Tour de Force...............

Board type:   Pintail Big Wave Gun.   For paddle in.

Stringer:    T-Band, 2x6 RW, 1/4th inch Bass, 2x6 RW  (chambered)  

Fin/Fins:   As yet, undecided.  (single, or possible twin)    FU box, for sure.

Length:  9 feet 

Width:  21 inches

Weight: Target weight is 17/18 pounds   

Why am I building a board like this?        Short answer is, ‘‘Because I can.’’        It’s flat out my favorite kind of board to build.       There is no buyer in mind.      It’s the board I’d ride on the North Shore, if I were a young man today.     Whoever ends up buying it, can be confidant that it can handle anything they care to tackle.     I’ll take my time on it, and have it ready in July or August, in time for next winter on the NS.     These kind of surfboards are the best marriage of art and science, form and function.

 

 

 

 

 

Mr. T, can  you hold on to it until I marry a trust fund baby? I can’t even pay attention. Anyone got a cow to milk?

 

Bill, please post some pictures along the way.  Your work needs to be recorded.  Also, have you tried the Futures LB box?  I think it is better.

All the best

Aloha Greg, 

I’m not familiar with the Futures LB box.      I’ll check it out.    Thanks for the tip.

 

Hey Greg. Does the Future box come with a cap that you sand off after install?

tblank. Start saving. It’ll be worth what you pay.  A bargain, really.  Mike

I don’t doubt that Roosta Mike. I’ve been drooling over your board since the photos were posted. The rocker/foil shot on the deck railing is downright intoxicating. You lucky dog!

yes the futures box has the raised ridge that you tape over, and they are installed pre-glass.  I’ll try to put up a pic later.  Really a better LB box.

 

all the best

The stringer is a RW/bass/RW  T-Band, 3 1/4th inches wide.       The stringer will be solid for 12 inches, at the nose, and solid for 18 inches in the tail.       Everything in between will be chambered.        The first board I did a chambered stringer for, had a 5 1/4th inch wide RW stringer bundle.       That was in August 1964.      The original owner still has that board.       This board will be a nod to that heritage, as well as classic Gun design.       I will be looking for wood today. 

Bill , here is a pic of the Futures box. Looks like a big short board fin box. 

All the best

Hmmmm, as of Mar. 22nd, I’ve not yet found the quality of 2 x 6 RW, that I want for this new gun.     Matching color and grain are very important to me.      Looking for beauty, as well as strength.     I may have to shift over to Western Red Cedar, as my dark wood choice.     I’ll be using the US Blanks 9’9’’ AX for the finished 9 foot gun.    Plenty of thickness in that blank, for the foil I will create for this board.       And for those who are offended by the term, yes there will be some ‘‘secret sauce’’, so there!       I’m most likely to make this a single fin, with special attention paid to the fin shape and foil.       All the foregoing intended to provide advantages in both speed and maneuverability.        This board is a smaller version of the 10’ 3’’ gun in my avatar photo, and I could hotdog that board top to bottom in 20 foot Makaha point surf, and routinly make the bowl.      This board will do that and more, in part because of refinement of the fin design, that will be on this board.      The last one of these that I made (2006) sold to a knowledgable collector (used) for an amount that would shock you.    (Not a small amount)    I’ll be visiting two more lumber yards today.    The search goes on…

I don’t know what it is about those future long boxes but they just look soooo ugly. At least that’s the way they look to me… But I need glasses so who knows. 

I’m looking forward to this build

Also…

Speaking of stringers. Just stumbled on this…

 


 That is a chambered stringer, in that board.       Actual surf that day, was 4 to 5 feet, on the point.

Is there a link to that site?

Bill, here is a link

https://www.instagram.com/casurfmuseum/?hl=en

At the moment it’s the second photo

Thank you.

Is there a reason why this ‘modern twin fin’ design didn’t take off/progress? I’m thinking about doing it for my next project, it looks really fun.

quote : 

Is there a reason why this ‘modern twin fin’ design didn’t take off/progress? I’m thinking about doing it for my next project, it looks really fun. 

 

It has of sorts with the Neal Purchase Jr Duo. It’s seeing great results…

The concept, of this twin fin configuration, dates to 1970.      Twin fin boards were just coming on the scene.       I told the guys in the shop that the real way to do a twin fin was my close paired setup.      Right on down to the single foiled fins, flat sides out.       Of course I was laughed at, and told all the reasons why it wouldnt work.        Flash forward thirty years, to 2000.       Nobody had blundered onto the concept yet, so I dropped two more boxes into an existing board that I’d been riding for over 10 years.     That very good board, was suddenly magical.       Back in the day, I was in the business of making what people were buying, not in the business of educating the masses.        Some folks have recently modified existing boards, and had the same eye opening experience that I did, in 2000.      Peer pressure, timidness, and ignorance, have always played a part in holding individual surfers back, as far back as I can remember.      So, that’s the brief history of it.          Helpful?

I may have to rethink my stringer plans.        I have scoured two lumber yards for both RW, and WRC, to no avail.         Just not finding the quality of grain and color, that I require.         I may have to go with a RW and balsa bundle, for the stringer.      That is the stringer type that I’ve used in the prior wide stringer guns.      This will only be the fourth time, since 1963, that I will make a wide stringer gun.     The first two were square tails.     The third one was a pintail.       This may well be the last one of these that I make.   I just need to find some good wood. 

  EDIT: The three prior wide stringer guns, had 4 inch wide stringer bundles.       The first one was 10’ 5’‘, and was sold to a close freind of Tiger Espere, in Dec. 1963.      That board has been lost, or destroyed.        The second board was 10’ 7’‘, built in 1965, and is now in a private collection.        The third one was a 9’ 6’’ pintail built in 2006, and it too is in a private collection, and has a chambered stringer bundle.    The first two boards had solid wood stringer bundles, and weighed 38 1/2 pounds each.     Normal for such boards at that time.        The 9’ 6’’ pintail weighed in at 20 pounds.       I’ll be looking for wood again today, Monday, 3/28/'16.