Very nice McDing, custom for a client? Bigger guy, or older guy? You don’t see too many of these bigger boards with a high performance outline, curious what led to you shaping this. Also be nice to see some finished pics after glassing, if you got 'em.
It’s cold up here and guys wear lots of rubber. I’ve been criticized for shaping Shortboards that are too California. Too high performance and too thin. They work great at places like Trestles and Rincon, but not as efficient for hard paddle outs thru thumping beach break like we have up here. Time to show them otherwise.
Two Scoops Rice & MAC Salad; I used to make a lot of these in the 6’6 thru 7’2 range when I lived on Maui. Lots of Big Guys that went surf after a lunch at L&L or Da kitchen.
Just got the bottom spackle applied. Spackle the deck today. Screen and over to my 2 car glass shop this week. I haven’t figured out what I want to do for fins yet. I’ll figure that out while spackle dries. I have done these previously in every configuration. Quad, Tri , Five and even 2+1. PS—- Stilll using the Sherwin-Willams Liteweight Spackle. The right color and screens well.
Lotsa questions, always curious to know about bottom & fins. Here’s my diagram of my fin setup, somebody, I think Greg Tate, said he thought the toe-in was too much, but so far it seems to be working good. I went with a single concave ala Maurice Cole or Stretch of Santa Cruz, again, real happy with it so far, this is the first board I’ve ever tried a single bottom concave on.
There is another thread about a 7-10 single fin + side bites in the planning stage. I’m real happy with the quads, haven’t even tried the thruster setup yet.
It isn’t really a weight / size issue for me right now, its more of a paddling issue. Surfing Topanga, Malibu, Ventura point, its more an issue of giving myself a paddling equalizer amongst the aggro younger guys who aren’t into sharing with the senior set. Since retiring, and finding out my other hip and my spine are showing signs of arthritic deterioration, I’ve really been pushing myself to drop some of the dead weight I was carrying around, and getting in better shape. I’m down to 165, about 20 lbs. lighter than at my heaviest, so I don’t need all that foam, but at this point I’m enjoying it. If I can drop a few more lbs. I might even bust out my shorter / thinner boards that I never ride anymore, as a reward to myself.
Surfing Topanga last week the water was warm enough to go without a wetsuit, and a few guys were. But the wind chill, brrrrr. I was cold in my 3 + 2. Lotsa guys staying in the water, just a head bobbing next to a board, lol.
For me that might be a little more Toe than I usually put into a board, but the key is that it works. We have had these discussions about Toe before. As long as it doesn’t cross up at the stringer it will most likely work. I think the secret to multi-fin boards is how the Toe and Cant of all fins relate to each other. You can’t tell much from my pics, but that board is a Single Concave(identifiable but shallow) very slight V in the tail. Almost not noticeable, but if you raise the tail and look down the stringer or put a straight edge on it; obviously there.
Had to go check, I’ve got single concave about 3/16" running all the way from about 1/4 way back, to flattening out at the very tail, so its about 1/8" in the middle of the fin area. I had a pic showing the deck concave, but didn’t document the bottom concave.
Not sure where my mind was at when I set the toe in, but just curious if I was way off the mark. But as long as its working OK, I guess thats good enough. Us backyarders that only build a few boards a year are always trying to pick up tips from the guys who churn them out, and have rider feedback.
I set the Toe on sidebites on a 9’0 once too extreme and noticed the result the first time I rode the board. The rocker of the shaped board probably contributed to the poor paddling and performance as well. Funny thing is I diddn’t Shape the board. Flecky owed me a few bucks so I brought the blank over to the Sewer Farm neighborhood shaping bay in Oceano and he shaped a 9’0 to cover the $$ he owed me. Roger did a “Mexican Blanket” tint job. After I got to Maui the board was sold to someone who resold it and I eventually ran onto it in the back of local boys truck in Maalaea. I talked to him about the board and he loved it. He had me do some ding repair on it for the price of a 12 pack of Mas Fina. While I had it I was able to adjust the Toe. The nice thing about 2 plus one is tha you can always ditch the sidebites and ride as a single. I’m one of these guys who doesn’t’ mix Toe up on Multifins. I’m a believer in all fins having the same Toe and Cant.
Michel has always been underrated everywhere other than Santa Cruz County.
I bought the ergo vest after I had 4 way Coronary Artery Bypass Graft surgery. It helped a lot, and I used for a year. I had to keep it very slightly inflated, or it felt like I had a balloon under me. I don’t think they had the Rib Rocket back then.
About 2 years ago I started riding shorter and shorter boards again. Went from my 8’ boards to 7’ boards, then mid 6’ and a couple that are 5’10". I’m playing with a 5’6" fish that I made by cutting off the tail of an old 6’ single fin board I wasn’t using anymore. Getting to my feet can be challenging, but I had a handful of great rides yesterday using large keel fins.
The smaller boards don’t help if there’s a crowd, so I tend to sit off on my own as much as possible. I also went back to one of my old stomping grounds and I have a spot in the rotation, so I get waves without much hassling. Always nicer to surf with a bunch of friends.