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evansquirrell said..
I have only tried one (in a non-edge board) in a 6'6" Stand Up Spoon of mine, and it actually went phenomenal. Mind you, it was in absolutely perfect waves at The Pass, with plenty of bottom tension in the wave, which is exactly what these fins need to really start working properly.

I could see it working in something else of ours like an Evo as you mentioned, but the fin box at it's standard position would be way too far forward I think. The one on the Stand Up Spoon I made/rode was set a touch further back to accomodate the PB, but I feel like it could be even further back, which I will be testing out on another 7 footer I'm currently making.

GG undoubtably knows his stuff, no denying that, and these fins work very differently to what I've certainly become accustomed to, but they open you up to a whole new dimension of speed and minimal drag/resistance. Very addictive.

Thanks for the insight Evan, BTW I got an 8ft vish from you guys just about two years ago- still my favourite board

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Hydroman said..

onefin said..

evansquirrell said..
The ball bearings are made by Kumano Fin Systems. We were getting a heap of fins from Larry Allison in the States with them already installed. Great for being able to move the fin around mid surf. Similar to what FCS2 fins have going on now, pin holds the front of the fin steady in the finbox and the back clicks into the track in along the base of the finbox.

You can retro-fit, as I did with this fin and a bunch of others, but you'll need to know the track height within the box to make sure they're in the right position on the fin and will properly click into place within the fin box.

It definitely makes things easier when you're unsure about fin position, or when you're riding something completely different than what you're used to and your initial fin position feels way off after the first few waves.
I've been riding a heap of Ellis' edge boards lately and it's been perfect dialling in where the GG power blade needs to sit, as the perfect spot for them is visually WAY too far back from what I'm used to.

Hi Evan,

Do the power blades work as well in non edge boards like your evo's for example?

Hi Onegin,

If you like the powerblade style fins also check out the Takayama Halo series singles, sides, twins, and quads.

I was running a 7.5" raked flex glass with SB1 fins in both my 7'8 and 9'0 boards. Great fin combo but could always feel it hit a wall when trying to generate speed pumping the face. On larger more powerful waves they would go quick but sang and throttled back quickly in fat sections. Pivot and drive were good.

Then I fitted a set of Halo's. Wow! These fins generate awesome drive and pivot amazingly. Don't got the speed limiter feel from them like a raked fin can. Running a home made polycarbonate 7.5 centre Halo design with 4 1/8" Futures sides in glass. Go great in either the 7'8 or 9'0 mal.

Hydro

Thanks hydro I will check them out

Longtime lurker here, seeing Andy, Salty and everyone on here making boards I just had to have a go. My grandfather was a chippy and when he passed away a couple of years ago I inherited his makita power planer. My wife and I also bought our first house house last year which meant I now had the ideal spot to shape a board and had a reason to pull the planer out of storage.

Earlier this year I had a few goes of a friends self shape 7'4"x21"x2 1/2" in some pretty perfect "Mid Length" conditions where the waves had easy entry and were running nicely along the bank. I am only a smaller guy at about 5'7 and weighing under 55kgs so to me this board paddled fast and picked up the waves very early. The ease of paddling, trim speed and stability gave me a new perspective on what is possible and a new approach to my surfing. I just had to have one of my own, so they let me borrow it to make a template.

In my head I wanted to make something cross between a Christenson flat tracker, C Bucket and a Lovelace Thick Lizzy with a more foiled out nose and tail than the board I was copying with the hope that I might be able to duck dive the thing even a little bit to improve its versatility. But I probably ended up thinning the nose and tail too much trying to get the thickness in the middle of the board down to the desired thickness of 2 1/2". I am guessing this was because I cross cut in some additional nose and tail rocker at the start before thicknessing the bottom. I don't think I have seen this mentioned by anyone else before, but before planing the rail bands the board looks deceptively a lot thicker than it actually is. I could have probably stopped 1 or 2 passes earlier and still been happy with the result. It seems that knowing when to stop when shaping is half the battle, whether that is truing up the outline, correcting a mistake, or when finishing.

Before starting I wanted a flat bottom shape for simplicity but as I thicknessed the blank I got about 1/4 "-1/2" of roll in the bottom which was fine as thats what the board I was coping had anyways. Unfortunately I forgot to run a straight edge along the bottom of the blank before shaping so I don't know if the blank had this already or I was just not cutting the foam down correctly in the middle.

Initially I am trying out a George Greenough 7.5" 4a fin with the idea being that the thinner tail will require less fin.

I have only picked up the board from the local glasser this week(1 week turnaround!) and looking forward to trying it out up the coast this weekend. Will let you know how it goes.

Unfortunately as a new user I can't post any pics but if you go to imgur and append /a/mbt0xrz to the url hopefully you can view the images.

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MctavishCaddy said..
Longtime lurker here, seeing Andy, Salty and everyone on here making boards I just had to have a go. My grandfather was a chippy and when he passed away a couple of years ago I inherited his makita power planer. My wife and I also bought our first house house last year which meant I now had the ideal spot to shape a board and had a reason to pull the planer out of storage.

Earlier this year I had a few goes of a friends self shape 7'4"x21"x2 1/2" in some pretty perfect "Mid Length" conditions where the waves had easy entry and were running nicely along the bank. I am only a smaller guy at about 5'7 and weighing under 55kgs so to me this board paddled fast and picked up the waves very early. The ease of paddling, trim speed and stability gave me a new perspective on what is possible and a new approach to my surfing. I just had to have one of my own, so they let me borrow it to make a template.

In my head I wanted to make something cross between a Christenson flat tracker, C Bucket and a Lovelace Thick Lizzy with a more foiled out nose and tail than the board I was copying with the hope that I might be able to duck dive the thing even a little bit to improve its versatility. But I probably ended up thinning the nose and tail too much trying to get the thickness in the middle of the board down to the desired thickness of 2 1/2". I am guessing this was because I cross cut in some additional nose and tail rocker at the start before thicknessing the bottom. I don't think I have seen this mentioned by anyone else before, but before planing the rail bands the board looks deceptively a lot thicker than it actually is. I could have probably stopped 1 or 2 passes earlier and still been happy with the result. It seems that knowing when to stop when shaping is half the battle, whether that is truing up the outline, correcting a mistake, or when finishing.

Before starting I wanted a flat bottom shape for simplicity but as I thicknessed the blank I got about 1/4 "-1/2" of roll in the bottom which was fine as thats what the board I was coping had anyways. Unfortunately I forgot to run a straight edge along the bottom of the blank before shaping so I don't know if the blank had this already or I was just not cutting the foam down correctly in the middle.

Initially I am trying out a George Greenough 7.5" 4a fin with the idea being that the thinner tail will require less fin.

I have only picked up the board from the local glasser this week(1 week turnaround!) and looking forward to trying it out up the coast this weekend. Will let you know how it goes.

Unfortunately as a new user I can't post any pics but if you go to imgur and append /a/mbt0xrz to the url hopefully you can view the images.

Good post I hope you share the out come and images

Quick update.
Took the new board out for its maiden surf on the weekend on just one of those perfect blue bird offshore autumn days. Honestly couldn't of asked for better conditions, groomed waist to shoulder high waves running along a long bank offering both lefts and rights with only a handful of people out. The exact kind of waves I had in mind while shaping the new board.

The first wave I rode straight off the bat was a long fast waist high runner where I got to take the highline a few times and trim before kicking out. Looking back to where my mate was I had covered a lot of ground. Very satisfying to paddle back out having just ridden a wave on a board I had a hand in making.

Initial thoughts are the board is easy to paddle and doesn't feel overly big or clumsy. The thinned out nose means I can sink it to duck dive or punch through unbroken waves but I am still figuring out how to get my foot back far enough to sink the tail, I had one successful attempt where I got it down properly and while it wasn't deep like on my shorter board it punched through the turbulence because of the buoyancy.

Take offs felt good, I didn't catch the nose or forward part of the rail on some of the later take offs where the stiff offshore winds prevented an earlier entry.

Trim speed was fast and I was making it over the gutters. The board turned great when my back foot was over the fin but a couple of times after the take off I was too far forward, something to work on for next time.

Overall super happy with how the board has turned out and a great first surf.

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MctavishCaddy said..
Quick update.
Took the new board out for its maiden surf on the weekend on just one of those perfect blue bird offshore autumn days. Honestly couldn't of asked for better conditions, groomed waist to shoulder high waves running along a long bank offering both lefts and rights with only a handful of people out. The exact kind of waves I had in mind while shaping the new board.

The first wave I rode straight off the bat was a long fast waist high runner where I got to take the highline a few times and trim before kicking out. Looking back to where my mate was I had covered a lot of ground. Very satisfying to paddle back out having just ridden a wave on a board I had a hand in making.

Initial thoughts are the board is easy to paddle and doesn't feel overly big or clumsy. The thinned out nose means I can sink it to duck dive or punch through unbroken waves but I am still figuring out how to get my foot back far enough to sink the tail, I had one successful attempt where I got it down properly and while it wasn't deep like on my shorter board it punched through the turbulence because of the buoyancy.

Take offs felt good, I didn't catch the nose or forward part of the rail on some of the later take offs where the stiff offshore winds prevented an earlier entry.

Trim speed was fast and I was making it over the gutters. The board turned great when my back foot was over the fin but a couple of times after the take off I was too far forward, something to work on for next time.

Overall super happy with how the board has turned out and a great first surf.

Great looking board there and good report, easy to view on Tumbler.

Looks suspiciously like a flat tracker but with a vee bottom and squared off tail.

Love the fin, I have a similar 7" design by brothers Marshall. surfboardstore.com.au/products/captain-fin-brothers-marshall-single

Absolute ripper fin in my 9'0 mal with Takayama Halo side bites.

Interesting that you took some inspiration from Christensen, I just got the Twin Tracker in 7'2, wow and wow it's a beautiful board. But after having ridden it a couple of times I need to dial in the fin selection. Been running the Futures K2 keels in her but surprisingly lacks drive? Great pivot, sudden release and very happy to go where you point it but with very little drive off the bottom? Also struggles to hold a rail on steeper backhand waves with a late drop? Tail end goes sideways before you can set a line. Could be that the rails in the back end are very round until just before the fins?

Or as I have just discovered the twin fin placement is way way forward of any other twin I have seen, and significantly so by nearly 3/4 of a box length, great for tighter turn arc but sucks for bite or drive.

Thinking of going to a longer drawn out keel fin like the Shapers modern Large Keel to see if that helps? shapers.com.au/modern-keel-large/ or potentially making a set of long tail keels with zero cant?

Either that or putting some 1/2" Futures boxes in as quad position and running my Machado Quads in her.

Apart from that she has beautiful flow to her.

Hydro

Interesting hydro, always liked the look of the twin tracker

Nice board mctavishcaddy

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JonathanC said..

AndyrooMac said..

JonathanC said..
posted this on shortboard forum but was kindly suggested I'd do better here. Had a couple of suggestions already, thanksHope you guys can help, want to get a board as a gift for my 26 yo son. He surfs shortboards and 9' longboard and has expressed interest in a 7' single fin. He is 70kg and 6' tall, will be surfing shore break and smaller point breaks (Sandy Pt, Vicco, Flinders, Lorne etc but may want to travel and use it on OS point breaks when we can get on a plane again. Good surfer rather than great, can duck dive, limited time on water because of working heaps.
So any suggestions would be much appreciated, wants a good all rounder and fun new board experience. I only foil and sup surf so haven't got a bloody clue!
couple of suggestions so far, McTavish Bluebird, single fin from Occy at Yahoo, also wondered if the Howard Special Takyama could be the one.
Thanks

I agree somewhat with Chrispy, I ride my Single in about everything but if the waves are small/fast/round I switch out to a twin as it will hold better in those conditions.

Single's are pretty limited and take some getting used too... You have to surf with the wave, turn and trim when the wave allows, its a mellower style thats about connection whereas a 2-4 fin cluster will allow much more freedom as to where you can go and what you can do on the wave...

Really though, you cant go wrong with a Tak HSM or for a bit more HP the CI Mid. Ride em as a 1+2 or ride it as a single, means you can at least experiment and not be stuck with something you aren't into.

Thanks so much for your help guys really appreciate the time you all put in to responding. Can't believe how active this part of SeaBreeze is and a great vibe as well

Bit of a follow up. Evan and the guys made a stunning Howard Special Mini for my son. Denis from Surf Aids kindly wandered around the corner and measured it up and made a cover and I picked it up a week or two ago during a road trip to Byron from Melbourne.
Needless to say Charlie was blown away!! Thanks for the help choosing everyone.

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JonathanC said..

JonathanC said..

AndyrooMac said..

JonathanC said..
posted this on shortboard forum but was kindly suggested I'd do better here. Had a couple of suggestions already, thanksHope you guys can help, want to get a board as a gift for my 26 yo son. He surfs shortboards and 9' longboard and has expressed interest in a 7' single fin. He is 70kg and 6' tall, will be surfing shore break and smaller point breaks (Sandy Pt, Vicco, Flinders, Lorne etc but may want to travel and use it on OS point breaks when we can get on a plane again. Good surfer rather than great, can duck dive, limited time on water because of working heaps.
So any suggestions would be much appreciated, wants a good all rounder and fun new board experience. I only foil and sup surf so haven't got a bloody clue!
couple of suggestions so far, McTavish Bluebird, single fin from Occy at Yahoo, also wondered if the Howard Special Takyama could be the one.
Thanks

I agree somewhat with Chrispy, I ride my Single in about everything but if the waves are small/fast/round I switch out to a twin as it will hold better in those conditions.

Single's are pretty limited and take some getting used too... You have to surf with the wave, turn and trim when the wave allows, its a mellower style thats about connection whereas a 2-4 fin cluster will allow much more freedom as to where you can go and what you can do on the wave...

Really though, you cant go wrong with a Tak HSM or for a bit more HP the CI Mid. Ride em as a 1+2 or ride it as a single, means you can at least experiment and not be stuck with something you aren't into.

Thanks so much for your help guys really appreciate the time you all put in to responding. Can't believe how active this part of SeaBreeze is and a great vibe as well

Bit of a follow up. Evan and the guys made a stunning Howard Special Mini for my son. Denis from Surf Aids kindly wandered around the corner and measured it up and made a cover and I picked it up a week or two ago during a road trip to Byron from Melbourne.
Needless to say Charlie was blown away!! Thanks for the help choosing everyone.

Evan and the team sure do make stunning high quality surfboards and the service is unreal.
Yup Denis is a great guy also. Stunning board BTW

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Hydroman said..

MctavishCaddy said..
Quick update.
Took the new board out for its maiden surf on the weekend on just one of those perfect blue bird offshore autumn days. Honestly couldn't of asked for better conditions, groomed waist to shoulder high waves running along a long bank offering both lefts and rights with only a handful of people out. The exact kind of waves I had in mind while shaping the new board.

The first wave I rode straight off the bat was a long fast waist high runner where I got to take the highline a few times and trim before kicking out. Looking back to where my mate was I had covered a lot of ground. Very satisfying to paddle back out having just ridden a wave on a board I had a hand in making.

Initial thoughts are the board is easy to paddle and doesn't feel overly big or clumsy. The thinned out nose means I can sink it to duck dive or punch through unbroken waves but I am still figuring out how to get my foot back far enough to sink the tail, I had one successful attempt where I got it down properly and while it wasn't deep like on my shorter board it punched through the turbulence because of the buoyancy.

Take offs felt good, I didn't catch the nose or forward part of the rail on some of the later take offs where the stiff offshore winds prevented an earlier entry.

Trim speed was fast and I was making it over the gutters. The board turned great when my back foot was over the fin but a couple of times after the take off I was too far forward, something to work on for next time.

Overall super happy with how the board has turned out and a great first surf.

Great looking board there and good report, easy to view on Tumbler.

Looks suspiciously like a flat tracker but with a vee bottom and squared off tail.

Love the fin, I have a similar 7" design by brothers Marshall. surfboardstore.com.au/products/captain-fin-brothers-marshall-single

Absolute ripper fin in my 9'0 mal with Takayama Halo side bites.

Interesting that you took some inspiration from Christensen, I just got the Twin Tracker in 7'2, wow and wow it's a beautiful board. But after having ridden it a couple of times I need to dial in the fin selection. Been running the Futures K2 keels in her but surprisingly lacks drive? Great pivot, sudden release and very happy to go where you point it but with very little drive off the bottom? Also struggles to hold a rail on steeper backhand waves with a late drop? Tail end goes sideways before you can set a line. Could be that the rails in the back end are very round until just before the fins?

Or as I have just discovered the twin fin placement is way way forward of any other twin I have seen, and significantly so by nearly 3/4 of a box length, great for tighter turn arc but sucks for bite or drive.

Thinking of going to a longer drawn out keel fin like the Shapers modern Large Keel to see if that helps? shapers.com.au/modern-keel-large/ or potentially making a set of long tail keels with zero cant?

Either that or putting some 1/2" Futures boxes in as quad position and running my Machado Quads in her.

Apart from that she has beautiful flow to her.

Hydro

Thanks Hydro.

To be fair, it was more the idea of a Christenson flat tracker as I haven't actually seen one in real life.Well thats not 100% true as I did talk to someone in the line up once who had one which was where the seed of an idea started but not a good enough look to copy it :P

Initially I looked at getting the Brothers Marshall fin as thats what they recommend in the Real Water Sports reviews for the Flat Tracker but they seem to be sold out everywhere.

I have never really played around with fin placement before so I am looking forward to messing around with that over the coming months.
Was thinking of getting a "Finjak" to make it easier to move the fin around but not sure if its much easier than just putting a fin key in the key pocket of my leash.

The new longer twins starting to come out like the Christenson Twin Tracker,Long Fish and the Morning of the Earth "Massive" look really interesting. I also like the shape of Andrew Kidmans "Green" board in the Edge of A Dream book which I think from memory is a bit smaller at 6'10". My gut reaction is that should be a fair bit faster than a mid single but for where my surfing is right now I don't think I need anymore speed. I find in some situations my twin keel fish gets ahead of me and goes faster than what I can process/react to. Would love a go on one though!

Looks like I can post photos now :P
My 7'4 hand shaped board in the foreground with my friends board that I copied in the background:

Great looking board.

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AndyrooMac said..
The Christenson thread has turned into a pretty fun convo about midlengths in general so I thought it might be cool to start a new thread as generally a lot of longboarders have a mid in the quiver for when it gets a bit bigger.

I reckon mids are super interesting as they take on the broadest range of design characteristics depending on where your coming from and how you are wanting to surf... They take elements of longboards, logs and gliders but also fish and short boards...

So use this space to share what your riding, to talk about design, shapers and share some cool midlength clips.

Here's a pretty siiiiiiick place to start...

Hi AndyrooMac, great post.
I have a couple of go to mid length boards now which are my shortboards.
I have a modern Jye Byrne's Crossbreed model and an old 1980's era mini Mal by Shane surfboards.

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Jeff J said..

AndyrooMac said..
The Christenson thread has turned into a pretty fun convo about midlengths in general so I thought it might be cool to start a new thread as generally a lot of longboarders have a mid in the quiver for when it gets a bit bigger.

I reckon mids are super interesting as they take on the broadest range of design characteristics depending on where your coming from and how you are wanting to surf... They take elements of longboards, logs and gliders but also fish and short boards...

So use this space to share what your riding, to talk about design, shapers and share some cool midlength clips.

Here's a pretty siiiiiiick place to start...

Hi AndyrooMac, great post.
I have a couple of go to mid length boards now which are my shortboards.
I have a modern Jye Byrne's Crossbreed model and an old 1980's era mini Mal by Shane surfboards.

I surfed a mates cross-breed ,great board

New board - 6 foot 10 x 21.5 x 2.75

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MctavishCaddy said..
Looks like I can post photos now :P
My 7'4 hand shaped board in the foreground with my friends board that I copied in the background:

Awesome looking board dude, nothing like surfing something you've shaped yourself...

Did you do the glassing as well? If so, thats super impressive as a 1st effort... WAY better than my 3rd effort even.

Cheers

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Jeff J said..

AndyrooMac said..
The Christenson thread has turned into a pretty fun convo about midlengths in general so I thought it might be cool to start a new thread as generally a lot of longboarders have a mid in the quiver for when it gets a bit bigger.

I reckon mids are super interesting as they take on the broadest range of design characteristics depending on where your coming from and how you are wanting to surf... They take elements of longboards, logs and gliders but also fish and short boards...

So use this space to share what your riding, to talk about design, shapers and share some cool midlength clips.

Here's a pretty siiiiiiick place to start...

Hi AndyrooMac, great post.
I have a couple of go to mid length boards now which are my shortboards.
I have a modern Jye Byrne's Crossbreed model and an old 1980's era mini Mal by Shane surfboards.

Awesome dude, glad your loving your Mids and yeah... My 7'3" is my SB these days though i'm looking at shaping a 6'10" Simmons Style small wave board when i'm ready to get back into the water in another month or so...

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Tassiedevel said..
New board - 6 foot 10 x 21.5 x 2.75

Now that is a BEAUTY Taz... amzing work there

Hey Tassie nice board, how did you finish the board, glass / epoxy or other?

I am just doing a Paulownia over EPS.

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IFocus said..
Hey Tassie nice board, how did you finish the board, glass / epoxy or other?

I am just doing a Paulownia over EPS.

Thanks mate - glass / epoxy over EPS , 1 st play with cork rails

Would be good to see some progress pics of yours

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AndyrooMac said..

MctavishCaddy said..
Looks like I can post photos now :P
My 7'4 hand shaped board in the foreground with my friends board that I copied in the background:

Awesome looking board dude, nothing like surfing something you've shaped yourself...

Did you do the glassing as well? If so, thats super impressive as a 1st effort... WAY better than my 3rd effort even.

Cheers

I wish I could say I glassed it, I just got it glassed by a local guy who did an amazing job and a very quick turn around :)

Select to expand quote

Tassiedevel said..

IFocus said..
Hey Tassie nice board, how did you finish the board, glass / epoxy or other?

I am just doing a Paulownia over EPS.

Thanks mate - glass / epoxy over EPS , 1 st play with cork rails

Would be good to see some progress pics of yours

Hey Tassie missed you post sorry about that, here is a photo before shaping the rails, 6'4" meant to be 20 1/2 wide but miss calculated and its ended up 21".

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IFocus said..

Tassiedevel said..

IFocus said..
Hey Tassie nice board, how did you finish the board, glass / epoxy or other?

I am just doing a Paulownia over EPS.

Thanks mate - glass / epoxy over EPS , 1 st play with cork rails

Would be good to see some progress pics of yours

Hey Tassie missed you posted here is a photo before shaping the rails

Now just waiting for fin boxes to turn up

Talented bunch we have in here it would be unreal to make a board and those above are beautiful

Bloke loves those Christenson Long Fish.

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Cuttlefish said..

really enjoyed it mate thanks

More midlength fun! Well kinda...his local waves are sloooooow!

50th is a few weeks away and what better way to celebrate than new boards - including a 7'1" mid twin at 45l - looking forward to its imminent arrival, getting out of lock down and putting it and its 6' mate to work (and this post is on page 71 :) )