Reverse engineering

I've been experimenting with different boards for awhile now.  There are a bunch in my garage.  They range from 7-10 foot.  I've found the shorter I go, the better it's working out.  I'm anxious to try out a 7' 4" board I picked up last week.   It's a bit thinner (2 3/4" thick) and a little bit narrower (20 1/2").  My intention is to find my favorite and copy it.  I think that building with cedar and balsa should keep the weight down.  The rails will probably be pine. Anyways, making a board that works as well as my foam ones is going to be a challenge.  I know it can be done and I'm looking forward to starting one in the next month or two.

Ridin the inside

The groms were out yesterday.  I had a bodyboard session in the late afternoon.  There were kids all over it.  The conditions were blown out and messy.  The reforms were steep and nasty.  The kids didn't seem to care.  They'd drop in, bottom turn and rip the lip.  That's pretty much it.  They're cool about sharing with me and the water is still nice and warm.  It's fun to see these shredders surfing together.

Gettin' it dialed.

I've been surfing a lot more lately.  It's more fun than building boards for me but, I'm also getting better ideas.  The waves here in Ormond Beach are peaky fast beach breakers.  The rides are pretty fast and sometimes long.  Anyways, there are a couple of things that make huge differences for me.  The first is the volume of the board.  A couple of my boards have too much buoyancy for me.  What happens is the nose will flap up and down if I'm too far back.  It's a little touchy if there isn't much nose rocker.

My favorite board for bigger days is a 9' that's 2-5/8" thick.  It's fast and turns well.  The rails are slightly pinched and the fin set-up is 2+1.  I took out my shorter quad fish but, I didn't have as much fun with it.  It felt just a little bit corky.  Your results may vary.

Solarez

We've got a little swell headed this way so, it was time to pull off the stickers and fix my board right. I used Solarez for the first time today.  It worked out well and the UV curing is much better than mixing. Another good feature is the chopped fiberglass already in it.  I was able to fix all my splits and dings much quicker.  

Summer fun

I've been having a fun summer of seeing family, friends and surfing.  There hasn't been anytime to build new boards but, I have been getting the wood ones out when the conditions are right.  I still have to finish my blunt nose longboard and have some ideas for new boards.

Riding the fish.

I took out my 8' fish and got some fun rides.  The waves were kinda small.  The board worked good and it has plenty of glide to stay with the mushy conditions.  There were a lot of curious people asking me questions and giving compliments.  It's so much fun to take out the wood ones.

Ridin' the balsa cedar evo

I finally got a good day to take this one out.  The wind was blowing off shore all day and the waves were small but, there were some set waves rolling thru every so often.  This is a 9' evo that Ron Ferrer built before he went to Hawaii.  It's light and that made it easy to swing around.  I liked the way it turned with that thin pivot fin.  It made it's way down the line with good speed.  I really enjoyed the session and would like to take it out again when the waves are bigger.