I would like to first give sincere thanks to Bill Thrailkill, I only wish I knew more men like him. I would like to provide the same sincerity in my thanks to Jim Phillips for being involved in this build in more ways than one; a big thanks to Sam Cody for his incredible Falsa work; and to Channin Glassing for flawless glasswork, and I must not forget to thank Kava who posts here for his help with the HI’n translation between the fins. How does a guy even begin to say thank you for the experience I have had and the end result which is beautiful art expressed as a surfboard? Well, you just say thank you and hope your words are heard as you wish them to be heard; this has been very humbling for me.
And it all started right here with nothing more than a PM from me to Bill. I wanted an “all rounder” and I wanted to show some thanks and respect to the Duke and to Hawaii, and I let Bill take the lead, giving him my opinion and input and leaving it more or less completely up to him.
Board is 8 ft x 23 x 3.125 (?)… approximately…tail is about 16.25-16.50 from what i recall
2-inch chambered balsa stringer
I could go on and on, and I will have more to say, but its late and I will let the board do the talking for now.
http://img832.imageshack.us/g/thrailkill13y.jpg/ (I created this slideshow link because I have the hardest time getting pics to show up on posts here)
An excerpt from my first session on the board in 4-5 ft fat high tide lefts/rights at my local spot, the remnants of the Igor swell:
I dont even have the the fins in correctly and I caught a few glimpses of its ability on that first session, I caught this one left where I was sure the board was not going to make the sections (maybe I was sure I was not going to make the section?) and I found myself completely right in the pocket of the wave completely in control and just zooming with my right hand on rail and left hand not on the wall but mimicking the wall, and the board just ate it up.. and the board continuously accelerating and all i had to do was properly weight the board and it stayed right where I wanted it to....did not get out of my control in the slightest...in fact i came out of the wall into a nice backside carve while weighting the outer rail, and it was all quite effortless
It seems the board has a certain momentum to it, it starts out real soft and glidey on the take off as you are stroking in on your belly, almost too easy to get into the wave, and then you stand up and it really picks up speed and it seems the increase in speed continues... whatever it is that you have done here, I can already tell the board is "automatically maximizing" the wave's energy...honestly, I've been on the thing about 100 mins and can already tell its unlike anything I have surfed on
More on this:
"I dont even have the the fins in correctly..."
Try getting your head around putting in the fins with foil to the inside and flat surface to the outside; Bill and I even talked about it weeks earlier, but as I was in the back of my car putting the fins in to the board, it’s like my mind refused, I remembered the conversation, and I even had a moment where I was like “how the hell do you get the foil to the inside?” It was a real mental war, so I mounted them as we all know how, foil out, flat in and went surfing; fins have since been properly mounted and board is waiting for its next proper go out
Much thanks again to Bill, Jim, Sam, Channin, Kava...and Swaylocks.
Enjoy,
Warren