#oldmandoesalright "maybe middle aged"

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Froth

f#*& me i have been asked to take part in a workshop and panel of experts round table panel discussion at the Noosa festival of surfing in march. as in i get 1/4 of a 11 by 9 metre tent to set up and work in for the day and then present and take part in the round table discussion. All based on the concept of recycling and eco/sustainable boards.

So my mate who's glassing it got a psciphinin that needed repair. He gave me this feedback and changed the finplacement a bit to match.

few surfs in and loving it.

thanks Matty that means the world to me coming from you who i try my best to emulate. No sarcasm just respect.

yeah matty/john. i'll give you some feedback today some time

Matty I'm gunna put this here too aswell as the general discussion post as we may be able to discuss thing more here than out there. Feel free anyone else to chime in. Adam Hope it makes sense. Ride reports so far. But starting with a random thought or two. Well first thing I wanna say is that I have seen two production slater design sciphi boards in the last week and both have them have had the tail channels but no belly channels. I assume this is due to the practicality of producing thousands of boards in a Thai factory means it's too hard to get the quality control with the belly channels. Be very interested to see if the ones stu Kennedy is riding at snapper have the belly channels. Also the tail channels in them seem to be more like traditional channels and not the concaves that the ones on the sciphi boards in the original marketing. In my opinion the belly channels are the engine room of he design. Leaving them off a the board is like going to a Robert Downey Jr party in the mid 90's and forgetting to take your nose. (See what I did there) The board It's 5' 6 5/8" 18.5" by 2 3/8" The file I made up for it was 5' 8" but I blew over in the wind in my Staffroom and the rounded nose was born. I kept it fairly volumous to help me paddle it and keep it daily forgiving. It seems to be going extremely good. It has a wider tail and more straight outline through the rear of the board means it can accelerate super quick and the bat tail and the step in of the outline means you can use the extra rocker on the rail (still fairly low) to turn the board at speed. And the reduced central rocker due to the large single concave in the middle (that's been split up into 4 concaves) allows the board to get up and plane and lift and therefore go fast really easy It seems to have encouraged me to get low of the bottom and lean into some really centered bottom turns into some good top turns. In smaller waves the complex bottom concave in the guts seem to not like the hop between sections but if I get some forced upper body rotation and fin drive it allows me to get through sections better and be almost prepared for a carving turn when the section pops up again. The enemy of this board in smaller stuff is standing still. It just doesn't plane very well at low speeds. But I have grovellers for that. If the waves are bigger it's easy to surf standing still but who wants to? The fact I have not put the complex concaves in the tail is seeming to work well in the weaker waves I have to deal with on the Sunshine Coast. Seems to allow the water to flow out of the belly with easy speed. Seems to let the tail come around nice. I've only surfed it as a thruster so far. I've got some quad trailers in the car. It I just haven't put em in yet. I've been surfing it in SLOP and a few good waves and I'm equally as stoked on it. Due to the low rocker there have been a few times I've aimed at a smaller steep section coming off the top and bogging as the board releases from the wave surf face but this is due to a lack of technique I needed to commit my upper body over the front knee and flow down through the turn. It I was under rotating and dividing down the line too much. In good waves it has just been super nice. So many things.

I originally shaped it as the double extending out through it and therefore a little v in the last little bit. But the finished product with the multipla layers of glass and filler coat has changed it to pretty much flas in the last little section maybe a bit of double. Need to run a straight edge over it.

who likes my new avatar

i have made acquaintances with an old salt here in Aus that has been and seen Everything. and i mean everything. working with scott dillon, in the EARLY 60's bouncing in and out of the shaping bays around sydney when the short board revolution was zipping, from 14 foot tooth pics to 5'2 knifey railed zippers with bunker spreckles at jay bay. He's really sick at the momoent and has hawiian elders who grew up with buttons that he worked with making a gofund me page to help fund his treatment. Conversations with him are like one amazing connection of surfing royalty after another. These are some of his creations i have the pleasure of looking after at the moment. he says the longer pin tail is mine. Its based on a Nat young template and some amazing channel and keel fins. Look at em Just look at em. And yes they work. in fast barrels they really work

Well what can I say, i will put this feedback/ ride report here cause i might get intelligent discussion and not the if you ride this you are less than heterosexual comment from bone heads. Now I have finished my board and been surfing it on and off for a few months. Based on the firewire cornice with some tweaks of the tail shape and a generous amount of volume and the thing CUTS SICK. I surfed it this arvo in 2-3 foot slowish point break and the thing was "off its chops". Especially with it set up as the thruster. I have some fairly upright foiled fins. On my back hand it just had so much drive. Top turn and straight into another bottom turn and straight into another one. One wave I got about 6-8 turns in a 200 m ride. Paddled back out just popping with stoke. Said to one guy that wave was sick, felt like I got 100 turns in. His reply was "I know I saw it you're an animal" I was like did I hear that right. I had at least three other people comment that the board looked like it was working great for me. I also got these few pics the other morning but they were with the quad set up. The first two shots were two turns from the one wave. The last shot is after surf froth this arvo. Maybe another pretty pic of the board two. Old mate taking the surf photos was on the 6th floor of a beach side apartment building with a long lens but they are a bit grainy as they are from a facebook message.

I usually like quads. But I have think the rears in this are too wide. Feels to loose and loses drive off the bottom. Just needs the middle fin to stabilise the fat bottom girl. (Have to wonder about the people who see penis's in everything.) Matty never claimed to be ground breaking but it's new ground for me. I do plan to make another board board based on this. Shorted and a bit wider and less thick. And huck yes I know the colour work is but ugly. But I don't mind it, it was my first attempt as paint on foam, had no idea what I was doing. Of course a few weeks after mark Richards puts a up a video tutorial on Instagram and I saw everything I did wrong and the ideas I had to fix it would have been on the money,,,, next time gadget next time.

Bottom contours Deepish single to a double through the fins. The double is kinda "in" a single though. Sorry if that's not explained very well. Remember I'm only just into double figures with my board numbers. Like 10.....

I will suss it out. I definitely think i would take the rear quads further in from the rail considering the shape, this one was glassed and fins set by me, so i cant blame anyone but me. will send PM

Was lucky enough to be asked to show some of my stuff at the Noosa Festival of Surfing yesterday. Worked with two champions artisans from Japan, tom Wegener, met Japan's head of Patagonia and the international rep from "save the waves" (they decide if Noosa can become a international surfing reserve or not). Got to speak at the end, and kept being introduced at Adam Baldwin the "mad scientist" of sustainable surfboard construction. Was a long day but very rewarding.

cant decide so i'll take all three

Sold 100 tickets in the school surfboard at 10 bucks a pop. So we are now looking at pre ordering a solo shot 3. Damn USD - AUD conversion rate is a bit nasty;(

made a start on the file for the WEENUT 5'4" 19" 2.5 long way to go but its a start.

had a few errors and buggs on the "fish for my fins thread" have to re-glue my blank together. be interesting to see how it goes, Seems to be a few build threads creeping back. Yew!!!!

This could be interesting, Managed to score this Donald Brink asym, and scored even bigger with they guys from vissla bringing it back to australia for me for no extra cost. 200 bucks usd. all it has is a ding in the bottom that has been repaired. but i cant find it in the photo, the boards looks brand new. Haven't been this excited about a board for a long time.... Its funny I've told a few crew about it and to a man no one has heard of him, seriously???? where have they been???? Oh i know in the box of "normals"

This could be interesting, Managed to score this Donald Brink asym, and scored even bigger with they guys from vissla bringing it back to australia for me for no extra cost. 200 bucks usd. All it has is a ding in the bottom that has been repaired. But I cant find it in the photo, the boards looks brand new. Maybe the photo is from when it was brand new and its a bit beat up now???? Haven't been this excited about a board for a long time.... Its funny I've told a few crew about it and to a man, no one has heard of him, seriously???? where have they been???? Oh i know in the box of "normals". Can't wait to see it in the flesh.

Yep ,getting some action in the ghetto school rubbish board creation center.

Been getting crickets on my fish thread;( Board is looking good I think. Just needs some tweaks.

F me, it amazes me the sh## people comment all over. you do a thread of a build that you put you heart into an lay your soul out to bear and the crickets take over. Post some dumb sh** on there and ever pri## and his grandmother wants to give an opinion. Either way I'm excited about my fish and the Donald brink asym.

Funny they are pics loaded from my phone direct to the site. Anyway. The brink is fun;) And huck you don't get ignored hahah

just thought i would put this up here. Mattwho would remember the yellow and black board with the blunt nose. this is from exactly the same rocker template. It flew on the betty boop so i hole it goes good on the Wizzfish. this is going to have some of stuart wissing's ashes in the laminate. thus the Wizzfish