I’ve shaped a few boards and now im tring to make a mini simmons for me, but its shape its quite different from any other boards as i know. i’ve come with a 5’4x 29 9/16x2 7/8, big single concave in tail and a small v in the nose… Are these sizes any near a real mini simmons and suitable for me? Im 175cm and 80kg.
Thank you all!!
The template is good, the rocker is good, the foil is good.
But the thruster is wrong and so are the rails/bottom in the nose. For the nose you want an “uprail” plus some belly (not vee). For fins you want iether a twin keel or a quad or split keel, not a thruster.
The design has a fat ass with a ton of surface area. That’s exactly the opposite of what you have with a high performance shortboard. Your challenge with a fat ass is not a lack of lift or planing as is the case with a narrow tail; your challenge is controlling all the surface area whilst retaining the looseness. You don’t need to pump a Simmons to make it go, it will take off under your feet without much input. But you DO want to be able to move that wide tail block around and you do want more energy out at the rails.
You really don’t need concave in the tail either because you already have all the lift and planing you need from tha massive surface area. You’ll get a more controllable ride with a little vee. As in, a little, Not a lot.
This is a pic of Kenvin with one of the original Mini-Simmons. Moon shaped keels mounted 2" forward of the tail block. Look at the bottom contour in the nose. More like a Liddle-style hull or an early pig longboard. Not like a contemporary shortboard.
(Those round keels suck, so don’t do that. But everything else works).
Great video. Thank you for that. Rippin’ it up!
Thank you so much for all the information!! I’ll make those corrections and hopefully within a month i ll put it in the water 
The truster sistem is there by defautl because i dont know how to change it in shape 3d but i will try make some keel fins in balsa and glass them on so it gets that mini simmons charm! Ill keep you posted when its finished! Once more thank you a lot!
Thank you so much for all the information!! I’ll make those corrections and hopefully within a month i ll put it in the water The truster sistem is there by defautl because i dont know how to change it in shape 3d but i will try make some keel fins in balsa and glass them on so it gets that mini simmons charm! Ill keep you posted when its finished! Once more thank you a lot!
It’s easier to make fins out of plywood. You can see your foil a lot better. One way to do fins is to glass your fin panel with 4-6 layers of 6oz, this will provide the flat side of the fin and give you a little halo to work with before you even get to glassing them on your board. After you add the flat side then you cut the template out, and then you get to foiling.
Thankfully i could use a cnc router to machine the fins so they are identical 
dont know if they are well designed or not, i came with a shape that was more used in mini simmons or i hope so. when you say 4 layers of fiverglass you mean 2 6oz for each side of the fin or 4? ive used 2 layers of 6oz on each side with a rope of fiberglass at the base so they dont break easily…
Thank you for the tips!!!
i hope that the photo im trying to attach stays in this comment
After a while i finnaly finished it! Made a hull to flat to vee as suggested and it TUUURNNSSS! I only had the chance to try it in small waves and im mindblowed how i can get up on it so easily and yes it goes fast! The fins are 3 inches form tail with 1/4 toe with 3º cant, im hoping to do another one with some minor changes to feel the diferences of the fin positions and angles, but so far i really enjoyed testing this one! Waiting for bigger waves 
Nice job on the board and nice job on the fins. You really nailed the rocker, which a lot of people don’t do. Moon keels aren’t my preference but if you’re enjoying the setup then that is all that matters.
For the back side of the fins, I use between 4 and 6 layers of 6oz. I do that before I even cut the template out. That adds thickness to the panel and it leaves a halo once you foil it so that you don’t have to build up the edges to protect them. It ends up being heavier than an all-wood keel but not nearly as heavy ad a solid fiberglass keel.
Yes good job on that board. You worked out the design ahead of time with input from gdaddy. I have never shaped one. Gonna have to see if I can take one of those junk Echotech longboard blanks I’ve got laying around and see it I can do one from scratch. Rocker,foil et. all.
I’m with gdaddy on the fins. Fins have come a long way since the keel era. But if you like them, that’s all that matters.
However, one of the original design elements that Lindsey Lord used in his planing hull testing was parallel sides. He found that to be the key to speed. Of course surfboards are different and need some curve in the outline, but if you will look at some of the earliest mini sim’s you see a more parallel rail shape. He further found that there is an optimal ratio of length to width that results in better speed.
I’ve read that Lord’s design was used by whisky runners during prohibition and later used for military landing craft. There’s a bunch of info to read out there.
Your rails seem much more curvey to the eye. If you are happy with it, great. But if you want to tinker a bit, maybe consider more parallel rails.
Good luck and keep posting.
all the best
Do you remember that optimal length:width ratio?
Naval architect Lindsay Lord said the most common factor in a good planing hull was the width in the stern. If you divide the width into the length you’ll get the Aspect Ratio. It will be a decimal number. Good numbers are .3 to .5.”
Thanks unclegrumpy. I was just now looking in my notes. When you assume a max usable width of say 23 inches, at .4 AR you end up with a board length of 57.5 inches. A little small is for most ppl. At .3 AR and say 22 inches wide you could be at 73 inches long. All of which says to me that mini sims need to be really short to maximize speed. And of course that helps with maneuverability. Back foot right at the back edge of the board (where the fins should be set) and then you can whip it around like a skateboard. A mini sim will stiffen up really fast when you lengthen it to regular short board dims. Just my 2 cents.
all the best, boys,
The original Simmons boards were designed to go fast and straight. And they’e quite long in relation to their overall width and tail block width. But what they do have going for them is the large wetted surface area and the long straight rail line because after all, even “straight” isn’t really straight or flat in surfing. Even those boards are using their long rail lines to contribute to their drive.
Those keels at the corners probably don’t do anything more than add stability, hold and control. Heck, as far as hold goes, the round shape of the moon keels would release less than a keel or fin with a smaller tip. Good for going straight, but nor so good for turning.
All true. L
My youngest son is a longboarder and a heavyweight. One of his boards is an 8ft Simmons. I didn’t build it, one of our freinds built it. That thing is a total beast. I’ve seen him run down paddleboards with it. It’s got so much float and is so straight that I can’t generate enough leverage to turn it because I’m just not big enough. Set a rail and everyone down the line better get out of the way because it runs like a freight train. Not my thing, at all.
I love that, gdaddy
all the best
