One thing I've always liked about shaping is that you always have the option to stray off in whatever tangent you please as you shape a board. That is of course, if it's your personal board or it's for someone who's very liberal about what they want as the finished product. Today I was finishing up a stock mini and realized that I really needed a new one for myself... tangent time.
Or as we Crows call it, Freestyle.
I really like the mini design, except that for me it gets a bit "tracky" on juicy waves. You know, those ones that you really shouldn't be riding a mini in anyways... But I just get so stoked on the design and want to ride it all the time, so I'm always thinking of ways to improve its "all-aroundness". On solid waves, the standard big keel fins tend to run on me as they pick up speed and they are hard to break free of their line once they really get going. So reflecting on the same route I (along with many others) took with adapting the keel fish to better, bigger waves- put a well placed quad on the board... like we do with the Quadini (the board that Daniel it riding on the front page of our site.) That works well, but on the bigger boards you end up with a pretty "Skatey" board that can be a bit sketchy off the bottom and through the top end of a decent cutback. This is mainly because the tail is so much wider than a fish... 19 1/2" vs 16 1/2" for a fish. Lots of extra planing surface that is so nice in smaller waves becomes a menace in bigger stuff.
So, after shaping that last bonzer a few weeks ago my mind started spinning around a nice deep double concave out the tail- a half inch or so. The spine down the middle of the board will give it a bit of track, and the high pressure area added to the rail line from the concaves should help a bit with feeling the rail when you lean on it. Slap a quad on have Welzie name it... and we're shredding right?
Well, there's really only one way to find out... and starts with those few first committed swipes of the surform.
Yeah that's what I'm talking about... a nice solid 1/2" of double concave goodness. Yummy
Executive Shaper privilege was invoked and the board was laminated today too. One of the perks of building your own boards :) More to come on this one
Speaking of Freestyle tangents, that finless board I mentioned a week ago or so is coming along nicely. Many thanks to Chris for being a sort of benefactor on this project... he's footing the cost so I can build whats on my mind... and then he has to ride it! I'm not sure he realized what he was getting into when he committed to this project
Cool lines in this shot. It's not even close to being done, but when it is, it'll get it's own post about how it's supposed to work, plus we'll keep you updated on testing...
Lastly, I just really liked this shot of my good friend Kyle Buthmans new step-up boards for puerto. He broke the red one twice and and had it put back together both times. Talk about a good board. Love those slightly pinny round pins. -Carl
