I’m trying to build my first surfboard but I would appreciate some help with the design, which I can’t decide on.
I weight around 60 kg and I’m looking for a compromise between speed, manouvreability and stability. The idea is to build a shortboard, not longer than 6’ 4’'. I would consider myself an intermediate surfer but still have to learn a lot. Let me know if you have any advice for the volume i should be looking for, thickness, width and length, and general details such as rocker and rails outline (possibly not the hardest to shape, since I have never done it before) bottom contour and ecc. I hope some of you can help me figure out what I should be looking for to build my first surfboard. I’m looking for some measurements so I can copy them
Unfortunately I’m stuck in northern Italy, and there are no waves here! However surfing is my passion and I thougnt, since I can’t be surfing right now, that I could use my free time to fuel my passion by building a board. I’m looking for a shortboard I could ride in 4’-6", something versatile, not necessarily a performance board since I’m still trying to achieve and learn some manouvers evem though I can stand up pretty easily.
Female at 60kg with a 6-4 length leaves you wide open in terms of design except that your shoulder width will probably limit the overall width of the board.
Adult males in your weight range are commonly surfing shortboards of 5-8 lengths or even less, depending on their skill levels. Not that I’m trying to talk you into a 5-8 length because I’m not. I’m just saying that you can just about dial in your lengths and the amount of float independently of each other. You can do a 5-4 board that will float an 85kg surfer if you make it wide enough and chunky enough, or you can make a 6-4 that won’t float a 70kg surfer if you go narrow and thin.
What boards have you previously surfed and what did you like or not like about them? Getting an idea of where you’re coming from might help us narrow down our suggestions for the next step in your progression.
Well, first of all, I’m a man (gabriele in italian is a male name). I’ve surfed a year in Santa Cruz, California (that is where i learnt) and I was pretty much always riding a soft top, just because I didn’t have another board. I just came back from some time in Sagres, Portugal, where I surfed with a 6’8’’ NSP but I felt like I didn’t have as much manouverability as I wanted, it was pretty hard to turn and was more stable than i needed.
I’m really looking forward to something I could easily shape, since it is going to be my first board (for example ive been suggested to shape round rail) but at the same time i would like a board which doesnt have too much volume, because i feel pretty confidenti about it. Ill trust you if you point me to a board which should fit me well (I’m 1,70 cm and 60 kg and Im in good shape)… the thing is that I would need the measurements because I would not want to design the whole thing by myself, since im not an expert i feel like asking for some help and copy is smarter to do.
The idea is to be using an EPS block foam and be’ adding a thin stringer in it, also i think i will be using epoxy.
No, no. The above pic is actually very helpful in this discussion.
The reason the board was handling like a dog for you is (most commonly) because you didn’t have enough leverage on the fin cluster. The pad is mounted too far forward for a thruster setup and MOST adult novices don’t have the stance and technique to make a thruster work as intended. Unless you start out as a kid or on small HPSBs it usually takes several years to get all that together enough to make a thruster on this sized board work.
MOST adult novices in your situation are coming down in size from a much larger foamie or longboard and are letting the board do most of the work. And that’s fine. THere’s nothing wrong with cruising the wave and going with the flow. But when it comes to more actively surfing the wave then that’s when you need to make the fins do more of the work; you just don’t have as much length and rail line to compensate.
Convert that setup to a quad, install the right sized fins for your stature and then the pad position will be in much a better spot for your rear foot. If you get in the habit of moving your rear foot all the way back you’ll have all the leverage you need over the fins to turn the board.
So getting back to your 6-4, probably most hybrid (shortboard meets funboard) designs would work for you. Just go with the quad for now until you get your stance and pumping wired. For your first board you could just pick a shape you like off of Blendingcurves.com and if it’s not already at 6-4 then you could just resize it. Within reason, anyway.
Perhaps something like these:
You can mix/match tail shapes and tweak widths and all that until you get something that resonates with you.
