I'm going to have a crack at building my own mutant. Ive always thought along the lines that length gives more carvability. I've ridden tt's around 135 to 140 & found them lacking some thing. Not quite sure what it is but I think it has to do with length. Is there a formula. How long works. When does a board become too big & doesn't work. All info greatly appreciated.

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BTO said..
I'm going to have a crack at building my own mutant. Ive always thought along the lines that length gives more carvability. I've ridden tt's around 135 to 140 & found them lacking some thing. Not quite sure what it is but I think it has to do with length. Is there a formula. How long works. When does a board become too big & doesn't work. All info greatly appreciated.

search for seabreeze user plummet . he has many ideas about mutant boards

cheers

Yes. I'm the weirdo that builds mutants.

What are the conditions you want to use this board in. What features are you looking for.

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Plummet said..
Yes. I'm the weirdo that builds mutants.

What are the conditions you want to use this board in. What features are you looking for.

It will be mostly Perth conditions 1 to 3 ft slop but also will be used on sth coast in bigger & better shaped waves. What I'm looking for is to be able to go from toe side to heel on the face of a wave in one smooth motion. I know some people are going to say sb & I've already tried them & its just too much mucking around for me. Twinnies seem to be too jerkie. They lose momentum too quick in the turns. I'm looking for that hard to find thing some where between tt & sb. Mission impossible?

Ok,

Check out the Axis twin wave. 148x43. It has a tucked rail. That helps with carving.
http://www.axiskiteboarding.com/product/twinwave/#.VD4zx2ccSAg


The axis tucked rail is real difficult to do at home. So I used a similar method to the carved boards 3d carved rail.

www.carved.de/products/imperatorVse/carbon

Shinn speedball is also worth looking at. Its quite short and wide 132ish x48ish. Its a nice concept and definitely a super fun board for small slop for jump and slash style of riding. But it gets over powered quickly and also because of its short length its a pretty nervous board. I wouldn't want to take this thing into big waves. It would be scary.

www.shinnworld.com/#!speedball/c1rvt


Ocean rodeo Mako series is the undisputed ruler of production mutants. These boards are supreme carving weapons. But they are also very stiff, mostly because of the huge concave. They slide through chop but can be slappy and harsh in some instances. I've ridden the 140 and king. In my opinion the kite is too big. It carves beautifully but is just too much board underfoot for standard TT style antics.

The 140 is and awesome wave tt for small slop and small waves. It its too urgent for larger waves. I haven't ridden the 150 but all my research points to the fact that the 150 is the best size in the mako range.


Mako's a quite narrow boards for there size. My call they are a bit too narrow by todays standards.
King = 165x44
150 = 150x40
140 = 140x40

www.oceanrodeo.com/products/mako

Franz Olry is one of the pioneers of TT wave style with his alkita brand.
Take inspiration from his designs.

www.alkita.fr/?page_id=355



My board is a combination of ideas from all of these boards plus a few more with my style added in for good measure.

Its 145x45, has radiused rails like the carved boards,
Rocker is quite high on my board 55mm plus I have a micro kick on the front taking the noser rocker to 80mm.

I've settled on the quad set up giving the best carvability while still being able to hold huge power.






You will notice that all these boards have longer length than standard TT's. Wave shaped boards are all ellipse style shapes as apposed to rectangular compared to a standard TT. My 145x45 board has a similar surface area to a 134x43 rectangular TT. Surface area is a major factor in light wind performance. If you build a wave TT the same size as a normal TT it will be wowfully power hungry compared to the equivalent normal TT.

Any way ponder these designs and start formulating ideas on what you want.

Then copy my board because its the best!... hahaha..Not its not!. But it is fantastic for my conditions. I built mine to tackle well double head plus monsters. And it owns the monster swell I get here. But its a tad power hungry for riding small slop. You don't need mega rocker for smaller surf.

Thanks for that Plummet. you've given me a fair bit to ponder over. I was thinking around 150cm with a fair bit of front rocker. Hate dropping down the face of a head high wave on a tt. Not enough rocker. Had some crappy outcomes.

Bto, the alkitas have a dyvinycell core so you can forget size comparisons as they have a lot more flotation, they are a completely different ride compared to the shinn speedball and mako, a much more technical board to ride, you also need a faster turning kite IMO, watch franz olry kites Corsica on vimeo or you tube, these are conditions that we constantly get and where forefront in my choice of alkita, they do have a few downsides but the good points outweigh them,

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BTO said..
Thanks for that Plummet. you've given me a fair bit to ponder over. I was thinking around 150cm with a fair bit of front rocker. Hate dropping down the face of a head high wave on a tt. Not enough rocker. Had some crappy outcomes.

Yes. That is the number one issue with riding TT's in waves.

Decent rocker will stop that. But at the sacrifice to upwind performance. My board is absolutely amiasing for hitting steep faces. I've hit double and triple head lumpy 30+ knots blown to **** steep faces with no nose dive Its very very confidence inspiring. But I have sacrificed some bottom end performance to get this feature. I typically run 1m or 2m more than your average surfboard rider in the same conditions.

So... if your looking at headhigh as a bench mark I don't think you need the rocker I have. If I was building the same board but for smaller conditions I'd bring the constant rocker back to 45mm and nose rocker to 60. That way yourd have better light wind performance and still be able to hit those head high faces easily.

PS offset footstance also helps nose dive and cravability. With the sacrifice of backwards riding. The further back you place the rear foot the closer to surfboard feel you get. But you will get to a point where the board starts nose diving and riding ****ty backwards.

I agree with Plummet on the Axis Twin Wave. I've been riding one for about 6 months and are very happy with it.

Last summer I watched a guy on an rrd toxic wave. It was like a sb shape with lots of nose rocker, squared up tail like a tt & about 150 long. It looked like it went well in both directions & on the wave it looked great. Cant buy them anymore but some thing like that is what I have in the back of my mind. Maybe round off the tail a bit more like yours Plummet but have the front a little bit more sb shape. I'll start looking back through the older forums. I remember seeing some pics of some of the home made jigs people used to build their boards. Cheers.

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BTO said..
Last summer I watched a guy on an rrd toxic wave. It was like a sb shape with lots of nose rocker, squared up tail like a tt & about 150 long. It looked like it went well in both directions & on the wave it looked great. Cant buy them anymore but some thing like that is what I have in the back of my mind. Maybe round off the tail a bit more like yours Plummet but have the front a little bit more sb shape. I'll start looking back through the older forums. I remember seeing some pics of some of the home made jigs people used to build their boards. Cheers.

Don't go too pointy at the front. You will loose surface area combine that with the additional front rocker it will be power hungry going backwards and suck going upwind. If anything make it more square edged like the firewire vanguard.

Next time your at the beach take a look at any kiter riding a surfboard. The nose never gets close to the water. Essentially pointy surfboard shaped noses are not required. The vanguard proves this as does my board.

PS that rrd toxic does look like a sweet board.

Here's my press.

Plummet how does the missus and dog feel about sharing the laundry....

^
Same as mine :)

But this is a garage :)

Well for starters its a damn cat and I don't give a **** what the cat thinks.

The missis gets a bit niggly. But what are you going to do? not build boards?

No! forge ahead and build that sucker.

But I am a good buggar. I wait until the wind is blowing over the next door neighbours to do all my carbon sanding!!! That way no carbon dust goes into my house!

I'm ok than, no carbon just a fiberglass dust

BTO, if u are thinking about building it, I've got Paulownia (1800x46x5mm and 10mm planks), bamboo 1800x500x5mm and Corecell 1200x410x5mm on stock.

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Plummet said..
Well for starters its a damn cat and I don't give a **** what the cat thinks.

The missis gets a bit niggly. But what are you going to do? not build boards?

No! forge ahead and build that sucker.

But I am a good buggar. I wait until the wind is blowing over the next door neighbours to do all my carbon sanding!!! That way no carbon dust goes into my house!

Throw a blanket over it she can use it as an ironing board...

Thing of beauty

Couple more