A few weeks ago I was able to get a 6’7 blank from surfoam in france (thnx to mook).
This is what the blank looks like:
I’ve shaped a few boards before, but they were all eps. I’m stoked to shape my new board out of this PU blank!
The problem is: I don’t know what board to shape!!
First of all, I’m not a great surfer. I’ve been surfing for a couple of years, but I live in Holland, and we don’t get that many waves. I’ve been very fortunate though to have been able to travel and surf in places like Sri Lanka, Central America and Southern Europe. Let’s say I’m happy when I link a couple of nice turns together…
I have a nice 7’0" funboard and a 6’2 fish (my first board that I built) with thruster set-up and very thick rails…
Btw, I’m 175 lbs and 5’11…
What board do you guys think I should shape? Taking into consideration the blank that I have, my surfing ability, my weight/size…
I was thinking of something like the mandala quad fish?? Somehow I’m very much attracted to quads lately… I don’t wanna be generating my own speed by pumping all the time. I’ve ridden a few twin fishes from friends and know they’re a lot faster. Though, I love it when it get’s bigger and I wanna be able to hold a line when it gets head high/overhead… I’m not looking for something radical though… But I don’t know if the blank that I have has too much rocker for a quad fish? Do you think a quad would be the way to go or do you guys recommend me something different? thanks in advance…
i’m currently in the process of shaping my #4 as well out of guess what?! a 6’ 7 blank. i’m shaping a 6’ 4 singlefin, 20 " wide, and about 2 1/2 " thick, retro style with the widepoint forward and and nice rounded pintail.
6’6" Egg shape X 21 wide X 2 5/8" with a quad fin set up, could be fun in sloppy beach waves. Bit of roll right through with some light concaves at the tail, wide point center or 2" back. Or else pull the nose into a beak and add a swallow tail and get something fish like.
(actually there are 3 interesting 6’6" boards on my review blog, link below)
Although, from what I’ve understood, bonzers are meant for hollow waves (which would be nice cause I wan’t a board for that…) But how does it go in de small surf?
Taking a look at the blank I have, I think it’s gonna be kinda hard to get nice wide round nose… I’d have to scale down the template to something like 6’2-6’3…
Do you have more pictures of that campbell 6’6 egg?
I’d say either a quad or an early 80’s thruster (thick, flat deck, boxy rails, a bit of v in a squash tail and a small trailer fin). I think the latter is “easy to surf” so that’s why I’d recommend it. Use as much of that foam as possible…plus you have one fish already, and that doesn’t really look like a fish blank to me.
Bonzers like clean waves, while I have had some good surfs on the bonzer in poor waves, it would not be my board of choice for such situations. A center squirrel fin will help. In windswell like you get in the north sea, I ride my 5’10" compsand quad, pics on the flickr account or a thruster ( Currently a surftech 6’8" JC PMM with H2’s) depending on size.
I like the idea of putting a bunch of fcs plugs so that I can switch around with the fins… I’m leaning towards lokbox since everyone here seems to use it, but yeah I like the fact that it lets you switch up things…
Also I went in yesterday in scheveningen and I remembered again how much I love the fish that I have for smaller/choppier waves. So it doesn’t matter If I’ll only be able to take this one out on the good days and on the trips to nice waves…
I took another look at the campbell egg and I think I’m gonna go for an outline like that… I’m gonna make it a lil bit smaller cause the blank I have is too small for anything bigger. The question I have now is: What if I put a center fin box in de middle, and 4 side lokbox boxes? I could ride it with the bonzer setup like the campbell egg, or as a quad… But would the position of the sideboxes be the same for a bonzer setup as for a quad setup?
I’m gonna get the keys of the shaping room soon, and then as soon as I get some rolls of ektachrome 64t I’ll start shaping! I can’t wait!!
