Something I wish I had more than a few times last season. For big clean days at Sunset, Laniakea, Haleiwa, Makaha or any North Shore heavy spot for that matter… I got other volunteers to ride it in some serious waves… We’re all licking our chops to see where we can take this SUP thing… This board makes me nervous just holding it! Hahahaha!!! I’m trying to visualize stroking into those big deep water bombs on it and man… It sure makes me train harder for this winter! Hehe…
Measured it again and its different from what I originally thought… Bigger which is better…
Maximizing the blank, I laid it out, cut it, and the tape measure never came out again till now…
1lb EPS foam to be glassed very heavy…
10’-9" x 4-3/4"thick x 26-3/4"wide x 14-1/2’tail x 13-3/4"nose
My daughter loves coloring boards! One day she may be my airbrusher…
Killer board! I am assuming that you will be knee paddling this board into those deep dark pits. Is this machine shaped or hand shaped? If its hand shaped, you are getting pretty good. You are really pushing out the SUP limits. Imagine a few years from now, I think it might be a flexible hand paddles made from space aged materials that you put on like a glove and knee paddle the board or hollow molded boards. Keep up the experimentation, push out the envelope, while guys like us tri to catch up!
Thanks Uncle! Oh man… This is for Stand Up Paddling only. I’m not even putting a pad on it! Hahaha! Hand shaped but it is flawed here and there but the pictures always hide my boo-boo’s… This is meant for big clean surf. If the winds are ripping then its a no-go. Its for those glassy ,variable wind mornings or light Konas and you want to test all your skills and bravado! Some of my friends who charge big waves already want try paddling it to see how it feels… I got to get it over to J.Troy so he can give it a Resin Research bullet proof glass job…
In the Islands, often strong offshores accompany bigger surf waay outside, and SUP has lots of wind drag, which might not be made up for with just a slight increase in paddling speed.
I’ve found that for me, a little guy, a narrow gunny board is much easier to take off in 12’ + surf than a longboard shape, even if I give up a foot and a half in length.
I agree on the wind thing… Too windy, no go… There were quite a few days last winter where it was just perfect for it. 10’+ and very light winds… Like a freaking lake glassy… The day below had light 5-10mph off shores… 10 to 12’+ Hawaiian size and clean… I knee paddled into some bombs on a Surftech 11’ Munoz… Those same waves were definetly catchable standing… Another morning at Sunset it was solid 10’+ and again, like a lake… I also surfed some unreal Haleiwa with light Kona’s blowing making big barrels and real clean… I even surfed that on a 12’ Munoz Surftech… Hahaha!! Did it work good? Well, I made some insane waves! I have no doubt this board will work WAAAAY better than my Munoz longboards. Nothing wrong with them but they are just not designed for waves with that kind of speed and steepness. I got some dirty lickens last year let me tell you!
My friend Guy Pere who lifeguards Sunset surfs macking days there on a little Fish and big longboards… He was going to charge mack daddy days standing on his 12’ soft top… This would be waaaay better! He’s all game for this thing… We’ve been planning it for awhile now… Should be exciting! Hahahaha! One things for sure… The cameras will document the results whether it be glory or beatings… I think it will be both… The good thing is… Guy can take a beating and come up smiling… That’s a good thing for R&D! Haha!
Point surf Makaha… It was so glassy out there. Like a lake. Big blue freight train barrels smoking thru from the point … Heaven!
I agree on the wind thing… Too windy, no go… There were quite a few days last winter where it was just perfect for it. 10’+ and very light winds… Like a freaking lake glassy… The day below had light 5-10mph off shores… 10 to 12’+ Hawaiian size and clean… I knee paddled into some bombs on a Surftech 11’ Munoz… Those same waves were definetly catchable standing… Another morning at Sunset it was solid 10’+ and again, like a lake… I also surfed some unreal Haleiwa with light Kona’s blowing making big barrels and real clean… I even surfed that on a 12’ Munoz Surftech… Hahaha!! Did it work good? Well, I made some insane waves! I have no doubt this board will work WAAAAY better than my Munoz longboards. Nothing wrong with them but they are just not designed for waves with that kind of speed and steepness. I got some dirty lickens last year let me tell you!
My friend Guy Pere who lifeguards Sunset surfs macking days there on a little Fish and big longboards… He was going to charge mack daddy days standing on his 12’ soft top… This would be waaaay better! He’s all game for this thing… We’ve been planning it for awhile now… Should be exciting! Hahahaha! One things for sure… The cameras will document the results whether it be glory or beatings… I think it will be both… The good thing is… Guy can take a beating and come up smiling… That’s a good thing for R&D! Haha!
Point surf Makaha… It was so glassy out there. Like a lake. Big blue freight train barrels smoking thru from the point … Heaven!
Beware of the Big Bowl on the point…itll hold your ass down like nobodys business…
Beware of the Big Bowl on the point…itll hold your ass down like nobodys business…
That’s for sure! I made the mistake of paddling to deep towards the point getting cocky. The swell had to much west in it so it wasn’t roping all the way thru and open like a north would… The bowl was shutting down fast and hard… Anyway, took a set deep and the freight train ran me over! Yes, Makaha has some serious juice at that size! Learned real quick where to take off after that. You know what was hairy? When the bigger sets would push through and the walls are soooo long! Just making it over those big blue walls thinking I shoulda went on that one… Then it closes down the line with that loud roar and I would think… Whoooooaaaa, good call I didn’t go! The Thurs before it was even better… One of the lifeguards said it was 15’ that morning. I have to admit… A couple sets had me scrambling for safety and I almost had to change my underwear!! Hahaha!
Hey Bro I’m just finishing my 10’9" by 27" I bet my tail’s a bit narrower than yours, funny how suddenly wide boards are ok for big waves now just because you need to stand up paddle them ,I mean it’s all the same to the wave if it works it works no matter how you paddle do you get what i mean ?
I was saying that wide boards are nice in bigger stuff if the tails are narrow for ages, glad you have sussed it out… . . . I wonder if this one would make a good big wave SUP if I built it at 3.5" thick instead of 2.25" thick ?
Honestly, the ONLY reason I’d make a board this wide for what the waves we are going to ride is because I need the stability to paddle while standing. In my opinion, a much narrower board works on the wave a heck of a lot better here in Hawaii. This is why you don’t see Ross Clark Jones or Andy Irons or Brock Little or any good big wave rider surfing a board 27" wide! We’re only doing it to push the limits of SUP surfing. As far as your design for a good SUP big wave board? Only one way to find out… Grab a long paddle and charge!
That extreme 27" width is nice for paddle surfing stability, but big waves, 12’ + HEIGHTS, need narrower to drop in and not hang up at the top.
And regular paddle, width just slows you down from your top speeds, which you need to get onto a wave…a different thing than your cruise or even sprint paddle heading out.
If you can’t understand this, you don’t surf big waves (12’+ Hawaiin).
It’s the tail which needs to be narrow, not the maximum board width… … what’s the tail measurement on your prototype? It rather looks wide. Name dropping is pointless when talking to me btw, it doesn’t mean anything, and tends to discourage creative thought IMO.
First off, I’ll say this. I’m no Big Wave Gun Master. But I do to some extent know what rides well for myself here in Hawaii which is where I surf 99.99% of the time over the last 30+ years. This board I’m experimenting with is for SUP surfing. The tail in my opinion is already borderline to narrow for paddling stability. To wide for surfing large waves as we would like but hey, it will still work better than my tanker shaped Munoz surftechs or the pop out soft tops etc… As far as name dropping goes, its to reference the type of equipment that allows surfing that you Tom Bloke could only dream of… I’ll even go as far as to say, you are giving opinion on something you know absolutely nothing about which is becoming very obvious with your every post on this subject.
Ambrose and LeeDD, understand the elements being dealt with here and I’m willing to bet when the width of 27" comes up for ANY waves with juice their thinking TOO WIDE!!! For surfing, I agree completely!!! My regular arm paddle boards never exceed 23" Why? Because I like to surf juicy waves, turn, pull in the tube and angle in when really steep instead of trimming straight while standing like a dead sailor in mellow waves… Sound familiar? When its big, steep and powerful, wider boards are to much of a handful and don’t fit the curves as well… Can it be done? Sure, but not very easy! We expect to get beatings… But we will pull off some unreal fun sh*t too!
I do love SUP surfing and the unfortunate trade off is width is the only way to create the stability we need for paddling. THIS IS THE ONLY REASON we go wide. Never for performance aspects! Hahahaha!!! If I were to shape a gun for arm paddling, there is no way in hell would I waste my time going so wide only to make a board harder to control in large surf… If you are telling us your board would perform better than the modern guns ridden by the names I dropped proves to me you don’t know what the heck you’re talking about! You have never even surfed the kind of waves we have here… Sorry, but those mushburgers in your videos are just soooo opposite from what we surf… Nothing wrong with your waves. Looks fun but just very, very slow and weak in comparison… If you can’t see that then oh well… I do give you this though… You are a persistent bugger when it comes to wanting to prove you know better than all of us! Be like me… Lets say my mantra together… " I don’t know SHT but I’m having fun experimenting… I don’t know SHT but I’m having fun experimenting…I don’t know SH*T but I’m having fun experimenting…" Now, doesn’t it feel good to be true to yourself? Hehehehe!!
You insult me by saying that I know nothing about the subject. . . that is going a bit too far. . . I have ridden some fairly large waves in my 40 years of surfing. . . I had something of a reputation for charging bigger stuff on the West Coast in Raglan and Piha back in the 80’s. . on my singlefinned shortboards. . … these days I am riding smaller waves because I have small children who like to get out there too. . . they are disappointed if they have to stay on the beach. … . so be a good chap, don’t make assumptions about what I have and haven’t done please.
Now regarding this width business, it is not my contention that wider is necessarily better in big surf, just that wider can work in bigger stuff, and that it is the tail width (or lack of it) which is mostimportant as waves get bigger. Basically by building a wider board for bigger surf you are saying that wide CAN work in bigger stuff. . . something I have been saying for years. . . I still think that your tail is too wide though.
BTW if RCJ ever tries a tunnel fin on a big wave gun I bet my bottom dollar that he will be sold on it !
