Hey y'all this snapped board was sitting in a ravine in Pacifica forever, walking back to the car the other day I noticed someone had cleared the ravine out and piled up the trash so I grabbed it thinking it could be handy for repairs. After looking at it I got the idea to chop the rotten end off, dry if out and make it into a not so mini Simmons.
After cutting the rotten end off the eps looks surprisingly ok and it's 6'10" long. Most of the post I see are about folks repurposing longboards into pretty short minis. This thing is 3 1/4" thick and 23 1/2 wide at its biggest.
I'm strictly a lazy longboarder who surfs Pacifica as well as Bolinas and Santa Cruz when I get the chance. I ride a 9'3 single or a 10' boardworks single and mostly go out there on the small mellow days. Since this thing has so much volume I figure I could ride it and have a good time but after doing some research I'm unsure if a big ol simmons shape would even work in the weak messy Linda mar surf I'm used to.
I dream of shaping my own board one day and have done a ton of repairs and installed a fin box. I figure this project would be a good learning experience before trying to shape my first board but wonder if it's a terrible idea shape wise for the kind of waves I surf? Any tips are appreciated!
You could glass off the back, add keels or fins and surf it but I think you might have some problems in both paddling and surfing the board that way.
The original apex of the rocker appears to be about in the middle of the red band. That means you have a long rocker curve (~58") forward of that and a much shorter curve (~24") behind it. If it were my board I'd chop ~18" off the nose, strip back about 6" of the glass off the bottom and rails and reshape/ reglass the nose. Blunt the nose, thin it from the bottom and add a litte more curve to the bottom rocker to the nose. Add some belly to smooth out your entry. You'd still have a wide-point back rocker and the volume would be sufficient to float a 200# surfer.
Simms designs generally don't need very much nose rocker.
Thanks gdaddy! This is exactly the kind of info I'm looking for. I think I understand what you mean after it being hard to paddle in its current shape after reading that and laying it flat on my porch. This thing has a bit of a banana shape to it.
Is the reason why it'd be an awkward paddle that a significant amount of the board would end up sticking out of the water due to the nose and tail rocker? I'm also wondering if taking material off the belly to flatten it out might be an option although that would complicate the rail shape.
my loose plan was to patch it up after it drys out in the sun this week but it sounds like some actual stripping and shaping may be the way to go. Any and all tips or design idea are much appreciated
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I think this is a good project. I like to see recycling in action.
Taking some length/weight off the nose will move the point of balance back toward the original rocker. That will also lower the effective tail rocker, which is a good thing for Simms. They normally run a really short tail rocker (like 1" or 1.5"). Along with the shorter length and lower volume (much easier to duck dive) you'll be able to really drive off the tail and muscle that fat tail block around, which is how the design is mostly surfed.
Are you planning on putting a pair of keels on it or perhaps going with a quad?
Gdaddy: i was thinking some keels pretty far back since I'm used to a single. Don't want it too loose since it'd be the shortest board I've ridden. I'm pretty stoked on recycling boards, my main ride is a 9'3 off the free section of Craigslist that has lasted years with about a million repairs :-)
Hey neighbor! Give it a ago,good way to get some skills in before a real blank.but your still gonna have to put some money into it (Resin and cloth about $150 or 200.) blanks are the cheap part$100+ - . Maybe make some wood fins, I snagged some bamboo cutting boards at Ross for $5.being eps is also a little tricker to shape and needs some spackle especially if yanked laminate off it will pull some with it..
Lindamar is great for mini sims or long sims..
keep us posted
Heres some I have done.if you scroll around the dates you can kinda see before and after
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_ar-xAHDL4/?igshid=1sv9roijjncdk
https://www.instagram.com/p/BB8B6ZIzKCI/?igshid=194vksztvy1ap
https://www.instagram.com/p/BXwehjiA_MR/?igshid=1r5h317pu7jrf
Scrub it kook
Damn Tom! these reshapes are beautiful! I definetly wish it was a busted poly board rather than eps since it'd be a little easier and familiar for me to work with Gonna try to keep as much of the original resin on there as I can to keep it cheapish and ugly lol. Using a cuttingboard to make fins is genious.
There ya go, Mad max it!
I just sanded down and spray painted a old art project board and it actually came out nice. 2 x light coats and scratch resistant for the most part..
Scrub it kook
If you need help with outline blending curves is a good start. Also has fin templets
https://www.blendingcurves.com/outline-templates/nug-a
Scrub it kook
looks like a fun one. looking at the rocker and foam thickness flow you might use some strategic bottom concave placement to shift things around. Mush buster!
Totally a great idea, I've been looking at some "stubby" shapes on here lately for inspirations. I'm trying to gather if simply flattening the belly out would help with paddling/getting into waves? I'm thinking similar to this post:
https://www.swaylocks.com/comment/510245
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