This is the continuation of a topic I brought up in a previous thread.
So I started off with one blank, one idea for a surfboard. I started with the idea to make a memorial board to my daughter and son in law, whom I lost in a tragic auto accident about 2 years back. I want to use some fabric they brought me from Samoa. But it grew into 3, the idea that is. It has become an idea to create 3 similar boards, but different enough to merit 3 separate shapes.
The back story is this. Between corona lockdowns, pandemic unemployment across the board bringing everyone down to the beach, and moving my crazy mother in law in the house with the overwhelming task of home care, I’ve gone from regularly getting out to my usual crowded spots, to only sporadically getting out to now ridiculously crowded surf. Combined with the ravages of aging at 65 years young including regular muscle cramping, osteoarthritis in both hips (one having been surgically replaced with a prosthetic joint), I am gradually phasing out my under-nine-foot quiver, and moving to longer boards.
One nice thing is that to my surprise, I have been selling off my quiver of home builts more readily than I thought I would. Sold 5 in the last 2 months, which is helping to finance this adventure. I even got some very nice feedback on the Gordita bat tail.
Further fueling the desire to build a quiver of 9 to 10 footers is my frustration at shopping on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace for some new longer shapes. For me it has been a lot of energy and effort that has left me skeptical and exasperated more than anything.
OK, so thats the rationale. Here’s the synopsis: 3 boards, all triple stringers, all 9’ 8" x 22", all wide point at the exact middle, no concaves, from the same 9-8 Y by US Blanks.
One is a squash tail with more pulled in nose than the others, and a wider tail at 9 - 10" wide. It will be very similar in shape to my 9 foot Beachcomber fun gun from awhile back, but at 9 - 8 I will thin it out considerably from the previous model. Thin rails, thin tail, more like Bruce Fowlers Mega Machine than the fat rails of the Beachcomber. Hard down rail and lots of V in the tail. Single fin with quad option.
The other will be a rounded pintail, similar to my “mini-glider” 9 footer, a favorite the past few years. The rails are pretty round, like 60/40 with an edge you can feel with your hand on the bottom front to back, hard down rail out the back. Bottom is mostly flat i.e. no concave or convex, but a very slight V through the fin area. Single fin.
And finally, a Phil Edwards inspired square tail, front half identical in outline to the pintail, but with the 6" wide square tail, it will be more of a classical single fin longboard shape, although not a noserider. I plan to put some belly in the nose, slightly pinched 50-50 rails, V in the tail & out the back, features that worked well for me in an 8-4 that I recently sold. The rail in the tail will be more of a tuck than an actual hard down rail.
This may never come to fruition, its just in the thinking stage right now. I may get sidetracked with some other project before I get to this, but right now I’m leaning toward seeing if I can make it happen. I want to incorporate a band of wood inlay, at the spot I normally get a stomp well under my back foot. I want my signature wood tail block / leash anchor on each one.
