for me, it just a question of compromise when looking for volume, the higher us heavy guys sit out of the water, the better we catch waves.

Fast paddling is fine, but it's not so fine when too much of your board, and body are underwater. Unlike a SB, we can't give 1 or 2 very powerful strokes and catch a lip, we need a lot of forward planning.

The day I demanded that a shaper makes me 10.2 x 24 x 3 5/8, regardless of his advice, was the day I started catching waves.

And the day I allowed a shaper to take that thickness down to 3.5 inches was the day I wasted $1200.

Now I'm experimenting with making 4 inch thick boards to try to reduce the width down to 23 and the length down to 9.6 but so far, only 2 out of 4 attempts have worked, but I think that's because I can't get the rails and rocker right.

Hey OBCT - I think we are around the same weight. FWIW up until recently I was surfing a 9'1" x22.5" x 2 5/8" 66lt board at 112kg but did feel it was a little under size on the smaller days (although I also surf a 7'6" x22.5 x 3" 58lt fishy thing quite happily). I just upgraded to a 9'6" x 23 x 3.25 as I have been out of the water for a short while and the paddling fitness has evaporated and the summer surf over here is sh!t. The 9.6 feels like a tanker... personally, I can't imagine doing a 10.2 or bigger...

don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to kid myself, my boards feel like tanks too.

But once I'm on and up, they feel just fine, and if I get the shape right, they will whip a nose around as quickly as I can handle and they generate all the speed I can handle.

The only rule I have is that they must always be a pin tail to work well at that length.

Anything shorter may also work well, but I will never know, because I can't catch anything with them.

Well maybe I could, but I'd need to give up this beer that's sitting in front of me, and that ain't likely to happen anytime soon.

There is just one shortcoming that I do miss, and that's the difficulty to do a good re-entry on a big board. They often just refuse to tuck back in and you fall over the back of the lip, because they're carrying too much momentum

I gave my shaper all my dimensions weight height what i wanted the board for and my age ,being 57 it aint like im 21 again so the extra volume for me makes it easier to paddle and pick up waves ,my board was primarily a noserider from his range its 9'6x 23x 3 1/4 dont know the volume but im around 82 kg its seems like a nice board and for the small surf we get in sa it is good ,if i lived in a place where the swell had more power say the east coast swells then it may be different but here its good as you can pick up the smallest of waves most times .

because Im teaching my daughter on one of my super wide boards that aren't easy for her to carry, I thought I'd have a crack at making one of these yesterday arvo.

I had some 5/16 copper tube (3/8 would have been better)

A 3/8 bending spring (now you know why 3/8 would have been better)

Some mapps gas to anneal the copper tube with (it was Pre-annealed, but that was 20 years ago, minimum)

a length of styrofoam insulation that was originally covering some sort of rod for a babies play pen.

A stick of silver brazing rod, because I thought there may be enough copper to do a continuous loop and join it end to end (there wasn't)

Once I annealed the copper, I got all the old bends and kinks out of it. then using the bending spring, I eyeballed a few curves to suit my extra thick rails and covered the tube with the styrofoam.
Then I found an old bag strap, cut it to length, sealed the ends with the mapps gas, doubled them over and using a soldering iron, I cut holes through the the doubled webbing to suit the tube, and seal at the same time.
Then I threaded the copper through the holed, flattened the ends and bent them over to hold the webbing.



Seems to work and the daughter was pleased when she used it today because we needed to park a long way from the beach



I reckon those store bought ones would work much better than mine, but you know what I'm like, I get really bored and just like having a go at things.

boredom = time for a roadtrip James

Nice work OB. Legend

Nothing wrong with that mate if it works it works and probably just cost a bit of time well done .

Yes I enjoy Obct's build things threads talented man.

Now crispy I've just realised your board is 23 wide thats not overly wide.

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Macaha said..
Yes I enjoy Obct's build things threads talented man.

Now crispy I've just realised your board is 23 wide thats not overly wide.

Nice welcoming bloke you are trying to make the bloke sound and feel inadequate

23 is big to me especially after carrying 20 " boards around.

Also could you not just get a wide strip of calico. Like a hippy sling for the big boards...

Isnt it i thought it was pretty wide do they get bigger ? As for the hippy sling got one of those to just in case me rail handle has a blowout .

I saw this 10ft Mct for sale on Gumtree a while back. It sold and this is the best pic i can find online. That white thing is a handle, inset in the board, kinda like a SUP handle. In the original (clearer) pics it looked like it would work, assuming such a large board has sufficient thickness... or that the handle design is clever enough -- perhaps angling back toward the stringer, rather than going straight down. (Still, there would be a bit of an art to getting it in just the right place.)

Thats an interesting picture you would want to know where the balance point was befor putting it in for sure ,i wouldnt do it to my board but if your a youngen a board this size could be a problem to get down the beach come to think of it even f your an olden like me it can be a problem

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crispy1960 said..
Isnt it i thought it was pretty wide do they get bigger ? As for the hippy sling got one of those to just in case me rail handle has a blowout .

Ive been a fan of 23 wide for years,add another 1/2 or 1/8 in thickness and I'm sharing your pain.

On my bigger boards 10 10.6 x 23 1/2 x 3 1/4 I carry them under my arm but have the wax/deck
to my side,the boards shape just seem to sit better on the walk.

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crispy1960 said..
Thats an interesting picture you would want to know where the balance point was befor putting it in for sure ,i wouldnt do it to my board but if your a youngen a board this size could be a problem to get down the beach come to think of it even f your an olden like me it can be a problem

That board took forever to sell because of that handle.

Put the board on your head, why is that so hard.

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obct said..
for me, it just a question of compromise when looking for volume, the higher us heavy guys sit out of the water, the better we catch waves.

Fast paddling is fine, but it's not so fine when too much of your board, and body are underwater. Unlike a SB, we can't give 1 or 2 very powerful strokes and catch a lip, we need a lot of forward planning.

The day I demanded that a shaper makes me 10.2 x 24 x 3 5/8, regardless of his advice, was the day I started catching waves.

And the day I allowed a shaper to take that thickness down to 3.5 inches was the day I wasted $1200.

Now I'm experimenting with making 4 inch thick boards to try to reduce the width down to 23 and the length down to 9.6 but so far, only 2 out of 4 attempts have worked, but I think that's because I can't get the rails and rocker right.

Cheers Ob and Crspy2.
Interesting hearing people takes on why.

I guess my original thought was whether a thick narrow board or thinner wider board was better. Guess i was thinking a bit like the clubbie boards that are narrow but thick and seem to catch anything vs a wide, stable but thinner board and what was easier to surf.

But i guess everything is a bit of a compromise. You gotta catch waves first before you can surf the wave so what surfs good may not necessarily be the best thing for wave catching.

I've just gone 5 inch shorter but 1/2 wider I'll let you know how it goes,tried to reduce length but not too much volume/paddle power.

Hi all well used my rail handle for the first time today ,unfortunately it had a small blow out for those who have them the plastic handle where the rope comes out on either side on each end the plastic blew out about 1/2 inch(12mm ) anyone else had this problem dont think it affects its performance may be just a weak point in the handle itself

Is this the one you have Crispy2

Hi surfbroker yep thats the one linda benson model still works ok just wondered if anyone else had this problem occur

Mine seems ok, although I haven't used it much...might be worth making contact with them to let the manufacturers know there's an issue.
They changed to handle recently..the pic above is the old one.
This pic is the latest one and same as mine.

Hi mate yea i might do that i dont want a new one but maybe there manufacturing process ie:there handle may need to be chnaged ill shoot them of an email and see with a photo .

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obct said..
because Im teaching my daughter on one of my super wide boards that aren't easy for her to carry, I thought I'd have a crack at making one of these yesterday arvo.

I had some 5/16 copper tube (3/8 would have been better)

A 3/8 bending spring (now you know why 3/8 would have been better)

Some mapps gas to anneal the copper tube with (it was Pre-annealed, but that was 20 years ago, minimum)

a length of styrofoam insulation that was originally covering some sort of rod for a babies play pen.

A stick of silver brazing rod, because I thought there may be enough copper to do a continuous loop and join it end to end (there wasn't)

Once I annealed the copper, I got all the old bends and kinks out of it. then using the bending spring, I eyeballed a few curves to suit my extra thick rails and covered the tube with the styrofoam.
Then I found an old bag strap, cut it to length, sealed the ends with the mapps gas, doubled them over and using a soldering iron, I cut holes through the the doubled webbing to suit the tube, and seal at the same time.
Then I threaded the copper through the holed, flattened the ends and bent them over to hold the webbing.



Seems to work and the daughter was pleased when she used it today because we needed to park a long way from the beach



I reckon those store bought ones would work much better than mine, but you know what I'm like, I get really bored and just like having a go at things.

Love your work chief!!

Well sent of an email and have received a reply there going to send me a new one for free hows that ,she asked if i could send some photos to show the manufacturer so i have done so and they say there have been a few but not many have had this problem.

Man..nice to hear of good service, can you put up a pic of the dodgy one so I can see where it failed ?

ill give it a go but not promising anything

Oh ****e, Pieter is making me a new 9'6" x 24" x 3" noserider. 23" wide are my other boards so its going to be tight. Too many low life scum bags around Newcastle to leave anything of value on the beach.
One thing i do is if i am leaving anything of value on the beach i wrap it in a disposable nappy, with a little chocolate rubbed on it. No bastard is game to open that little pack.

Well true to her word got notification a new one is in the mail as of yesterday now thats customer service !