Its been a year and a half since I made my first finless board. 7'0 x 22 x 3. Carbon laced wrap, big swallow tail, deep single concave with hard edges all the way up. It caught the smallest waves you can imagine BUT it was impossible to sink that rail and gain complete control. I still kept using it. it had its moments but its time for the next step....
A few weeks ago I needed do get away from my orders and do something different. I found an old machined blank and started mowing. All looked great till I was done. ... too much Fing rocker! it was too late to do anything so i glassed it and rode it the next day. Unfortunatley it sucked! too much rocker! I decided to put a single fin box and see what it would do. Tried it with a Greenough paddle fin and it went OK...
Even Kyle gave it a go...
Photos poached from Hullingbird blog
...time for the next step. I went back to basics and pretty much shaped a foam alaia.
I took it out today on some knee high peelers and actually went great! better than #1 and #2.
This came out to what I imagined but not what I envisioned in the beginning. I wanted this board to be able to catch waves easier and still be on top of the water ala Derek Hynd finless... So Im back to the drawing board tomorrow and see what I can come up with.
I was watching the local news and to my surprise they had a clip of some teeny waves at the point. to my surprise there was a quick glimpse of the board in action.... ok not really much action but i thought it was funny.
Im pretty exited to shape this new one tomorrow morning....
2 comments:
A local shaper has been letting me demo his personal finless board. I love it, but can't turn it to save my life. Therein lies the learning curve for me. I can paddle, pop up and head down the line. But if I want to go in another direction? Epic fail!! I'm not giving up though. I'm going to keep at it until I get it!
e-wings and channels. nightmare to glass, though.
-ShShSh
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