I took this board on the water for the 1st time today. I only managed to grap a couple long waves due to the current and my general ineptitude on a shortboard, but they were great! Fastest board I’ve ever ridden. I’ll have a full report in a day or two when I’ve had some better waves and taken some nicer photos.
7’ 1.5" x 12.5" x 20 1/8" x 14 1/8" x 2 1/8"
7 lbs 1.3 oz all waxed up with surfing trucks in place.
Pat
Pat,
Congatulations. Bet it feels pretty good to know you built it and to works well.
Ryan
Nice, Pat!
I saw that thing mid-build in CJ3’s shed…supa light 
Love the trucks.
Don’t give it to your neighbor for a test-ride until you’ve built another - he apparently has a habit of maxing them thangs out.
I’ll be down tomorrow around mid-day and would love to see it if you’re around. C & I are getting together around 11. Let him know if you’re free…
How about a review of the Blakestah specials for us here in the peanut gallery?
Hi Benny,
Have Cj3 give me a call when you’re around, I’ve got few plans besides surfing tomorow. I’d like to wait on a full ride review on the trucks untill I’ve had some more waves on the board, but this much I noticed right away:
Turns on a dime, with little effort. Very sensitive.
When I started to loose speed as the wave mushed out, I was able to shift my weight forward like I do on my single fin longboards and pick up speed again going straight untill I got back into the quicker section. Usually with a thruster this tecnique causes me to totally stall out.
Also, I weighed the board before and after the 1 1/2 hour session: no measurable weight gain on my scale.
Ryan… yup!
Pat
Hi,
looks sweet! Could you post fin placement and rocker specs please. I have something similar on the drawing board.
regards,
Håvard
Hey Pat!
Glad to see you finally got your build hassles sorted and knocked that one over.
It looks sweet - really look forward to hearing more about how it surfs, too (when you know)!
Got any plans for your next balsando?
Nice board! Stoked for you that it rides so well. Looking forward to hearing more.
Cheers,
Schiffie
Very nice one SFP!!
Definitely keep it wet and keep the ride reports coming, and put some other folks on it too. I’m behind the surfboard trucks 100%, and the more credible reviews out there the better!
Great stuff!
Hi Haavard,
Nose has just a hair under 6" of rocker, 2 1/4 (edited # on tail rocker after remeasuring) for the tail. Measurements taken from the centerpoint of the board.
The fins are 4" and 12" from the tail measured by the trailing edge when in the full 1/4" toe in position. Rear edge of the fin is 1 1/4" from the rail.
Here’s the link for Blakestah’s fin system
http://www.blakestah.com/fins/
Took the board out agin this morning at indicators with a little less current. I was catching shoulder high waves and riding them out untill they backed off near cowells. All I can really add is that I’m blown away by this board/fins. with no input in terms of active pumping, it goes at least as fast as my single fin 8’6 longboard. But it turns like a thruster, only better. I don’t have enough experience on shortboards to really say more than that.
Put in a 2nd session this afternoon on my longboard surfing with Cj3and Benny1, and had Cj3 ride the compsand with the surfing trucks. I think he liked it, but I’ll let him chime in. One comment was something along the lines of…You can go back to riding your hollow fish now that I’ve got this new board you made for me.
Doug, Yeah, I had a few setbacks getting this into the water, but that’s ok. No plans for another board at this point, at least not untill the winter is over. I’ve got to spend some serious time surfing. When the rain stops and the waves die down late in the spring I’ll probably be itching to start another board. Hopefully Blakestah will have his next generation of fins out by then.
Schiffie, I’ll take some more photos tomorow and get them up in a day or two; I’m still borrowing a friend’s camera or using my phone.
BTW: I’d just like to put a big thanks out to Cj3 for his insight and guidance on this project. He got me started on the whole thing, let me use his shed, had great suggenstions, etc throughout the process. Thanks also to everyone else on Swaylocks who helped along the way with input. And of Course, Dave Blake, creator of the surfing trucks.
Pat
The board looks real nice! I saw it mid build and it was looking real nice. Be careful of letting cj3 surf it too much - he’s the “Board Terminator” 
I’m jealous of you guys getting out today as I’m stuck back at work!
While we are thanking people we better start at the beginning. Bert for setting us in a new direction and for the detectives on Sways that helped unravel the puzzles he left us.
Pat’s second board is quite an accomplishment. A full on Bert style compsand that looks better than my 5th. Then he goes with a very new and radically different fin system, like he needed a new challenge.
I don’t like to review a board after one session ,but I am not sure when I will get to give it another go. So read with that in mind.[=1]
[ 3]Believe it or not Super Fat Pat is about 6’ 150lbs dripping wet while I go 6’3" 200lbs so I was not sure if it was going to float me and catch waves. I sat a little low in the water while paddling back out but catching waves was quite easy. [/]
[/]
I believe the board is about 2" thick with very thin rails and the tail rocker coming out of the bag was 2 1/4 so unless there was some kickback I think that was the rocker.
The board takes the late drops with ease and with the rail shape it has very little water wrapping over the deck in the back half of he board, making for a very fast down the line board. Then there is the fin system.
The fin system is the first thing you notice when riding. S turns and cutbacks are effortless.I was able to feel the side fin disengage when it was not in use. You actually feel the change through your feet. The lack of drag is very noticeable when you hit any flat spot in the wave.
To compare it to a standard thruster after one surf is very difficult because it changes the timing of your turns. Like any equipment change it takes your brain a few sessions to send the right messages to your feet.
What I can say is that for someone who likes to surf without pumping a thruster set the increase in speed and release is noticeable and the ease of turning is also quite nice.
The quirk I noticed ( this may be an adjustment issue) was when I tried to go square off the bottom and come straight up off the top. Everything went well until I tried to hit the lip. I just kept on going straight and out the back of the wave. The only thing I could think of was there was possibly a bit of lag time for that inside fin to engage (toe in).
I have not seen or read any of the instructions so the fins may not be adjusted for my style or weight.
I am sure Dave can enlighten us.
By the way keep up the good work you are breaking some new ground here.
Christian
The quirk I noticed ( this may be an adjustment issue) was when I tried to go square off the bottom and come straight up off the top. Everything went well until I tried to hit the lip. I just kept on going straight and out the back of the wave. The only thing I could think of was there was possibly a bit of lag time for that inside fin to engage (toe in).
I have not seen or read any of the instructions so the fins may not be adjusted for my style or weight.
I am sure Dave can enlighten us.
On a thruster off the lip there are different ways to turn when you go vert. The best surfers go from one rail fin to another. They do that equally easily on the surf trux. This is a fast and good technique that also works on a thruster, but it does require a lot of skill.
I took advantage of another benefit. You take the board straight and flat into the lip. The rail fins are disengaged. They will engage if you slide the tail to the side to engage the new inside rail fin (turning to go back down the wave). If you are goofy on a left you head into the lip and then at the top, slide the tail to the left and get your weight back and pull the nose down.
You can also sit on the rear fin and pivot around it, that works too.
But you cannot center your weight between all three fins on a vert turn. Doesn’t work, you go straight over the back. Need to slide the tail to engage.
Also, on flat sections, SuperFatPat is dead on. Even on a real short board you can weight the front foot, flatten the board, and it should feel like the rail fins are not even there as you glide to the next section.
Glad you are enjoying it!
Every time C caught a wave, he just paddled back out with a big grin and said “surfboard trucks!” . 10 times is not an exaggeration. It was fun to see
Nice stuff, Blakestah. You put in a lot of time on those things - hope you’re proud of the results. They work!
Ok, here are the other photos I promised a while back:
On my screen the edges of the board look a little wierd, but maybee it’s just my monitor.
I’ve had the board out a number of times in different conditions. Still love it. I’m doing things on this board that I’ve never been able to pull off before.
If anyone wants to take a look at the fin system, let me know.
Pat
Those fins are sweet! I’m lovin the ingenuity and talent shown in that design Blakestah, you deserve mad props! Second, Super Fat Pat, that board is BEAUTIFUL! That’s only your second board? That’s darn impressive.
Thanks for the additional pics! I’m just starting my first HWS and this keeps the inspiration high. Of course I’m making an assumption that yours is an HWS, aren’t I? Could be a wood-railed sandwich, I s’pose. But beautiful and inspiring however it’s made!
Cheers,
Schiffie
Well, I finally did it. I took the boxes apart, took the bumpers out of the surftrux and locked them into place. I felt the difference on the first wave, and for the rest of what ended up being a short session out at middle peak.
The difference:
With the fins locked into standard thruster position I felt like I had the brakes on the whole time, compared to what the board felt like with the fins rotating. On my first wave I took a late drop a little behind the peak. Usually I would be able to hold on tight and, IF my lack of skill didn’t cause me to go flying, make the section and be having a great time all the way to indicators. Today I made the drop, dug into the bottom turn, and almost literally stopped. That’s what it felt like; I was just sitting there watching the wave close out in front of me.
That scenario repeated itself a couple times and I found my self lining up much closer to the shoulder than I’ve been used to lately. Another big difference was that with the surftrux rotating, I just think about turning and it goes. With the fins fixed I felt like everything was work, slow work. You get the picture.
For the way I surf, the surftrux have really expanded the boundries of what I can or can not do. I can only speak from my own experience, but just want to say THANK YOU DAVE.
Pat
The game, she’s a little rigged, of course. SurfTrux go better with slightly longer base width fins than thrusters do. So if you lock them in place, they feel real draggy.
The “best” thruster fins for that board are likely at least 1/4" shorter base width. You would find better thruster action in that case, and they would lack drive as SurfTrux.
Because SurfTrux lets the outside rail fin collapse, you need a little more base width to get the same bottom turn action.
Of course, it is highly controlled when you use the same board and fins and fix them, and SurfTrux will always win if you use SurfTrux fins. If you used the ‘best’ thruster fins it would be a lot closer.
Thanx for the update. Glad you like them. We got lots more.
dave, can you change the fins in the surf trucks or only the bumpers?
dave, can you change the fins in the surf trucks or only the bumpers?
Fins are changeable. The fin is simple with a simple rectangular tab and no cant built in to the fin. If you make your own fins, have Rainbow make them, or just want to cut down another fin company’s fins to try them out (one of them will work easily), drop me a line. OR if you just want the specs on the fin tabs, they are 1.5" long 0.45 inches deep and 0.25" thick with 2 1/8" holes drilled for access to the hub.
I recommend 0.25" more base width that what you would use for a thruster. The fins that come with it are 4 5/8" base width. If you normally like long base widths, it may be worth making some longer ones. But most people are around 4 3/8" and the stock fins will fit the bill. If you normally use the same size fin, like Bud, you will probably not experience stronger turning than you normally get on your thruster, just less drag between turning. But you can get both with the right size fin.