Planning on another version of my 5’ 3" diamondtail fish
see http://www.swaylocks.com/forum/gforum.cgi?post=271910;#271910
This time I plan to try to get some flex in the tail. I know a stringerless 6ft EPS and Epoxy board is ok with 6oz bottom and 2 X 6oz top so whats your thoughts on this glass schedule for a urethane stringerless blank (Homeblown) of this size? Wondered if urethane would fatigue more than EPS?
Typical urethane does not even compare to EPS in shear due to fatigue.
Breakdown will occur within a couple of months of use. Some flex Urethane compounds are available
but must be resin matched.
Ah thanks I wondered. I have another blank with a stringer so I could thin the tail right down to get a bit of flex but will also look for an EPS blank suitable for a fish. This one came from a 7’2" or 7’8" Xtrafoam blank. Board has about 2" nose and 1" tail rocker. We have some American Blanks EPS in the UK at Seabase so now to find out if they have anything suitable.
Mark
That’s a very cool stub! I thought about making one like that, fifth fin and all–hey WWMark, what are your bodily dimensions, and how does that board ride?? Oh and what kind of waves are you on? Is that concave in the decK?
5ft 10" ,150lb, (68kg)
Amazing wave catcher and its flatness hasn’t been a problem with onshore very bumpy days.
I think the bottom contoures will influence the feel more than the template. It is mostly flat with a little double through the fins exiting with a little V. Next one I want a slight concave leading from the front foot as it doesn’t have that glidey, smooth feeling of a wide short fish. In fact it feel more like a shortboard.
Not as fast as I thought it would be and can get stuck behind the section on weaker waves if you don’t work it, something my other fishes don’t do,in fact usually trying to scrub off speed from the bottom turn.
Following on from the link in my previous post, I feel it would benefit from more tail flex so am looking to take it down thinner.I think this is the advantage of the traditional wide pintails.
Currently riding it as a thruster but have some experimenting to do with quad and fin angle which is doable with 4wfs plugs. Also to lesser extent cant. Due to the small footprint of the plugs I can put a set in for twinzer setup if necessary. I have some keels coming but may have to use those on the next one due to the plugs needing reinforcing to take extra leverage.
Not have much surf for testing but starting to take some overhead drops. The short rail line feels a bit strange in the face but holds well. Pushing the back foot round on the turns meets quite a bit of resistance due to the large tail area but still turns sharp.
Deck goes from flat to concave for back foot .
Although presumeably not as useful on an stringered board regarding flex I like the concave deck boards, a good way of keeping area but loosing volume and getting my feet closer to the water.
Here is another…5ft 9" by 20 1/2" by 2 1/2", great for my heavy front foot.
That board looks like a rocket!
Man–you’ve really got me thinking about the swallow tail flex thing–I should have been thinking about it already after seeing that thread (surfer design forum?) where the guy snapped one off on the very first bottom turn his first ride.
I’m gonna build a 5’10" stringerless EPS, pretty thick, with 2 x 6# top, so I hope I don’t have that problem…!
Yeah love that board!
The shorter boards seem to suit me so each one is an attempt to compensate with the thickness or width which leads to changed rails and the concave deck. Interesting you should be considering a thick board because i have tried thick and wide to offset length on a 5’ 5" twinzer and although it caught everything under the sun I didn’t like the feeling like wearing platform shoes so currently moving towards thinnner and thinner and ‘swimming’ the board. The 5’3" stub/diamond fish paddles with all of it pretty much under water. Not sure how to apply this all to a rounded pin travel board/minigun which is next up although I may have to satisfy myself and make the wide swallow version of the diamond stub template. Same rocker,rails everything so I can get a better idea of what the pintail swallows really do.Also would like to cut out of the bottom the shape of the swallow tail like a channel exiting off the tail.
I think if you just do the bottom, you’ll actually end up with a drag zone, but that’s just my theory–
I’ll maybe go thinner later, but the waves here in Texas SUCK most of the time, so a fat wide board’s wave count sounds good for a start
