I’m designing a 6’6 funboard with a swallow tail, I have some questions for more experienced board builders/designers. Currently I plan on shaping 5" of nose rocker and 2.5" of tail rocker, and having a moderately shallow swallow tail with the tail ‘pod’ about 8.125 inches wide. My goal is for this board to conquer the everyday, small, and mushy Jersey surf that I get most often. What changes, if any, would make the board more apt for small to medium size waves with an emphasis on turning ability and reduction of volume? I’m also thinking of adding wings or hips to reduce tail area and help performance at higher speeds in the event I take it out on a larger day. Any help or input is appreciated!
Let’s start with you:
What’s your age/stature and your (surfing) skill level?
What other boards do you have and which of those do you normally surf in the conditions you’re talking about?
How is that board holding you back from what you’re trying to do? What do you wish it did differently?
Have you been watching what other people are surfing at your local, or watching vids of surfers who are doing what you want to do?
Have you been looking over various designs from other builders? If so, which ones appear to you to be going in your direction?
The answers to these questions will be useful in suggesting various alternatives, hopefully one of them will come close to filling the holes you want to fill with this project.
I’m 17 years old, 5’6" about 125lbs. I’ve been surfing consistently for about a year now, at this point I’d say I have an early intermediate skillset. I’ve only fully handmade 2 boards, attached are pictures of the second one I made (5’10" x 19.75" x 2.5"), which was also for small waves but able to work well on larger days, and plenty of fin options. I have a 7’2 NSP which is the board I learned on and honestly, I hate it. It’s got no bottom contours and a thruster fin setup, and it doesn’t have much versatility. I just want something I’ll be able to create more turns and interesting lines on, but at the same time be able to cruise on slightly bigger days. Now that I think of it more, I think adding wings to the tail would loosen it up for what I want.
Okay, you’re young, light in weight and can paddle a 5-10 x 20" board, and you’re looking for something smaller than the 7-2 that you can cruise on but still do some turns.
First, let’s get one thing out of the way: There’s probably nothing wrong with the 7-2 you started off on except you’re probably having problems getting the thruster cluster to work as intended because virtually all surfers at your skill level would be unable to make a thruster cluster work as intended.
Second, let’s look at your templates. On the 1st one you posted and the one above you’re using a comparatively straight template in the rear half of the board ending at sharp points. That combo is good for generating speed down the line but it’s going to ride stiff unless you narrow the tail. Especially for a rider of your stature - you just don’t have the leverage to bring to bear and you’re probably not getting your rear foot back enough to push a thruster cluster around.
So my first suggestion is to use a rounded tail. That will loosen up and smooth out your turns, albeit at the expense of some drive.
Second, stick with the quad setup like on your 5-10 above AND stick with your placement of the rears being inboard of the mains. Most lighter weight surfers will prefer either an asymettrical foil or even a double foiled rear of relatively small size. The combo of the template shape (with more curve) and the fin setup will be real forgiving for you and be easier tu turn even if you’re having trouble getting your rear foot over your cluster.
Third, if you’re going with a quad then drop the rear tail rocker a little - thrusters tend to benefit from more rocker than the other fin setups. If you’re aiming mostly at slower and mushier conditions then you don’t have any use for all 5" of nose rocker, either.
Lastly, if you can get your waves on a 5-10 the you probably don’t need a 6-6 for your small wave board. After a certain point adding length for small conditions just becomes a nuisance. At your stature you could most probably make it work at 6-2 or even 6-0 if you have your widths and rocker right.
----for shaping and glassing I’d suggest you refrain from doing any wings or even doing concaves. It’ll most likely be a while before your skills progress to the point where you can outsurf a quad with a simple flat bottom with a little vee. Watch the vids of the pros from the 1970s and 1980s. When you can outsurf what they were doing with those bottoms and foils then you can fret about how much a basic bottom is holding you back. Flat bottoms are naturally fast and loose when you add an edge in the tail.
For inspiration you can check out the longer alt design and midlengths at CI, Rusty and Lost (among others) to see what other builders are doing along these same lines. Not that I’m suggesting you try to copy them but at least look at their designs to see which elements they share in common.
P.S., the next time you surf that 7-2, get your rear foot over that rear fin and crank that turn like you mean it. I promise you that NSP will come around for you.
First I’d like to tell you that I really do appreciate your input and help. All I’ve had is the internet to figure out how to design and build boards thus far. Anyways, with your advice for a round tail and more curve in the outline, I created some new sketches. Option 1 is a bit wider than option 2 in all aspects, but it’s likely a negligible increase in width. I have this rocker chart for reference and after looking it over and applying it to the design I think 3.5-4" of nose rocker and 2" of tail rocker would suffice. What do you think?
Also, I’m planning on going out this Friday, gonna try to get the thruster on the NSP going and make sure my back foot is better placed. Thanks again!
You seem to be inclined to put your ideas down on paper. Maybe we can show you how to do that more easily.
One of our Sways regulars has a CAD program you can download for free. If you’re like most people your age you’re probably glued to your devices 20 hours a day so this app will probably be pretty easy for you to figure out. I think if you play around with it you’ll find it easier to convert an idea into a design and then tweak it until you get what you want. You can print templates and rockers out in real size (although you have to tape the pages together to do it). That means you can print a full size template so you can get an idea of what your design is going to look life if you build it.
Fck yea! I’ve been using AutoCAD for about 3 years in high school for design class, I’m sure I can figure this one out. I’ll post a model for the 6’6 as soon as I make it. Thanks!