frothing here too! x 100000 - can’t wait to see it come together.
the story of the blank alone is worth it
I’ll have to take some measurements when I get back to my shaping project, but I think the blank is thicker than even the photos can really show. I guess there must be more guys building thicker high volume boards these days, because FGH always seems to have this blank in stock. Love to see what others are doing with it. I like the volume, and I like the rocker. The drawback is that you’re not really gonna use the thicker skin near the surface for a stronger deck when you’re carving and sculpting so much foam away, with the deck concave and all.
Mattwho, I tried to read your post as carefully as I could, still not sure I get the gist of it all. I did do a little research: “The Lazor Zap (generically known as the “needle-nose” or “no-nose”) was developed in part because McCoy, as he later said, “always had this vision of surfboards looking like triangles.” The strange wide-backed craft, with its drastically reduced nose area, dropped the board’s wide point well below center, creating a small-wave board that pivoted effortlessly but was incapable of holding a sustained turn. The prodigiously talented Horan nonetheless rode the Lazor Zap to a second-place finish on the world tour in 1981 and again in 1982. The pure no-nose design itself was nearly obsolete by 1982, but the tri-fin board—introduced in 1981 by fellow Australian shaper Simon Anderson—incorporated a narrow McCoy-style nose.”
So the “no nose” was an extreme shape, one that doesn’t seem to have much in common with my board, unless I’m missing something? While the lazor-zap had a wide point well below center, my wide point is exactly at the center. The article went on to say that the narrow nose of the lazor-zap was later incorporated into the standard thruster design introduced by Simon Anderson. Its this more common shortboard design that influenced the Pretender nose, I’ll try to include a couple pics showing my influence.
The real goal here was the nice curvy planshape through the middle. When a board is turning on rail, the planshape becomes the rocker, and the turning base. Boards with more parallel or straighter rails through the middle are great in trim, but tend to have to be turned off the tail. In that sense, they are more pivot-y. The idea here was a board ridden from the back half, but not requiring you to step back or shift your weight back much for turns, I’m hoping this board can be trimmed and turned from the same general area, normal for a shortboard, but more unusual for an 8 footer.
Not sure the relevance of the flex-tail “carrot model” either, no flex tail here, and not really a carrot shape. This board is 22" wide, a generous width to create that generous curve in the shape. The nose is pulled in to be sure, but not much more extreme than many shortboards. The narrow nose you pictured in your post, how wide was the board at its widest? Did you ride this board yourself? Because my goal is a narrow nosed board for me to ride, I know plenty of guys ride narrow thin nosed shortboards, but this is one for the old guys, hopefully.
The board was designed independently of the beachcomber, as I said. While related in shape, probably just because of coming from the hand of the same designer, so to speak, the difference is the curve through the middle, and with less board up front. All my boards have wide point exact middle, and have for some time. I feel that keeps a healthy balance in the design, with a lot of flexibility in where you put the center of mass. The beachcomber had a fat rail with a channel added later, this will have the channel / step deck / concave deck, like the gordita, which I think will produce an easier turning rail.
As with all my boards, there is a certain amount of pre determined design criteria, and a fair amount of improvising and designing on the fly during the shaping process. Each board is a prototype, which makes it OK for me to make it up as I go along, haha.
I made this board a while ago, it is 6-7, probably just over 20.5" wide. I wanted a step up from riding 6-4. When I got it in the water I found that the nose seemed so pointed while paddling. I’d been riding wider nosed boards at the time, and my go to for really good surf was a 6-0 Griffin fish. I gave this to a friend that cleaned my in-laws yard.
Just my opinion here, but I don’t like narrow pointy or thin nose boards unless they are long guns. I couldn’t get far up on the nose when trying to catch waves, and sometimes it’s important to get up a little more to catch the wave. It all depends on how much rocker your board has, more nose rocker and I’ll do this more. I find I am a little further back paddling out then when I catch the wave. Of course too far up and you’ll dig the nose before you get into the wave.
Your concept seems to have merit, and I hope it works for you.
I agree about weight forward while paddling into a wave, so maybe I’ll shorten the nose just a bit, to keep that nice curve all the way thru. the single concave should reduce the rocker a bit, but that won’t start until about 1/3 back.
I won’t really know if this idea has merit or not until I do it, but the board will incorporate the design elements I have been using to get me into waves early in the crowd, so in that sense it will differ greatly from any regular shortboard. Whether the two can be successfully mixed I really dont know yet.
My nose will probably not be so thin either. Because of the thickness of the beachcomber board’s nose, I can paddle from much further forward than you would think. It feels counter-intuitive but I have found it does help me get in early. And again, this is an 8 foot by 22" by well over 3" thick board, that means there is still an awful lot of board behind the nose, which is a huge factor in the design.
Your general design is fairly unprecedented due to the length and the considerable thickness, i think you should just go with your gut. comparing it to anything else out there is superfluous.
this is coming from the guy who made and loves this weird contraption of 4’11 and a bit by 21.5 by ???
What the hell would i know, 'cept as long as i floats you can technically surf it.
bump
CassS thnx 4 the bump!
Sk8ment yes it it is unpresidented (haha). My first two shapes from this blank had similar shapes I could point to, the banana boat had mahady surfboards’ lineup killer, and the wing squad had the rusty big cat. But the gordita was a modified / blowup of a much smaller board, and was a success - although I could use some more time with it, if I didnt have so many boards! This is in a similar vein, but hopefully a little more refined.
At any rate, good comment about the gut, thats been my strongest guide on this one.
So I took a couple inches off the nose, (now 7-10 if I pull a tape along the bottom) and reworked the curve there a bit. Then I pulled the tail in a bit too. Much happier with the aesthetic of it now 
BTW I checked and this blank is 3.75 inches after being skinned!
Huck, don’t forget that the nose looks narrower when you look at the outline at the deck side, versus looking at the bottom.
Something Kelly Salter said in an interview about his Wizard Sleeve has stayed with me on my boards… he kept the tail of his favorite board then reduced the length. The effect of shortening it made the nose rounder. I have a series of boards with the same tail but on either shorter or longer boards. I’ve also messed with the same tail, but moved the wide point a little. The tail dictates how the turning feels, so keeping that fairly consistent makes it easier to use. But, I also like to change it up too. I also think we all have a favorite in nose outlines, so once you figure that out, you just mess with the middle to change up the lengths. If you want a board that you stand in one spot most of the time or all of the time, it would need to have the wide point at center or back of center and the foam distribution right. I haven’t been able to do that well. The longer boards I thought were setup for standing on the tail didn’t paddle good. The longer boards that paddle well ride well from the middle, and I step back to turn.
This board is 8-5 and I really like it. It turns great and it works great small or big waves. When I saw this photo, I was surprised at where I was standing. I thought I was further back.
cool board and pics.
I’m just playing around with different shapes.
I can feel in these 61 year old bones that my surfing days are numbered, so I build boards I think I would have fun on. My SwanSong Series 
So far my track record is pretty good, but not spotless haha.
Sorry for posting this outline shot again but I’m just really really stoked on the shape at this point - woohoo!!
Aloha Huck,
In 1970, at age 29 and 170 pounds, (a time when I was at the peak of my surfing skills) I had found the magic combo of dimensions for me. It was a board that I routinely rode in 2 to 3 foot beaches, up to 15 foot Sunset. The board was 7’ 10’’ X 21’‘, with a 7 inch squaretail. The wide point was at 40% of board length from the nose. The board was 3 5/8th inches thick, and was a single fin. Board weight ranged from 12 1/2 pounds, to 14 pounds. Light, by standards then. The basis of the design was that of a truncated big wave gun. Nose rocker was 5’’ +/-, tail rocker was in the 2 to 2 1/2 inch range. The ride experience was what I called magic. It felt as if the board responded to thought, not movement. It did everything from a good sized sweet spot. So, don’t wring your hands over board thickness. Dome the deck, taper the rail foil, and you’ll be in deep clover! The only change I’d do today, is set up the board as a twin single. Thickness is your friend, not your enemy.
…hello Huck, checking all your boards in that photo then checking this outline I see a too fast turn in the curve of it at around 2 ft from nose; kind of an abrupt change but keeping the line.
Reminds me couple of my earlier templates. I had the same problem in that very part.
feeling stoked, just kinda roughing in the key areas, not really shaping in earnest yet, but working out how I want to blend and bend it. I just get a little time here and there to pull it out and work on it a bit. Thats ok I’m not in a hurry.
hey reverb thanks for checking in on my thread, I’ll try n watch for that!
Bill, thanks for weighing in on this. Its a little outside the norm for most people, but I got a good feeling about this one so far. I have seen some of your work and it all seems super professional / functional. Like I say, I’m no pro at designing or building, but I have a heckova lot of fun for a backyarder.
Looks great Huck. If it doesn’t work, just flip it over, rebend the rocker, and call it an edge board. Lol
On the 2nd pic; maybe the camera angle; but is that outline kind of a no nose parallel rail longboard with hips?
Nice one sharks. Especially like the rounded pin.
yeah funny but I guess the concept makes more sense to me on top than bottom. Going for something like my gordita board in the bottom pic. Oh yeah and I’ll also include a bottom shot of the pretender.
there are 3 separate concepts that work together to make the deck so funny looking: a rail channel or thumb channel; a step deck that bumps up for volume, and a concave deck. You could say that the rail channel and concave deck are ergonomic design elements.
It makes shaping a challenge, and glassing a bit of a headache, but I think its worth the extra work on a one-off for myself.
Stretch surfboards has been doing something similar for awhile now, he calls the deck concave a skate deck.
so I promised a boring detailed build thread, and I intend to deliver! I planed and scraped a bit more today, just had a quick shot at it before I had to move on to other projects, but Im gradually thinning it out and finding the board within.
I try to keep all the edges crisp where the various planes meet cuz that helps tremendously for seeing lumps or wobbles that might sneak in.
At this point I’m like the artist standing back and looking past my thumb at my work in progress, making a myriad of adjustments and trying to visualize how I want the finished shape to be.
