I disagree with the fins comment, but I’m not your normal “just want to rip it up” surfer. I make my boards with lots options for fins. I use proboxes and often change out the cant to use different fins. It’s true that the boards shape will dictate what would work best, but that would only be for certain kinds of waves. I install a long single box set to be able to work as a single, single + sidebites, twin with tiny trailer or as a thruster. Here’s a board that can be used as a NPJr Duo, thruster, twin or quad. I’ve ridden it with 2 large singles and 2 small sidebites in solid overhead waves, as a duo and as a thruster. It is 6’ 6" x 21".
I’m well past the point of ripping it up when I go out. Been there, done that 20+ years ago. I just want to enjoy the waves and have a few laughs with friends. I get way more enjoyment experimenting and changing up my boards every session. It makes me work harder, but it also is more fun to me. Last summer my quest to go as short as I could, and I got down to a 5’ 6" twin. A 5’ 3" fish I made several years ago was too short.
The only down side of Bill’s Twingle is finding short single foiled fins for the center box. I made my fins, but last year I scored a set of short single foiled fins for the long single fin boxes. But, you can use standard symmetrical foiled fins, it’s getting hard to find short ones though. I have sets from 5", 6", 7" and 8" for my twingles. Single foiled sets 5", 6" and 7".
I will surf anything from knee high mushy waves to clean (a bit) overhead waves with this 2 boards. The last 5 years I surfed too many different boards. I surfed 6’9 -9’3 with single or 2+1 set-ups and thruster & quads with anything <6. I borrowed a twin 6’1 from a friend and had a blast. That board was fun, but a little bit too big for me.
My initial plan was to build these 2 boards with multiple fin boxes to learn a bit more about the fin set-ups and more importantly about my preferences.
The shorter one (around 6’) will be a twin (+trailer) & quad set-up I think. Typical easy-to-ride shortboard with fuller nose and tail dims. I have a similar thruster, but I think either a twin or quad will be the way to go in such a board for me. I just need to build it and see how it goes. Learn from it and build a better one (for me).
With the bigger one (the "funboard) I was not sure. That’s why I started this thread to get some ideas and inspirations from all of you.
The bigger one I want to be a fun and easy to ride board when I don’t want to paddle out on a shortboard or fish. Trimming, going down the line and still doing turn and cutback. On shortboards I have a balanced stance, but on longer boards like eggs or other midlengths I tend to surf more front footed.
Ahhhh that 6’6 is another cool board and great inspiration.
The shorter one will be a ripper. The longer one (the one discussed here) will be one to enjoy the waves. In my book, that is doable and great combo!
The single, single + sidebites, twin with tiny trailer option is something that I also consider for the 6’4.
Bill’s "Twingle sounds really good. Is there space for a single fin box between the “Twingle”? I know it would be heavy due to 3 FU boxes, but maybe an option to try the “Twingle” vs a 2+1 set-up.
Hahaha lots of options as it seems, thank you all!
Yes there is. Set the center single box first, and sand it level. Then set the Twingle boxes. All three boxes will touch. Read the thread ‘‘BILL THRAILKILL YOU OWE ME A NEW SURFBOARD.’’ It will give you some inkling of what to expect from that fin setup.
Like you, I did a re-read of the thread. You’re right, there is a lot of good, experience based information in that thread. Sounds like it was helpful to you.
The “softer” the diamond tail, the more it comes closer to being a square tail.
How is a more aggressive diamond tail manipulating the ride of a surfboard compared to a square or rounded square tail (with aggressive I mean a longer distance of the diamond tips from the tail tip)?
At this point you’re mostly talking about the cosmetics.
The depth of the diamond isn’t going to have any effect on how the board surfs. You could do a square tail or an arc tail and get the same effect. Your design has a relatively straight rail line in the rear quarter ending in a hard corner. That hard corner is what you’re turning off of. The tail will hold through the turn until it hits it’s release point then it will abruptly break loose, thus resulting in the “snapping” turn. By contrast, a rounded corner will break more gently and unless you just overpower it, a thumb shaped or rounded tail will just come around without releasing hardly at all.
Straights in the rail line are for drive, curves are for control. If you want to go fast and more/less straight then stick to any of the tails you’ve got. If you’re at all weak in your turns or you want to do smoother turns then change that tail out for a thumb or round tail or one of its variations.
This board will be used in weaker or smaller waves most of the time, so I think it is good to maintain some speed.
Apart from that, I need to work on my turns etc.
So what about this: keeping the rail line similar to my previous designs and changing the hard corner diamond to a squash or thumb tail. Would that be the way to go for me?
You wanted to try a diamond tail. And for sure, a diamond tail is a legitimate design. There’s nothing wrong with using a diamond tail on the board you’re working on. The board design you’ve already got will surf. Unless you think it’s the last board you’re ever going to make then you shouldn’t let me or anyone else talk you out of what you want to do.
There’s no substitute for try-it-and-see. Swaylocks isn’t a retail store and when you’re here you are not acting as a retail customer. You are not faced with the choice of either selecting from the 2-3 boards that are sitting in the rack vs going home empty handed. There is no take-it-or-leave-it scenario here.
You’re here because you have an interest in building your own, which means more than just cutting a blank or laminating a deck. You’re here to build for your own vision and preferences, not someone else’s vision. To build the kind of board that you can’t necessarily find in a shop.
The worst thing that can happen is you build the board and decide there’s something you don’t like or something different that you want to try next time. Then the next time you build a board you try that something different and you get to experience that. All of these experiences will add to your progression, both as a builder and as a surfer.
Moreover, one of the first things you learn about building your own boards is that they don’t have to be perfect in order to be fun; the second thing you learn is that adapting your surfing to different designs teaches you additional skills that can be used elsewhere.
Don’t stress yourself out by trying to get it perfect right from the outset. These are just toys and this process is supposed to be fun. If you mess up on your lamination or you burn through while you’re sanding you can just put a fix on it. The board doesn’t care what its cosmetics look like; the board only cares how it fits a wave and how it responds to whatever inputs you’re applying to it.
Hello, new on the lock (at least as a poster) I’m following your thread with interest. Pretty cool to see shapers in northern Germany. Did you pick a shape? Really curious to see where it will go. Goodluck!
When I build my first surboard, I used a flexible plastic stick, a pen, a tape measure and a square measure to draw my outline on a thin piece of masonite. I had a blast shaping it! The difficult part was to glass and sand the board properly.
This time I’m just spending a bit more time designing it. Starting from the rocker and outline!
Bremen, what about you? (before you get tempted I don’t speak german yet!). I’m also starting to dabble with a shape (mid length) but I am hesitant to make the jump as I’d need to find a place to work. Anyway I don’t want to hijack your thread we can DM if you’re not far.
On the topic, your outline makes me think a bit of a bumblebee from Michael Psillakis. (Except the swallow tail of course)
Yellow deck, green bottom board has a wide nose and rounded square tail, about 6’ 5" x 21" x 2.5". In hindsight, this would have been better with the nose pulled in more. Modern short board rocker on this one, so it needs juice. The image with me riding it shows how much nose rocker this one has.
Yellow and orange deck is about the same size, but the nose is pulled in the way I like. This board is a little rocket, it has a very low rocker and s rails.
