This design is really interesting. Kinda what I’m looking for in my next board. I’m 6’0" 185 lbs. 40 years old.
I think maybe a 6’4" x 21" x 2 3/4" for surfing Oregon beachbreak. Anyone surf this style board?
http://www.cisurfboards.com/sb_mtf.asp
The MTF is an insane board. 6’4"x21x2 3/4" would be a really big MTF for 185#. 5’10" x 19ish x 2 1/2" would probably work better. You could go ever smaller if it wasn’t for all the rubber you guys wear up there. You wont be disappointed.
I thought you were going to go with a local shaper (whose work looked spectacular, BTW). What happened to that plan?
if you want reviews/opinions of this board, you should check out the design forum at surfermag.com.
these have been reviewed a bunch over there. some guys swear by them.
I'd rather have a speedneedle twinny, but that does look nice!!
If he does probox fins and can shape one, I’ll use him.
When you were 10 years old, that board was being ridden by some soon-to-be-famous young surfers at a certain well-known point break. Even when thrusters came along, the version with the little trailer fin stayed popular for a few years. It could be argued that it's the board that put Merrick on the map and paved the way for his tri-fin success.
The re-issue was a good idea. Great design.
One problem with the MTF is fat waves it has a super narrow tail, something under 14 in. Bogs. Dane Reynolds rode a modified one in france this year.
Twin fin tail widths were falling through the late 70s, and at that time nose widths always exceeded tail widths (it was sort of a ''rule''). When tri-fins came along, tail widths ballooned, and the nose widths were reduced, leading to the modern standard of tail width exceeding nose. The current design free-for-all is messing with all that.
So anyway, my point is that that tail width was normal for the time of the board's design. But you probably knew that...
Ekim:
if he can't do Probox, just ask him for a board without fins/system but make sure he marks the fin placement. then do the Probox yourself.
seriously, like 30 minutes of work plus waiting for the resin to dry. so simple even a caveman could do it. you won't be sorry. or maybe there is a
sway-person in your vicinity that can help you out.
Mike:
who are you referring to? please excuse my ignorance... the design is really interesting to me. seems like most shapers that are known for a twin design each have completely different
takes on them. ie: Akila Aipa, Merrick, G.Griffin... do you get orders for twins Mike? what's your take on them? a twin coil would be sweet! seems like with the wider front and narrow tail,
you drive off the front foot and turn of the rear??? everybody describes them as fast and free. sounds good to me.
My comments about the tail width were answering riderofwaves. Around 13.5''-14'' was normal for the late 70's twins.
It is interesting that there's a lot of takes on twins. Back in the 70s it was like that also.
I do get orders for non-fish twins like that, most of them with the trailer box for stabilizer . That's one thing I remember clearly; when tri-fins came along the first thing us twin-finners did was add a little trailer to get a taste of the tri-fin thing, and it improved our twin fins a lot.
Now people are looking for a different feel and revisiting some of these old designs. Some will really like it, some won't. You gotta ride one to find out. Adding a mix of modern rocker, rails, and bottoms to these boards is giving some interesting results.
hey, Mike I never realized twin fin tails got that narrow. I knew singles got down really fricking narrow. Twin fins are really fun. Accidentally put an extra side fin in my car instead of trailer fin for the coil so when I got to the beach I had to ride it as a twin. I am thinking about making a trailer for it this summer and riding with the vector 450’s as the side fins. Really free and fast, just hitting the lip without a trailer kinda was a little too outta control for me.
Yeah, the story of the twin fin through the 70s is kinda strange, because single fins were more numerous and twins were the bastard stepchildren. The 1970 version was the squared-off widetail with the fins on the corners and no toe. They sucked, gone in one year. The fish came right on it's heels (hooray!), and then Clyde Beatty pinched it to come up with the rocket fish. But neither was ever a hugely popular design. Then twins faded for a couple of years until Reno took an ''almost'' fish to the Coke contest in Orstralia, and MR was inspired to do his twins. Then from 77-81 it was a raging controversy of single vs twin. Simon settled that.
thanks for the info Mike. who were you referring to with this?:
"that board was being ridden by some soon-to-be-famous young surfers at a certain well-known point break."
in a recent Surfer's Journal, Slater is talking about board design and mentions that he remembers hearing Shawn Thompson (sp?) talk about his quiver: twins for small surf, singles for bigger surf. and how that is way different from most pros now...
is it true that Dane Kealoha was riding twins at big backdoor? definitely a powerful surfer in a powerful wave.
i'm laughing at the "simon settled that" too...
what about fin placement? seems like some are forward like the sides on a thruster whereas some are way back like maybe 5"-6" from the tail. it seems like on a turn, the fins between the feet would be kinda the balance point on a teeter-totter??? and your front foot, rear foot weight bias during a turn could really change the radius of your arc? i'd really like to give one a go...
The young surfers included Tom Curren and Kim Mearig, the point break is known as the ''queen of the coast''. Shaun rode a lttle wider version, if I recall correctly.
I dunno about Dane at backdoor. surfding was there in that time period, he would know...
Fin placements by the end of the 70s were usually between 9'' and 10''.
I have to say that IMO boards have advanced a lot in the past 30 years, and when I do boards based on these old twins they have a lot of modern features. I have a 1980 twin-fin outline that I've used for many of them over the last 6 or 7 years. One of the boards based off this outline is the M80. As mentioned on the Coil ride reports thread, I lopped the tail off the twin outline to move the wp back to center and widen the tail. With 3 fins on it, I''m hard-pressed to think of anything that it doesn't do better than the old twins. But that doesn't mean I don't shape the twinnies, it's a different feel that some want in their quiver.
Would taking this shape but getting rid of the wings and widening the tail be a good idea for a more all rounder board.I like how these shapes paddle and catch waves but my local break is kinda crumbly most of the time.
Get yourself something more like an MR if your beachbreak is a little softer.