Which board blank for a Mini Simmons?

Hi all!

Been lurking here for about a month and trying ot absorb as much info as I can and search through the archives to get some of my questions answered. I am going to build a couple of boards for the summer slop we get here in the summer time on the east coast of the US. I am thinking a 6’00" fish and a 5’10" Mini simmons. The question I have is what blank do people usually use for a short, wide, flat board like the Mini Simmons? I can always get a longboard blank and cut it down but it seems like such a waste. I was thinking of an EPS and epoxy board. I’m 6’1" 200lbs. and come from a longboarding basckground for the last 30 years. I also ride a midlength when the waves are a bit too steep for them and really want to try out these shorter boards for the gutless windswell in the summertime instead of sitting on the beach. Any help on which blank people usually go with would be much appreciated!!

Thanks!

Obviously you are going for short and wide.  You also need thickness.  The 5’10F that all three Poly Foam manufacturers do is a good starting place.  But I especially like the Millennium 5’10F.  If you don’t like the stock rocker, you can custom order your preferred rocker.  Otherwise if rocker is the issue you can take a longer Fish blank and pull the template back.  But with the extra width of the Millennium 5’10F you can net a nice 5’8 --3"–23" Simmons.  

I fear that at even your stature a 6-0 x 23 x 3 mini-Simmons might be too much board.   

No matter what, with the shorter lengths and summertime mush you will need to be in the right spot in order to catch the wave.  There is no running them down from 50ft like you can do on a longboard.  You’re either in position where it’s breaking or you aren’t.  That being the case, you only need so much float and paddling. The whole point for the mini-Sims was for those guys to plant their rear foot over the very back of the tail block and literally overpower the design’s tendency to run straight.  The teenagers are running lengths like 4-10 in that design.   140# surfers are working a 5-0 or 5-2 length.      I’ve seen 180# guys surf the 5-4 lengths without a problem when they’re accustomed to surfing shortboards.   

 

So a 5-4 length will be a bit too small, but you could probably do a 5-8 without a problem if you retain the fat rails that go with the design.  The bigger question is whether you can change up your longboard stance to power a 19" slab tail where the keels are mounted 3" forward of the tail block.   If you anticipate struggling at all with your stance then switching it up to a quad and moving the rear fin up to 4" would make a big difference in your sweet spot.  

All true and good advice on sweet spot, fins and what it takes style wise to ride one.  But what blank would you prefer??

McDing… Yes going to try out the short and wide side of things. I’m thinking of a 5’10" finished length 22-1/2" wide. As i understand it, these boards have very little rocker in them. Like less than 1" in the tail and up to 3 1/2" in the nose. With that blank I would end up with too much rocker which is where I’m going with all this. The rocker seems to be the sticking point on the blank forcing me to go with a longer thicker one to accomodate the rocker

Thanks!

I like the arctic fish blanks http://arcticfoam.us/fish-blanks/

or US blanks fish

https://usblanks.com/catalog/

get longer blank for less rocker

Yeah if you can’t order rocker to suit your needs,  the solution is to get a Fish blank that is longer and pull the template back.   Looks like you could get your rocker and width by pulling back your template a few inches on the following blanks;  Arctic 6’2F ,  US Blanks 6’2A or the Millennium 6’3S.  You could place your template a few inches shy of the nose and probably get the rocker you are looking for.  Better than buying some Jumbo oversized blank and filling a garbage can with foam dust.  The Arctic 6’2F will give you nose rocker @ 5" of 3 3/32".  You can reduce the tail, but probably not going to get any of the blanks I have recommended below 1 1/2" at the tailblock.  If you are careful enough in cutting your outline and can get away with a 23" blank, the Millennium 6’2F is closer.

gdaddy, Thanks so much for the info and insight. I was thinking I’d shape a 6-0 x 21-1/2"  fish and try out a 5-10 x 22-1/2 x 2-3/4 mini simmons and foiling the rails a little… maybe thats too big too? I can certainly cut it down to 5-8 if you think that’s best. 

I agree with you that with any board I’d have to be in the right spot to catch the wave, but what I’m trying to accomplish, besides just trying something new, is being able to have the speed to get around sections and increasing the length of my rides in mushy waves. With my longboards, they just don’t have the speed that is needed to scoot around sections on gutless waves. I’ve watched local guys here on the short/wide boards and seem to do ok. As i understand it, this type of board had a ton of speed and can skate across the flat sections quite easlily. I’m not an up/down, vertical type of surfer, but more of a swoopy, round cutback type and think this may fit in quite well for me. The quad setup like you metioned sounds like a good way to go for my first foray into this type of board. Would you set the rears with no cant and cant the fronts in a bit? Larger in the rear than front?

Thanks so much!

Tom   I need you to teach me how to link.  Haha

I used a US Blanks 6-10A to get the rocker and width I wanted. I think I took little out of the center on the bottom to drop the rocker further. The Simmons I made is really beefy at 5-8" x 23" x 3-1/8". It goes really well, catches everything even on the smallest NJ days, it turns really well with the quad setup too. 

If I were to do it all over again I would foil it out a lot more, it’s waaaaaaaay too thick, that blank is a beast! I’m 215 lbs and it floats like I’m sitting on a longboard but I can muscle it around. I actually like the length for the surf I use it in, maybe go down an inch or two if I wanted to use it in better conditions.

I like it.  Nice bar of soap.

Thanks guys, I forgot to mention that I have a local distributor of Marko and Millenium blanks that I can pick from the shop to save shipping. The US Blanks 6-10A is similar to the Millenium 611A so that would work fine. I was also looking at the Millenium 63S and 65F blanks as well as the Marko 6-6M. I think the 63S would cut it close for the MS but would definitely work for the fish. 

Yes 6’11A will do that.

This is a design I’d actually favor EPS for, so I’d still try to get one from WNC in San Diego.  You can call your rocker and thickness out and they come with a 24" width so that’s good. For the shorter lengths I’d use the 5-11J in their catalog and just order it thicker if you want 3".  For 5-6 and longer lengths I’d use the 6-5 blank and run the template a few inches forward.    

http://www.wncsurf.com/blanks.html

That’s not really an option for our East Coast friends, though, so I guess I’d stick with a Marko blank.  

 

.  

Board looks great Johnny! Thanks for the reference… It helps a lot. 

Ok gdaddy, so you bring up another issue that I’ve been wondering about for sometime now and afraid we may go down another rabbit hole. Is there a signifcant quality difference between EPS manufacturers? I see that WNC Surf has an east coast distributor through Greenlight Boardroom and can get them shipped easily enough from them. Besides the fact that the blanks are 24" wide and hold no restrictions for me there, Is it worth going that route vs. getting an EPS blank from Marko or Millenium locally? 

I’ve used EPS from several sources and prefer the WNC stuff, but that’s a personal call.   They’re also local to where I live so I pick them up directly, and I can call out whatever rocker/foil I want - which you can’t necessarily do with a molded blank.   

But as far as the EPS itself goes I don’t think you can go wrong with any of the blank makers these days.   It’s not like back in 2005 where the quality of the foam seemed to vary quite a bit.  

Or, you can just stick with the other recommendations for the PU blanks.  Those will work just fine, too.    These days I use PU blanks for most of my shapes.  

 

Shoots ,select all ,copy,then paste …if I can’t do it ,anybody can:)

Thanks a bunch. Really appreciate you all sharing your time and experience! 

Curious about how you template that 6’11 and how the whole thing goes.  Keep us in formed?