After reading about these boards on surfermag forum I had to try one.So I went to the local surf shop and took out a firewire demo to see what the hype was about.I took it out in knee to waist high wind chop.Really shitty waves and the thing went so good.I was able to catch waves way easier than I expected and the speed was there right away.Turning the board was effortless and a few times when I burried the nose it recovered without effort.I demoed a 5’ 4" and I weigh about 150 pounds.If I could get Mike to make me one in coil tech that would be real interesting.
There is definately something to the vanguard shape and after surfing on 1 I think this could be the future of shapes to come.Maybe.
I take my hat off to anyone who has a open mind towards shaping. Without risk/new wave thinking how are we to progress design? There’s no point in trying to reinvent the wheel (a circle is best), but we are talking about surfboards here.
I recently chopped the nose off of a 6’2" diamond tail thruster I recently made (I just thought “why not? If I mess up i still have other boards” after an order I made for a vanguard fell through) and turned it into a 5’ 4.3/4" x 19.1/2". It’s now a magic board! I’m not even joking! Snaps great, drivy when trimming but loose as a mother of octuplets, fast down the line, light, great hold, fits in my van better! What’s not to love?
By cutting the nose I realised I had essentially no rocker left in the nose, having only had 3.1/2" to begin with when it was 6’2" so cut in a real deep concave that blended nicely with the existing single concave to vee tail.
I would love to build a new model though with this idea sprinkled through out the shaping process rather than as a re-shape a few months down the line.
So as I said, risk and progression go hand in hand. Take a risk on a noseless if you havn’t yet, you might like it!
Some good looking boards here. How do these boards paddle? I can see getting into the wave easy, but how is the paddling if you have to fight current to stay in position or make long paddles?
If you guys wanted to make it a bit better at paddling would you make it longer keeping the volume the same, or widen it? I was looking at the dimensions on the firewire site, and for a 6’0" they have it at 39.5 liters, which seems like a bit over the top. I am thinking about building one either at 5’10: off of a 5’10"RP blank or trying to extend the shape to a 6’0 off of a 6’5"A just because it has extra thickness to deal with mistakes… Either or, going to keep the rocker mentioned earlier, and stay around 33ish liters volume. I weigh 180lbs(82kg)
Have not ridden one, but the kiteboarders love them. Oh and they bring them all in to be reinforced with more glass, carbon, kevlar, etc. so more work for me. Here’s a copy we are finishing now.
Saw a bunch of older guys at my favorite break doing pretty good on these boards and having a good time. Decided to shape my own version. Made a 5’10", 19.25" wide,2.5"thick off of a 5’10RP blank. Added a 1/2" of tail rocker, and a tad more in the nose. Did about 1/8" single concave in the center, to a slightly veed tail. Made hard edge in rail by tail and fat rails up fromt.
I installed quad future boxes and a FU box in the center.
Test drove it today, as part of my New Years Resolution of aurfing more, in waist to chest high, smooth well formed waves, and it was pretty awesome. I thought it was going to be super small so just used a single fin, takayama 7" finger fin jammed all the way to the front of the box. It felt good, Next time will put the quads in,
First time doing cutlaps with color. Had lots of problems with color leaking under tape.I was using 233, Any recommendations? or did I possibly have a bad roll of tape.
seems about the right volume since i have a 6’4" Potatonator
i already have gemini’s and griffin 5 fin’s so it would be interesting to test the three speed machines against each other.
been watching curren on his the latest was him surfing it in new zealand on switchfoot’s movie fading west
it was interesting that that was the only board he brought for the trip
All are back footer rockets and I don’t expect any of them to be that much better than the other.
Peter Poppler did something similar with my first custom using a cutoff chinky nose soft rails up front and squaring the railline with the single to double with 8 channel quad he made.
be interesting to see chris cote or Nick Carroll do a magazine test with the following speed rockets, a gemini, a griffin 5fin modfish, a tomo vanguard, a tommy petersen jetbottom and a “Jick” bottom board from that guy on the big island. Be interesting to compare all them also to a Byrne 6 channel.
I dont know how the volume works on the firewire version. The guys I saw surfing it were around 170-185 and using a 5’6 and the other guy had a 5’10. At some point I had a 6’ baked potato and it just had too much volume, and never felt right. I weigh 180 and was thinking the same thing would happen with one of the bigger vanguards. I definitely like the idea of the board. For me I was looking for something that had some aspects of my minisimmons but a little more responsive, and it works. It was nice because once it got going it would keep on going through flat sections. Cant wait to try it in some bigger surf.
Would love to get my hands on a griffin five fin, although my budget is pretty limited until I get out of grad school:( Going to have to surf what I can make, which isnt much.
Hmm, well my mini sim tomo (5’9 x 22 1/4" x 2 15/16") goes pretty great but i’m finding I’m catching the nose lots. Often as i’m cranking into a bottom turn.
I only have about 2mm concave right up in the nose (not the full tomo anti pearl nose) and i’m wondering if I should go to town with the router and cut in some reverse Vee and the vee/concave along the rails just in the first 4 inches. ( i think nose rocker was 3" and tail was 1")
Or should I make some guides up and grab a tin of bog and bog in some channels. If they dont work I can sand them out easily.
She really flies but I dunno wether i should molest the first board I ever made or make a new one. Over all the board is very good just seems to catch the nose as the bottom turn starts to head back up the wave where the board stops in its tracks and throws me off the front. Maybe I need to put my wavefins hydrofoil fins back in to trim the nose up?? I was planing on making one very much the same but narrower for bigger conditions.
That board came out looking good, Go for board #2.
I messed with the rocker a bit, adding some in the tail, making it flatter in the center, but still adding nose. I think that and making it not as wide as my mini helped with not catching any nose. I think I ended with 2 1/4"tail and 4 1/4"nose. I didnt do any channels. having the FU box in the center is pretty fun.
What did you use for fin placement?
This was board #2 for me, any guys with experience have some recommendations?
Thanks Melikefish! for fin placements i just eyeballed it and spoke with some mates.
Front fins have 1 deg toe in. rears are straight. I’ve found she rides real nice with MR78s with the trailer. I’m liking the idea of another set of boxes in the middle to set her up as a Twinzer…
Number 2 tomo style isalready planned to use the same template but traced offset. thinking 5’9x 20" x almost 3" for lots of volume but dome the deck a bit to keep the rails of a 2.5" thick board.
As for rocker I’ll keep the tail the same but aim for 90mm in the nose before I cut in the funky style anti pearling nose. which will make it almost 4" when complete. I bought a nice burford blank for it just before christmas that should do the job nicely.
Now I just need the time to shape it! I’ve got 1 board to finish sanding fins and topcoat then one for a mate before I can begin mine!! too many boards to shape and too much time spent at work far far away from my shaping bay and the waves! I wanna do a 5’2 x 18" to use with my kite too!
I guess one day i’ll do another fatty with very similar dimensions but more focus on the nose end.
My current board with roots in the vanguard design, although more like the Mandala double rainbow.
5’6" x 20" x 2 1/2"
3 1/2" nose rocker, 1 3/4" tail
single concave all the way through.
stringerless eps, carbon rails.
Originally made it with glass on hockey stick keels, but found it had a tendancy to slide on steeper waves and tighter turns. Have now changed to a quad set up which is working great.
Cant speak to riding one ,but have observed 2 guy riding the firewire version good surfers that surf very well in that 2 to 7 foot range.I have seen them surf better on thier standard template boards[whatever that is] in various fin configurations.Their wave count has gone way down due to not being that paddling efficient.Displacement versus floatation comes to mind 2 different concepts.They have their place in surfing my guess in the hands of a young ripper or old ripper you can make them work but for those in search of one board to rule them all well the the verdict is?But then again if we can get everyone to ride these micro boards us old guys wave count might go up does anyone remember the Slater potato chips??? Tomo is a guy with a vision their are many with that some see far away some see close in the end you got to spend time in the water and get waves after all surfing is a practice that ebbs and flows with the tides to each their own the search for the grail continues…
They look great for towing behind a boat or bombing down a snow covered mountain…for the surf not so much. Where are the smilies…we need smilies on this site.
Welp finally got some nice clean consistent surf, and managed to have my buddy on a SUP tow me into some headhigh surf :) (you have been old school smilieed:)
Just joking, seriously though did get four good days of clean surf, here are my thoughts. The first three days were at most head high, and I tried several single fins, It worked pretty well and got nice smooth turns. I had the most fun with a 9"flex fin with not too much rake. It gave me enough drive to go where i needed to go. It was real stable,locked in and a fun ride. I had watched a bunch of old footage of Buttons, and wanted that sort of feeling. Today, I made it out with the quad setup, and the thing turned on a dime. I used AM2s… My version of the Tomo, has fat rails and a lot of volume up front under the chest. It paddles well. The break I was surfing has shifty waves, and funky currents, and for the most part I caught what I went after. The design aspects I like are the paralell rails, wide tail, mair quad fin placement, mild single concave,19"width and volume up front. I think what I did is not his original intention, since I have made it longer,thicker, amd not as high performance. The tail never felt squirrely, and I didnt have any problems with the nose. I wouldnt surf it in mush but for the break I surf it is great. I would like to get a board shaped from an experienced shaper using those design aspects though, to see what could be done, and also my board is pretty ugly:)
I’ve been surfing a 4’10" that was cut down from an old twisted wreck of a 6’4". It was set up on a whim with Griffin’s Tri fin/ Twinzer layout.
i didn’t expect much but to my surprise it goes pretty in a small niche of conditions. Punchy bowling hollow waves. You can really get on top of the fins and have great purchase in the barrel. I should really try it as a quad just to have something to compare it to.
It paddles really well, though we have small, static lineups. It catches waves just as well as a standard shorty too. Not much drive on flattish waves, but the wide point is too far back I think.
EDIT: I knocked the twinzer canards off, and it goes much better! So much fun from a free board…
anyway, It got me interested in Tomo’s ultra short straight trip so I decided to knock one out. not glassed yet, but maybe this week.
Here’s my 5’4" by 18.5". Bamboo deck and innegra bottom, with XPS rails and nose and tail blocks. about 24 litres, by far the lowest volume board I’ve owned. I kept it simple with softish rails up front, and a light to moderate single concave all the way through.
I’ve ridden it for about three months in everything from strong onshore waist to overhead, and a few clean days of similar size.
I find it paddles fine. The shovel nose requires adjusting your duckdiving, but no real problem. It catches wave much better than I thought it would, both soft and pitching. I would rate wave catching about the same as my 5’6" 30 litre hybrid fishes.
It’s goes fast like a fish, and has great acceleration, but can turn like a hp shorty. A few things to iron out on the next one - maybe a touch more tail rocker for cutbacks, and might go slightly shorter.
I wish I could find the one I did in the early seventies. Maybe it would work better now with the modern school of skateboard surfing. Mine only had two fins…five or maybe eight may have helped.
