Starboard RB strap is the go. Low profile n stomp flat easily.

yep your onto it olskool. when it's done i'd be keen for you to see how the board works for you. i'll bring a bunch of bigger boards to try

Cool, thanks dude. Something new to try right on my doorstep.

quick update on the board.

i ordered 2L of changeclimate bio epoxy resin. - got that from an art shop.
plus ordered the foam. which i ended up getting from a building supply company.

next week have a meeting at DCPaddleboards to hand over the file and foam and chat about what best suits their work flow. spoke with dale a couple of times so far to confirm min foam block size for his mill.

the finished blank cost will be approx $275. the price is driven by foam density. the lighter the foam the cheaper it is. lighter foam however needs more expensive layups so swings and roundabouts.

pretty much finished the design for V2. a performance orientated shape with rocker loosely based on the simmer quantum. pretty loose though i changed a fair bit.

bottom is rolled v in the nose with chines > shallow double inside single through the middle > double v in the tail. trying ideas from surfing.
2350x700x145 - 135lt

Here Gesalt - check footstrap at 47 min ....

thanks seabreezer.
that's exactly what i was looking for. great vid too.

i found the Armstrong straps at WAsurf. They also had another option made by Axis. both made for lying on or standing on.

Got the foam, 2lt of resin, some carbon and about 30m of volan.

Blank should be cut by end of week and I'm picking up some paulownia to mount the boxes in

Photo below of the stuff before shaping.

Spent a few hours at the dc paddle board factory today. Met Dale. Went and grabbed a burger at lunch with him. Fun day.













Now to hand finish the blank.

Great to get the board "cut"
I have a production sup his design, I like it.

Select to expand quote

515 said..
Great to get the board "cut"
I have a production sup his design, I like it.

he seem to be really onto it with sups. has dc surfboards too..
watching the whole process was really eye opening for me. even while my board was being cut he had other customers in and around the shop watching what he was doing. really open to people seeing what he is doing.

I grabbed some more images of the blank tonight. Shows the bottom contours and rails after the cnc process in better detail. Have also started on a graphic design and gotten some paint. Got. more tools as well. Burfords is around the corner from dc so I grabbed a decent pair of scissors and a squeegee

Keen to keep things moving I organized to meet Peter Nitschke at his NXS factory next Friday on the condition its not windy... lol. I have to hand finish the blank in the next 5 days as well which will be pushing things.

So next step after the blank is done is to take the board to peter where he'll look at the design a little closer and install the boxes for me. He's also gone through some construction tips and has the paulownia and other hardware needed.

Peter was in part the catalyst for the project. i had been talking to him for over a year about building some boards in my back yard and hand laminating them. Recently he asked me to help him with his 3d files and I saw his 120lt wave board and things went from there.

While discussing the idea with Peter, I asked if he would be ok with me getting a blank cut and laminating the board if he helped with the boxes and construction advice along the way. He was keen. So the project began.

Peter has been a friend for a very long time and would normally just build my boards to his shape, or my shape or something in between. I met him 30 years ago through my high school windsurfing program and worked for him for a bit after that and sailed his gear competitively after that. In short he has built all my custom boards over the last 30 years. For me it wouldn't be right if he wasn't involved in some way. We have had many many conversations about board design and construction over the years and he's always keen to try ideas

Latest update.
Have sanded the deck, removed the 4 rods left by cnc process, begun tidying up the tail and nose and removed the seam around the rail left by the cnc process.

The rods were difficult to remove accurately. I took a lot of time to get that right so I didn't take away to much foam.

Whilst the cnc process is very accurate on the bottom contours and deck it can't get the rails to the same resolution as the 3d file so they will need to be hand shaped to get the tuck and roll working as designed. Basically the rails come out of the cnc process Harder than designed. So that means I need a proper shaping stand to be able to rest the board on its side to get the rails accurate. I've got an idea for an attachment to my horses made from scrap in the garage.

Been trying different sanding mediums. Love the 150 grit plasterers mesh.

Still need to smooth out the rail/deck transition, plus nose and tail and finish the bottom but the blank is getting there.

The thing that has surprised me is how small the board looks. Thats the first win. Not sure how that will translate to the waves yet.

Photos or it didn't happen.

Great work.
Keep the updates coming

re attachment to saw horses:

Make a U shape with wood that can be attached with a G-clamp.
Then a strip of carpet to line it, left loose at the bottom (doesn't touch the wood at the bottom so carpet cradles the board. Just glued or stapled on the top surface

Select to expand quote

Mark _australia said..
re attachment to saw horses:

Make a U shape with wood that can be attached with a G-clamp.
Then a strip of carpet to line it, left loose at the bottom (doesn't touch the wood at the bottom so carpet cradles the board. Just glued or stapled on the top surface

thx mark. that;s the go. i've got some left over ply and an f clamp.

Select to expand quote

515 said..
Great work.
Keep the updates coming

will do.
have marked the rails ready for sanding.

Select to expand quote

Carantoc said..
I reckon that what you want in such a board is not so much early planning but 'glide'. Kinda the same thing maybe, but the 'glide' allows you pickup waves earlier as opposed to a sail powering you onto the plane earlier. More length and less width helps here (in both cases). But a stubby is then much better when on the wave.

Experimentally :

Extra rear footstrap offset and forward of where a 'normal' strap would be (on the bottom turn rail side). Plenty of boards had them back in the day. Asymmetric rear straps might be the terminology.

Stepped rails. Not stepped longitudinally along the board at the hips, but when you look at the rail in profile it steps in such that at the waterline it is sharp and thin (sharp enough to shave with), but then also enables the thickness to be in the board above. Sort of like a reverse cutout, but much longer along the rail, if that makes sense

Very pronounced increase in thickness under the backfoot (kinda like a hump), to allow you to get as much leverage as possible from your toes and heel when riding slowly

Channels. Big, deep, hard edged channels. Maximum grip in turns, minimum fin area for drag. Then have a tri-fin (3 equal fin) setup, rigid chord, flex tips, the old Kalama Black-tip style (or flexy K4s).

I am pretty sure this would look like a radical custom board from about 1989. Except shorter, wider and with a bigger volume. Maybe I am just too old and fat ?

No you're not, you are spot on! I'm in shape but I have a few spots where you have to cross a channel or take off next to a wind obstructing jetty and I'll always opt for windsurfing if I see a side-off opportunity. So being able to stall comfortably or troll slowly for waves is a much more enjoyable session. Not to mention in light winds you might have to uphaul. I'm shaping a shlogger board myself right now.
The old RRD Firemoves 4-5 years ago, Green in color. were pretty close. Except one huge flaw which was the front straps weren't on the center line. Also, would of killed for Quad or thruster setup on those boards. I like your Evo shape and most of the ideas you are incorporating.

Select to expand quote

Shlogger said..

Carantoc said..
I reckon that what you want in such a board is not so much early planning but 'glide'. Kinda the same thing maybe, but the 'glide' allows you pickup waves earlier as opposed to a sail powering you onto the plane earlier. More length and less width helps here (in both cases). But a stubby is then much better when on the wave.

Experimentally :

Extra rear footstrap offset and forward of where a 'normal' strap would be (on the bottom turn rail side). Plenty of boards had them back in the day. Asymmetric rear straps might be the terminology.

Stepped rails. Not stepped longitudinally along the board at the hips, but when you look at the rail in profile it steps in such that at the waterline it is sharp and thin (sharp enough to shave with), but then also enables the thickness to be in the board above. Sort of like a reverse cutout, but much longer along the rail, if that makes sense

Very pronounced increase in thickness under the backfoot (kinda like a hump), to allow you to get as much leverage as possible from your toes and heel when riding slowly

Channels. Big, deep, hard edged channels. Maximum grip in turns, minimum fin area for drag. Then have a tri-fin (3 equal fin) setup, rigid chord, flex tips, the old Kalama Black-tip style (or flexy K4s).

I am pretty sure this would look like a radical custom board from about 1989. Except shorter, wider and with a bigger volume. Maybe I am just too old and fat ?

No you're not, you are spot on! I'm in shape but I have a few spots where you have to cross a channel or take off next to a wind obstructing jetty and I'll always opt for windsurfing if I see a side-off opportunity. So being able to stall comfortably or troll slowly for waves is a much more enjoyable session. Not to mention in light winds you might have to uphaul. I'm shaping a shlogger board myself right now.
The old RRD Firemoves 4-5 years ago, Green in color. were pretty close. Except one huge flaw which was the front straps weren't on the center line. Also, would of killed for Quad or thruster setup on those boards. I like your Evo shape and most of the ideas you are incorporating.

extra length has been a popular direction for sure. it does help getting onto the wave. i've got longer boards too. my current longer boards are 9'8 and 9'2 wave sups . which ironically was around the length of my first custom short board back in the 90's

my take is once on the wave a shorter board performs better. with this board i was trying to keep it short because of how that effects its surfing potential. the diamond tail is also helping reduce the rail length so the board feels shorter than it is.

i also didn't want to go overly wide. aiming to keep it under 70cm. so that meant the board is quite thick. i also have a 240x72 125lt board. am looking for a touch more volume and more wave bias.

The idea here was to apply a mini simmons approach but tweak to suit contemporary ideas. fingers crossed it works. it might fail on the first bottom turn lol or just not be long and wide enough for the purpose.

i guess the closest board conceptually is the quatro super mini but now the board is shaped it looks like a naish lol.

Got the shaping stand built today.

95% there. Still need to harden the diamond tail and remove some more volume from the rails between the straps plus run over the whole blank with finish grade sanding.

Need to order q cells, 240 grit sanding mesh and rail tape from shapers.

The rail is hard for the first 300mm from the tail then runs into a 9mm tuck near the mast. Apex is typically 25mm with 12-18mm through the tail. Rails are pretty full through the middle of the board.

The more effort I put into the board the more I'd like it to last so ill probably try and make it stronger than planned.

Nice man :)

Nobody likes turning rails.....its the hardest part and you're nailing it

Select to expand quote

Mark _australia said..
Nice man :)

Nobody likes turning rails.....its the hardest part and you're nailing it

thx Mark.
i'm well outside my comfort zone now as that's my first attempt shaping rails. i'm going to cut a paper template from the cad file and see how close i got to the design.

i finished the rail today, thinned the tail and added a little bit more depth to the concaves.

next step is the Qcell. Peter at NXS suggested it is needed to seal the core to keep resin weight down. Was reading it is used to strengthen the core as well. tip was to apply with a spatula. i'll laminate the carbon rail tape before the Qcell so the carbon is hidden prior to painting.

Was wondering if anyone has any tips an tricks with Qcell?

Yes but it will still soak a little resin so mix it a smidge runnier than you think you will need. As you move it around with squeegee it sort of thickens a bit as foam sucks the resin out.
Make sure its dust free first with a good blow or lots of vacuuming with a brush.

Biggest one - don't leave ridges as you wont be able to sand it. It will sand away foam instead of q-cell bog and make it bumpy as hell. Thus, make sure if you are going to fill, that you smooth every last bit of it perfectly.
To that end, put a drip of black tint or a pinch of graphite in, so your filler is not pure white and you can see it well on the blank.

thx mark.

does anyone have any tips on drawing curves.

i downloaded a french curve and hip ruler template for future boards. i had some issues getting a nice curve to the tuck drawn on the board.
last time i saw rails getting shaped the shaper used the boards templates to draw the rail tuck curve. as my boards are cnc cut there are no templates to trace.

does anyone know where i can buy large french curves from at local shops.

Mark the rail tuck with a square, say in about 6 - 8 places

Then you need the outline template to draw the tuck line all the way, but it won't quite match anyway as its slightly different curve to the board outline. Thus, just get the blank and use it as a template to draw along with a pencil onto 3mm MDF and cut it out. Then use that to draw the rail tuck curve - but it will always be a bit segmented and not a perfect curve so you sand the rail to the marks you measured, not the actual line the template gave you..... but its a help when you're between points.
Hmmm does that make sense...?

"The more effort I put into the board the more I'd like it to last so ill probably try and make it stronger than planned."

Hey Gestalt, what materials/construction methods are you going to do now?
Being a light wind wave board its probably not built to be indestructible for high flat landings but some sandwich construction?
In terms of q cell mix straight on the foam I see the point but think its more about having the glass wet out but not more resin than necessary. Pin holes can be filled.
Rails look great! Keep the good work and progress coming

Select to expand quote

Mark _australia said..
Mark the rail tuck with a square, say in about 6 - 8 places

Then you need the outline template to draw the tuck line all the way, but it won't quite match anyway as its slightly different curve to the board outline. Thus, just get the blank and use it as a template to draw along with a pencil onto 3mm MDF and cut it out. Then use that to draw the rail tuck curve - but it will always be a bit segmented and not a perfect curve so you sand the rail to the marks you measured, not the actual line the template gave you..... but its a help when you're between points.
Hmmm does that make sense...?

thx,

yeah that's what i did. multiple point and joined the dots.
i might make a hip curve ruler. seems it would be handy to have.

Select to expand quote

515 said..
"The more effort I put into the board the more I'd like it to last so ill probably try and make it stronger than planned."

Hey Gestalt, what materials/construction methods are you going to do now?
Being a light wind wave board its probably not built to be indestructible for high flat landings but some sandwich construction?
In terms of q cell mix straight on the foam I see the point but think its more about having the glass wet out but not more resin than necessary. Pin holes can be filled.
Rails look great! Keep the good work and progress coming

thx.

so no sandwich construction. i'm using a more traditional layup. because of that used a higher density core.
i was originally just going to do 2 layers of volan top and 1 layer bottom like a longboard. build it, test it, and start again.

but... now.

deck
2 layers 6oz volan
6oz volan patch to nose
carbon patch to mast track
0.6mm timber patch to footstraps

Rails
100mm carbon uni rail tape

Bottom
1 layer 6 oz volan + 1 layer 4 oz glass

also, rail will be cut lap.