200lbs my small board is 11’ 10" x 26 1/2 x 4 1/4… Being that you are using EPS/polystyrene the board will have lots of float. You could easily ride a 11’6" x 28 x 4 1/2 with those materials. I have seen guys ride 8’ x 30" x 4 1/2" fish style stand-up paddle boards made with EPS/polystrene. During the learning process, bigger is better, but after three weeks - you will want a smaller board…

Aloha,

Dylan

Dylan, Thanks for the input. If you have anything else, even the smallest thought/idea, please say it. I intend to use my board for surfing as well as open water and distance paddling. Therefore I need it to “float” me and allow me to paddle with the least amount of resistance. Do the Hawaiian guys use the same boards for all conditions? I was told someone crossed the Molokai channel on a stand-up. I hope to cross the channel here; Catalina to Palos- Verdes. The conditions here are pretty much flat so I won’t have the advantage or opportunity to “surf” across. I suppose I may end up making a few different boards for various conditions and duties, i.e. a surfing board, a flat water, and even a high performance open ocean racer. (Ugh! a quiver of stand-up paddle boards. I may need to rethink that.) Any ways, with all that in mind, do you still think the board is way to big?

I have two boards, could use one more if I was going to do long distance crossings. These are the types of boards, I recommend for the below conditions:

Traditional Long Board Style ( small waves to head high):

12’ - 11’ 4" x 26"- 28" x 4 1/4" - 5"

Flatter longboard rocker, round rails ( copy a traditional noserider)

This board is perfect for noseriding and playing in small waves

Use Clark Foam 12’3 or 12’8 blank depending on thickness

Do not get tandem board rocker, use paddle board rocker or favorite longboard rocker

Big Wave Stand-Up Gun (overhead surf)

12’ 2" - 11’ 10" x 26 1/2" - 27 1/2" x 4 1/4" - 4 3/4"

Order gun rocker for the Clark Foam 12’3" blank

Outline fits a “big boy” /longboard gun shape

Great fun for overhead surf ( channel perferred), beach break will be a little hard getting outside

flat to double concave bottom shape, hard rails in the tail

Distance Paddle Board:

12’ - 13" x 27"-29’ x 5"

pretty flat but nose rocker needed

Hope this helps

Dylan

Dylan, thank you. That helps alot. I suppose that this first board will end up my flat water/distance paddler. It will help me get acclimated to the paddling technique while I work on a smaller “surfing” board. Did you shape your boards? What size paddle are you using? Do you use a wood shaft or composite?

There are around three shapers here on Maui that produce stand -up paddle boards. My boards are shaped by two of those guys. I would recommend a paddle about 8" taller than you. For me that is 80"… My paddles are wood and made in Tahiti. I like the traditional look. If you are trying to save money, find a broken outrigger canoe paddle; keep the blade with 1’ of the shaft and the grip. Find a old windsurfing racing mast ( should be skinny). Epoxy the blade and hand grip to the right cut mast length to equal proper paddle length. This is a ceap way to make a paddle; otherwise, most wood and carbon paddles cost between $200- $300 dollars…

Recommend glassing all wood paddle blades with a couple layers of cloth plus a nice bead around the blade edge. This will keep the blade from cracking due to the wear and tear from all the fun… Carbon/plastic blades no worries.

Misc info: Glass the boards with 3 layers of 6oz - top and 2 layers of 6 oz- bottom… The rails take a beating from all the paddle dings.

Aloha

Aquafiend, your project is interesting. I’ve been thinking about making an EPS supertanker as well. Not only would I like to try the stand-up paddle deal, but I could use it as a tandem to get my kids out with me.

A couple thoughts on your design. (I’m 6’2", 220, so our needs are not dissimilar.) If you go shorter, but keep the width, you’ll get a curvier shape that turns better. Like 11.5’ to 12’ rather than 13’ should be plenty.

I don’t know about the deep V in the tail idea. Vee is there to make a board go rail-to-rail quicker. That sounds like instability to me, if I’m trying to stand up & paddle. You also have the issue of not spending much time on the tail, so why mess with it too much. You’re probably mostly paddling & surfing from the middle. That again points towards a simple, flat tail maybe with a 2+1 setup so you can turn it from the middle.

It also points away from a more parallel, noserider-type shape. Parallel boards give control from the tip and turn from the tail (think Tyler with a drop-knee) but pretty much just go straight & trim from the middle. That’s your accelerator, not your steering. You want all your stability & your steering to be centered - I’d make it wide, shorter than 13’, nice & curvy, and maybe just a bit of belly through the front half for entry and pretty flat through the back half. 50/50 (perfectly round) rails the entire length will also give stability by floating the board in the water and not on the water.

I really want to see some photos! I like the XPS stringer idea. I’ve been thinking of 1-3 d-cell stringers, but the XPS is a good idea too, and cheaper.

O.k., heres the latest. Unfortunately I am not the patient type and could not contain the stoke to get busy and shape. So shape I did, and finished it today. I kept the length at 13", not so much because I was convinced that it was necessary, but because I finished shaping before I could get home and check Swaylock’s for more good info. The nose width is about 20" and the tail is about 19". I am not sure about the rocker cause the thing is so flexible its hard to tell, but I think the nose is around 6" and the tail is about 4". I did put the"V" in the tail. I hadn’t thought about the stability issue. Its a good point I can only hope I won’t regret putting it in. I also did something else that is probably a mistake; ( don’t laugh) I put in a swallow tail. There was so much material back there I just didn’ t like how it looked. I have no idea what a swallow tail will do but it sure looks cool. I also put 1 layer of 4.5 oz. carbon on the hull. Hey Benny, regardless of the swallow tail being a mistake, how far up should I put the fin. When it was just a flat tail I was going to go about 6.5". We did some more photos today so as soon as I can I’ll post them.

By stand up paddle board do you mean a paddle board you paddle prone and can ride a wave and stand up on or a board that you stand up and paddle like an oar or skooter?

Sorry, Im confused,

BTW aquafiend65 sounds like a cool board!

Josh.

You stand up while paddling. You stand with your feet parrallel to the rails/stringer and use a long (about 7’) outrigger style canoe paddle. Have you seen the American Express commercial with Laird Hamilton doing it? There are two commercials featuring Laird but only one has clips of him doing the stand up paddle surfing.

Hey Aquafiend,

I just left the other thread on fins for this board.

I think I have one fairly good option for you.

Because you want to stand up and paddle this board a center fin would be best to help stabilize it. Where you place it will be facilitated by a fin box. Marrying two together so you can slide you center fin for and aft is a good idea so all you have to do is cut the ends off a pair of them and epoxy some nice wood stringers on either side to keep them lined up nicely as you place them in the hole that you route out of the board once it’s hot coated. Then you’ll be able to experiment all you want with with fins.

Mahalo, Rich

So then probably just slam it as far back as I can and then try adjustments forward from there? Sounds good to me. Thanks

Hey aquafiend, I’m a little late on this but I got a nice custom stand-up paddle at Island Paddler in Honolulu- if you want I can post their info which I don’t have on me at the moment. I’m stoked on the concept of the quiver of stand-up boards and really want to see one of those 8’ fish standups! Thanks to you all posting on this thread as I’m getting a much better idea of my needs!

Thanks Consafos. I’ve already shaped the board but I would still be interested in your boards specs and performance.

Thanks!