surfskate

General Discussion
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I imagine that most folks here have ridden skateboards from time to time, hopefully have snowboarded,wakeskate, wakesurf also. Ever want to try and bring some of that to the ocean? I’ve been obsessed with it lately so I built this board. It is made of XPS from Home Depot, 6oz s-cloth top, 4oz btm with 2 layers 6oz on the rails for extra strength. The rocker in the nose and tail are originally made from a 3.5 degree bevel cut on each piece so when glued together with gorilla glue, it rakes up at 7 degrees. Its symmetrical front to back including fins, knubster fins or TMF- the middle finger from Futures.  I’ve surfed it 4 times now , but havent been up to any significant speed to fully test yet. It is very loose. 

It would be really cool to see some other surfskate’s made with different ideas and shapes. I am currently making my second surf skate. It is going to have a wider nose and tail than the body . I’m thinking the wider nose and tail will help the board to spin into 180 ollies by the angle it hits the water at. The water will push against this flared out surface and spin the board. I’m thinking wider and shorter is the key here. Maybe 24" wide at the body  with the nose and tail flaring out to about 28" … so a 2 " flare off each rail, nose and tail, Goofy huh? then probably under 5’ would be best.  I’m going to do a combo EPS for the body and XPS for the nose and tail. This EPS  I picked up at Lowes is maybe 1 pound density? It is quite squishy , so I will lam the deck with this 9 oz twill I got from TAPS plastics. Hopefully this is enough strength?I’ll triple wrap the rails. might even go finless. Has anyone created a surfskate? Lets brainstorm about how to design a functioning 180 ollie able surf board

 Thanks to everyone who has posted here on swaylocks. I’ve been pouring over this forum for the past month soaking up all of your experience and I’m really grateful to have this resource. I built my very first epoxy/XPS surfskate with the help of most of you here. Also want to thank John Mel at Freeline Designs, and al the awesome videos on youtube about finless surfing, mini simmons etc…

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Once I duct taped a surfboard to my skateboard and used a mop to paddle board to the beach. 

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That’s awesome, I’ve always thought about this. I’ve never done something that different though. The last board I made was somewhat skate inspired, with a very wide profile, short and a very wide tail, blunted nose. Twin fin for looseness too. But way more “normal” than that. I was really going for loose ad squiggly, so I could just throw it around like a skateboard. I skateboard a lot though, I’ll have to try just a straight up 180. I tried a shove it like last week. Got it about 100 degrees around, then the fins seemed to stop it.

So are the kicks kicked like a skateboard, and is the middle flat? It looks like theres concave or something going on there. I’ve always thought of doing a very short board, nearly straight and flat under your front foot, then kicked like a skateboard under your back foot. You could keep your foot on the tail, just pressure it lightly as you would a skateboard. That would let you ride on the flat surface with your front foot weighted, then jam on the tail to whip it around or ollie or something. 

Have you tried a progressively kicked tail, just like an extreme version of tail rocker? I’d imagine if putting the board on the tail moves almostt all of it out of the water, you can spin easily. Just as taking your front truck off the ground lets you slide the back one or ollie.

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Looks like a wakeboard that ate…

…too much, I guess.

cool.

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I’ve thought about a shape similar to this for a while now; very similar to the outline of my bathtub. I’m glad you did it, make sure to send a detailed ride report. I always envisioned the fin setup as a finless but with the addition of the port and vent system that Surffoils was working on. Then you could do powerslides, turns, and shove-its easier. At least in theory…

 

EDIT: I found the posts by Surffoils. The whole thread is really fascinating (at least to me): http://www.swaylocks.com/forums/internal-fins-finless-control-system

Some of Surffoils pictures are now missing. I knew this was going to happen so I saved them somewhere. I might need to dig them up.

And then just stare at this for a while. This thread is a good read too: www.swaylocks.com/comment/1372600/Re-surfiber-induction-vented-ported-slotted

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the nose and tail kick up at 7 degrees and are 1 foot long each. The center section is 4’ and was totally flat untill I added the concave in nose and tail which is about 7/8" removed at its deepest where the middle flat section meets the flared nose and tail, and then it slowly tapers narrower and shallower towards the center of the board. 

My next version I started yesterday is only 5’ long 24"wide and the nose and tail only 6" long with a 10 degree rake. I plan to really exaggerate the concave in the nose and tail and make it finless, kind of like Wegeners Seaglass Project, but deeper like a McTavish pic I saw online. The foam I’m using is only 1 7/8" so I figure the most concave I could go is 1 1/4". But instead of shaping the concave with a smooth arc, it will be shaped much more elliptical with almost a flat top and then abruptly jutting to near vertical walls left and right for traction. 

You mentioned getting 100 degrees then the fins stopping the rotation. i think the fins and/or concave in the front will help with this because they will grab and help you finish the spin when shifting weight forward. Thanks for responding. Lets build these things! I think it could add a new style of surfing not quite explored yet…

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Monkstar,

Surfoils post is really something to chew on , wow, thanks for sharing. I just wish I could see all those photos that I cannot see… did they ever get these ports figured out? it seems like you could add some ports near ends of board so the flow of water on the deck does not effect footing/grip, but I dont know anything about these ports yet. I think just an exaggerated concave should give you just enough grip to turn when you want and slide/ ollie when you want. Hopefully  this is an nspiration for you to build that bathtub board, I’d like to see it!

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here is my latest attempt: 5’ x 24" w . Side cutouts are to let water flow before catching the round outside rear corner. I’m hoping to be able to bury the corner and have it almost pop me into a spinning 180 ollie. Thats the plan anyway

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Same Idea but different… lines :wink:

http://www2.swaylocks.com/forums/back-to-where-it-all-began-where-life-was-simple-no-rip-people-and-it-was-fun?page=5

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here are some more pics. Got the white one ( kinda hammerhead ish ) sanded down this morning, the leash plug is set and cured, I have no job lined up for the next week(I’m a General Contractor) and its FLAT !! I’ll have to wait to test it… I’m noticing that alot of people are reading this thread… please comment, share ideas

https://swaylocks7stage.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/IMG_1359.JPG

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Is your deck concave? Might as well, unless that conflicts with the deep concaves and makes it like 1" thick. And have you ever considering making the deck have a kick shape on top? So not only would it have kick style rocker, but you’d have something to push your foot into, other than down. Kinda how you have that locked in feeling when pushing down and back against a skateboard tail. Might change how you can leverage the board too. Traction pad with a tail kick would work, but it would be different.

Here’s mine, like I said, nowhere near as radically shaped as your stuff. But I went with the wide, sort of straight and short. Twin and trailer for looseness, but it still has some push to it so I can make speed. 20.75", if I recall properly it’s like 17.5" at 1’ from the tail. Flatish tail rocker, flatter through the middle than flipped nose so I don’t bury it. I stayed conservative so I had something to ride that would probably work (It does, it’s a fun little board).

Eventually I’m gonna try something like yours though. I want to attempt a noserider first.

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not bad Nico, might have to beef up the rails for pavement grinds along the way! ; /

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Thew, hows it going ?

Have you had any test waves ?

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Concave on the dek is on the list for the third attempt. The nose and tail do kick up at 10 degrees for the last six inches. hard to tell in the photos but its there. More noticeable on the top of the board since the bottom was concaved out.

looks like a fun board you made here drzoidberg. nice wide and short style. I really like the looks of those mini-simmons boards. Must try one soon!

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I tested the pink panther in some shoulder high waves. The thing actually works! was able to spin 180 and ride reverse or swith stance. The new white one hasnt properly been tested yet. One thing about it that worked out without planning is that the cut-outs in the rails allow for my arms to paddle without being interupted.   Its a fun learning process either way. I have visions of my surfskate: it will concentrate mstly on the 4 outside corners of the board. I think this is the area where most control (or lack of it) will be established. I plan to turn the ends of the board up , like a skateboard , but in a bowl shape. Then put the fins on the turned up areas. This way , the fins will only be engaged if you are stepping down on that corner of the board. So, when you are dropping into a bottom turn, your weight will be back  on that corner. Then when you want to slide out in to 180 , you shift your weight to the middle of the board and dis-engage the fins in the back and engage the side rail and the fins in the front. The fins in the front, in theory, will grab and assist in the rotation. i’ve already seen how this does work from riding the pink one. I call it the pink panther because the foam has that pink panther guy as the logo/mascot.

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i have nothing to add other than how rad it is to see your progress and ideas come to life! can’t wait for more ride reports

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wow good stuff very foward thinking and guttzy how did the purple one go keep up the good work cheers ra

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here is the nose

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I built a few of this concept a few years back.

At 49 years old, I still skate.

We have a Large halfpipe at our facility.

So I attempted to build a surfboard which rode like a skateboard.

5’2"x 20-1/2"x 2-3/8".

First I made the tail a wide and round.

By leaving the tail rather thick, it felt like the"Pop" in a kicktail.

Rocker was flat and nearly the same at both ends.

Nose was similar in shape as the tail.

The deck was concave from rail to rail.

Tail had a lot of deck rocker. Like a kick tail.

I also put a “bump” in front of front foot to keep foot from sliding forward.

It worked well.

Some of my skating customers loved them.

Wish I had taken photo’s.

Funny thing, when I worked for Gary Linden. Down on the beach, they paved a ditch. Later became known as the “Shell-Bowl”.

Gary came down one day and was watching me skate. That’s when I told him “One day surfers will take it to the air”. He said “Yeah right”.

Well soon after that Christian Fletcher was doing airs.

The rest is history.

That was 1985.

Keep up the concept.

I love the attempts to blend surf and skate.

I look forward to seeing your progress.

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What kind of fins. If I was doing it (which I might, you’ve inspired me) I would probably consider something like this: