I am currently making this one for my friend Ohana. It started as an EPS/Epoxy 12’ project and I was about to order a blank from AtuaCores, but then I had the opportunity to purchase a 11’3" Burford blank. I decided that doing at the same time my first SUP and my first EPS/Epoxy was a bit too much and we settled for the PU blank and good old PE resin.
I started shaping the beast this morning and it’s almost ready to glass right now. The truth is, despite the length and volume I didn’t have much material to mow away. The idea was to keep as much volume as possible so I basically templated 1/2" inside of the blank outline and rounded the nose somewhat. I’m left with 11’3" x 26 3/8" x 4 1/4" and a very wide tail-block (13"). I believe it should be stable enough but I would like CarveNalu or UncleD or other SUP specialists to give some advice about nose thickness: should I leave it as is or thin it a little? Here are a few shots:
Looks like you did a good job working with what that blank gives you. I’ll be posting pictures of my latest project. I wanted a thicker board but the blank we threw together could only yield us 4". Your board should work as an SUP for a lighter guy. I would prefer getting the deck as flat as possible. This makes it so much easier to stand up paddle with.
You can taper the nose down some because that part sits out of the water and should not affect flotation. I tapered down the nose of my last board so I can put the Surfco Hawaii Nose Guard on it. Boards that big tend to get banged around a lot.
CarveNalu is the real expert here. I am still a want-to-be.
10.8 Homeblown blank with 3" foam insert to give final width of 28.5". Foam tailblock thinned down to give nice broad flat tail. Deck really flat all the way across to rails, big concave underneath going to near midpoint. Rides really well with 10" cutaway fin, taking it onto the bore this week, so will see how it goes in fresh water…
Hi Tinjaya, actually I would say that, paradoxically, there is less WORK involved as I basically followed the original blank shape. SKILL? Well, I don’t think there is so much difference between that and a smaller, let’s say 9’6" or 10’ longboard: if you can shape a good flowing curve on a 10’, you should not have much trouble doing the same with a 11’ or 12’…
The glass width IS an issue: my standard rolls are 31 1/2" wide, and yesterday when I checked I realized that it wouldn’t overlap properly… I went to my retailer just this morning and he’s ordering a 40" wide roll so that I can glass it.
UncleD, thanks for the nose thickness info. (One of your fine stickers will go under the lam on this one: Ohana was in Waikiki a few months ago where he discovered stand up paddle surfing. He’s also a Va’a fan and is full of aloha spirit, he deserves it…)
A few weeks ago there was some sort of photo session at Cardiff involving about 5 Stand-Up-Paddleboarders and a photo guy with a nice camera and a huge Canon lens perched on a ladder.
One of the surfers was above everyone else in ability, and I kept thinking, “He’s not from around here. Looks Hawaiian.”
After the guys came in I went over and met the guy who was surfing better than everyone else and he was indeed from Hawaii. His name is Leleo Kinimaka and he’s one of the Kona Beach Boys on the Big Island. A real nice guy: very friendly and gracious.
ANYWAY…I had a look at his stand up board to try to get some design clues, because he was ripping on that board.
I had to chuckle as I noticed two long double concaves on the bottom, running more than 1/3 up. The tail was not over-wide: maybe 15 inches, and the nose was pulled in, and not too thick. Most of the thickness was in the center section of the board, with a smooth flowing rocker. My first thought was that Stand-Up boards don’t need to be logs. They have to float the surfer standing up, of course, but they can still have performance elements in the shape so once the wave is caught, the surfer can still surf as opposed to just trimming out and lugging along.
I’ll never forget one wave: He caught it late and was on top of the breaking lip of a 6 footer. I thought, “That’s going to hurt”. Then he bent his knees, floated down the broken face, dug in the paddle and caught up to the shoulder where he made a few cut-backs and for all the world looked like he was on a regular surfboard.
Back to your board…Based on what I saw on Mr. Kinimaka’s board, I think you could pull in the nose a bit and thin the nose down at the rails. And I’m a proponent for double concaves at the tail. Doug
Hey Doug, thanks for that precious insight. Could you by chance give an approximate thickness for that hawaiian board? I do agree with you about “performance oriented” shapes but that’s assuming that floatation/stability has been taken care of first. And this is precisely where my problem lies: the Burford 11’3" (although it is a pretty good blank, I enjoyed shaping it very much) was likely meant to shape tanker-type longboards (what you’d call “San O Specials”?) but definitely NOT SUPs. Or they would have made it thicker and wider. So, my priority is to keep as much volume as possible. Besides, this is my first try at this type of boards, so I’m playing it safe, so to speak…
Isn’t Leleo KINIMAKA the same family as Titus KINIMAKA? UncleD should know…
Nice work Balsa! If he’s learning the sure fire thing is wider, thicker, flatter. I agree with the comments about thinning out the nose. As far as the bottom goes, the most stable board is always one with a flat bottom where you stand. It can have some rocker but no rail to rail curve. The V in the tail shouldn’t run to far up if stability is the concern. If the blank had a curved belley, it will be more stable if you take it out even if you give up a little thickness… Throw the level on it and if it has zero V or belley in the middle, you cannot get more stable than that.
Things change if he wants to start doing more manuevers or when he gets it wired. Narrow tails and noses are really tough to learn on. Once he gets good at it then he may head in that direction… That bruddah from the Big Island mentioned above is more advanced than most… In the beginning a stable GLIDE is important. Need to get those sea legs all trained to handle standing. Its funny when people first jump on a wide, stable board and say, “This is easy!” 5-10 minutes later when their legs turn into quivering noodles, that stable platform is like a round log with a seasoned lumber jack on the other end trying to spit you off! Haha!! If you take away any width the legs and feet start burning even sooner because it gets tippier… Its the downward spiral effect. The more sore your legs/ feet get, the more you start to tip. The more you start to tip, the more sore your legs/ feet get. Throw in some surface chop and accelerate the process! Everyone that does this knows exactly what I’m talking about! Hahahahaha!!! If he weighs more than 170 lbs and is average skill level, the size you’re at now is borderline. Leave all the foam you can! I know plenty advanced guys that will not drop below 27 wide, 18" tail, 20" nose on 11 footers…
Another huge key thing in learning is his paddle length. The worst is a paddle to long. A certain struggle with a paddle to long. Its way easier to learn with a paddle to short than long… The easiest way to gauge it is 6" over his head as a starting point. We used to go one hand span over your head but found out that is long for most people… Also, the lighter the paddle the easier life is! Hope all goes well and I think your friend will be stoked with your work! Nothing better than having friends like you willing to stoke people out! Hope this helps!! Aloha…
Thanks for your kind comments, and i’m glad that you agree with me on two important points: first, to make it wide and thick and second to make it flat. I shaped absolutely no belly nor V of any kind to keep the board as stable as possible. Looks like I was right… (Well, maybe I’ll put a touch of V in the last foot or so to break that wide tail, but nothing deep)
I’ll keep you posted on how it works. Thanks again!
Thanks for posting that… I loved that story! High Performance boards are where SUP surfing is headed. What you described is only the beginning of what is possible on SUP boards. Surfers that fall in love with it want more than a floating barge type board. Of course, they are essential for learning but once you surf a more performance type board, its tough to go back… More performance does create some challenges to the shaper… The shorter you go the harder it is to get the board to paddle straight and boards get tipper not only side to side but now front to back too. You lose glide so it puts you into a position where you have to take off when the wave is steeper. This is both an advantage and dis-advantage. I view it as an advantage. I like dropping in a little later… Sets up a better bottom turn and makes everything more critical. I also love the fact that you can whip around to catch waves so much easier… Even close outs become fun blasting of the top or just pulling into a no hope barrel… Very fun…
What’s going on now is the second “Shortboard Revolution” Shapers are currently making a bunch of boards that people will struggle on in the quest for the perfect balance of paddling stability and surfing performance. In this period, unreal boards will be made and will become the standard of the future. By this same time next year, (I predict a few months) people will be blowing their minds with the stuff SUP surfers will be pulling off. Even for us, the boards we are currently building are so far away from what we learned on and its been only a year since I first grabbed a long paddle and struggled with a 12’ Munoz up the Haleiwa river. Heck, the boards we built 4 months ago cannot compare to what we ride now… Sooo fun this new direction we’re heading! Big carving turns, tighter arcs, barrel riding and just overall high performance surfing in small and big waves is going to be the norm in the near future… We have a ton of boards coming and I can’t wait!!! My wife constantly reminds me that we need to sell more boards instead of me riding them all! Hahahaha!! I’ll try… Hehe!
I am excited about this style of surfing going international. Carve is absolutely right about starting off with a bigger board. Your legs get such a work out and paddling in flat water is easy. Add in the wind and wave/swell factors and just staying up on the board is hard. I took my SUP to Ala Moana Beach Park for my friends to try. They immediately were able to paddle in the flat, calm, deeper water were the swimmers practice distance swimming. However, when they paddle over the reef and encountered the chop, wind and white water, they were flopping down all over the place. My macho friend had to paddle back on his knees because his legs were so tired.
Don’t forget to post pictures of the finished product. I would like to see one of my laminates on your one of your boards.
My macho friend had to paddle back on his knees because his legs were so tired.
Hahaha! Happens all the time. Its amazing how easy it can look and how tough it really is to do. A person with excellent surfing skills will eventually flounder within minutes even on the most stable board. A persons legs are just not used to that kind of strain not to mention the core workout and handling the paddle. I think the reality is the majority of the masses that try it will eventually quit. It takes some passion to stick with it… By this same time next year, we will see plenty of the bigger learning boards popping up for sale!
A few weeks ago there was some sort of photo session at Cardiff involving about 5 Stand-Up-Paddleboarders and a photo guy with a nice camera and a huge Canon lens perched on a ladder.
One of the surfers was above everyone else in ability, and I kept thinking, “He’s not from around here. Looks Hawaiian.”
After the guys came in I went over and met the guy who was surfing better than everyone else and he was indeed from Hawaii. His name is Leleo Kinimaka and he’s one of the Kona Beach Boys on the Big Island. A real nice guy: very friendly and gracious.
ANYWAY…I had a look at his stand up board to try to get some design clues, because he was ripping on that board.
I had to chuckle as I noticed two long double concaves on the bottom, running more than 1/3 up. The tail was not over-wide: maybe 15 inches, and the nose was pulled in, and not too thick. Most of the thickness was in the center section of the board, with a smooth flowing rocker. My first thought was that Stand-Up boards don’t need to be logs. They have to float the surfer standing up, of course, but they can still have performance elements in the shape so once the wave is caught, the surfer can still surf as opposed to just trimming out and lugging along.
I’ll never forget one wave: He caught it late and was on top of the breaking lip of a 6 footer. I thought, “That’s going to hurt”. Then he bent his knees, floated down the broken face, dug in the paddle and caught up to the shoulder where he made a few cut-backs and for all the world looked like he was on a regular surfboard.
Back to your board…Based on what I saw on Mr. Kinimaka’s board, I think you could pull in the nose a bit and thin the nose down at the rails. And I’m a proponent for double concaves at the tail. Doug
I know this is an old thread but I remembered this story… Leleo Kinimaka is Titus’s brother. Anyway, this morning Leleo surfed the board I made for Todd Bradley. A 9’-6" high performance SUP ripper. Next thing you know, I’m on the phone with one stoked out Leleo ordering a board from me. Todd said he was absolutely ripping on it!! That explained why Leleo was trying to see if he could get one today! Hahaha!! He was sooo stoked! Anyway, I am swamped with orders and we haven’t even really begun to let people know about us… I guess its better than having no one interested! Haha! Aloha…