The last from Leven

I think all the pics from the archives so far have been from a couple days at Leven. I'II have a dig around and find some shots that I took on a trip with the boys to Ireland a couple years ago, some good uns' there. :)

Been pretty busy in the last few weeks, completed another board (the 5'10") which I'm totally stoked with but more on that later....

This shot is of Luke from out Bantham way, not an amazing pic in terms of action but the light is good and the whole pic just has a good 'feel' to it.

Ride report....

I surfed the 6' a few times last week, everything from 2ft gutless crap to solid 5ft Fistral. It went well, not amazing but it surfed pretty good.

The first thing I realised was their was just too much volume and it just wasn't foiled out enough. I also thought that I had taken enough off the rails to make them pretty sharp but they weren't sharp enough, I could feel that it just wasn't responsive enough coming off the bottom and on top turns.

I was only able to use it as a twinny as I still haven't got a trailing fin yet and one time I noticed the need for the trailing fin was at Fistral, the two big fins had lots of hold but the back just felt a little twitchy. Interesting to see Dane Reynolds using a 2+1 set up in France...

So here I am with a board which I am happy with but its not really blowing my mind, only one thing for it....build another!!!!! :)

Picked up a blank from TriOcean yesterday and it took me a total of 2.5 hrs this morning to shape another board. Everything just kinda clicked and I've felt that Ive really made progress with my shaping.

Dimensions on this one are 5'10" x 19 1/4" x 2 3/8", the outline is very similar to the 6" but I've corrected everything which I felt needed doing. The foil is now more pronouced, the single concave is a little deeper and Ive also extended the double concaves further back and also shortening the flicked out Vee in the tail. Ohh and the best thing about this new board is the rails, fairly low (60/40) and nice and sharp.

Just laminated the bottom this evening and gonna do the top in the morning ready to install the fin boxes when the arrive on Tuesday.

I'II keep this blog updated on how its going and add some more pics at some point.

Lloydy @ Leven 07'

I met up with Lloydy quite a bit shooting all over the place from Lynmouth to Leven and a few other secret spots with the goal of getting a good barrel shot. Getting barrel shots in the UK really isn't an easy thing to do and this was one of the 'nearlys' we got.

Part 6 - 6' MR - Leash plug and sand

Just completed the deck hot coat and also fitted the leash plug today and thats pretty much it. The hotcoat is pretty damn smooth so all I'II start sanding with 240 and probably finish it with 600.
I've gotta wait for Lokbox Mik to get some tasty fibreglass fins in stock which will be aroung the end of the month but that should give the board long enough to cure...
I'II add pics of the completed board and give a ride report in a couple weeks. :)

Part 5 - 6' MR - Hot coat

Got up fairly early and decided to do the bottom hot coat before taking the dog out etc.
Well I guess it was a little too early and I wasn't really thinking straight when I mixed up the Cat and resin and smacked the hot coat on went back inside to have my breakfast. Sat there eating my Crunchy Nut I was sure their was something wrong.....I forgot to add the wax in Styrene!!!!
I chucked my shitty clothes back on ran into the garage, checked to see if it had kicked and it was still wet so I just dumped a load of Acetone on it and ragged it off.
I only had 600ml of Iso left so I had to drive all the way down to Seabase to pick up another Kg to redo the hot coat, got back and put the hot coat on again with no probs.

While I was down Seabase I couldnt help but pick up another blank, its a 6'2" Parabolic shortboard blank, best thing about it was it only cost £19.90! Happy days!!
Dunno what I'm gonna do with it though, I'm not really bothered about surfing thruster shortboards anymore so this may be a new board for my nephew.

Part 4 - 6' MR - Instaling the fin boxes

Pretty happy with how the laminating went, I've sanded down the laps and I've just installed the fin boxes.
I'm going to use Lokbox RSC side fins with a RS2 trailer. I marked out the fin box placement and to be honest it looks pretty strange, very clumped together compared to thrusters but everything I have been told and I've read says thats just how they are supposed to look so I'm just going to run with that.
I've added 3/16" toe and 5 degrees cant.

A while ago I decided that the Lokbox system was the way to go and invested in the Lokbox jig. The big selling point for me was being able to move your fin placement forward or back which makes a huge difference to how the board rides. The fin boxs are really strong which means they wont get ripped out like FCS plugs.

Couple pics from before and after laminating.

Part 3 - 6" MR - Laminating

I just made a few finishing touches to the shaping today, just cleaned it up and took a bit more of the rails. My initial intentions was to have really hard sharp performance rails but even using a profile gauge I've found it really hard to know when I need to take more off and when to stop, guess that will come with a bit more experience though.

I'm using Iso X7 resin and glass both from Seabase. The resin is what I have left over from making my 5'5" and was already mixed with SunCure so I laminated the bottom THEN figured out I didnt have enough left for the deck lamination. My main reason for using Suncure so far is that it gives you plenty of time to play about and takes all the pressure off compared to using MEKP, I had about a litre of X7 left so I decided that it was time to do my first lamination with MEKP.

I've been timing myself when using Suncure and I did the bottom lam in 12 mins so I should of been fairly confident but I still had a rush of adrenalin as I added the catalyst to the resin but I suprised myself and everything went really well. I did the deck lam in 14 mins and did quite a good job!

Really happy with the way things have gone on this board so far, I've made a couple mistakes but nothing drastic.

Gonna instal the Lokbox fin boxes tomorrow. :)

Part 2 - 6' MR - Shaping

So far I've only used Xtra blanks from TriOcean. I'm using a 6'5" fish blank which is the 'Bunty' shape they sell which has alot less rocker than their standard fish blank.

The second pic show the outline cut with the edges squared up. As soon as I did this I could really see just how much different this board was going to be compared with the stubby fish style boards I have been using. Looks a nice shape though...well it was good enough for MR so its gotta be good enough for MM!

Next was putting the foil and rocker in, nothing too drastic with either really, rocker was kinda in between a standard shortboards and a fish.
Its foiled in the center of the board where its 2 3/8" thick.
I've put a Vee in the wings on the tail which really thins it out but thats only in the last 3 " of the board.
The shot of the boards foil is nose down! ;)

I was gonna stop for the day after putting the Vee in but just couldnt help cutting the rail bands and unleasing the shapers gauze, thats gotta be be the best part of shaping a surfboard!
The rails are pretty sharp and performance orientated, a profile gauge was used to copy some rails from a Simon Anderson shortboard.
I also added my concaves in, a single concave starts just after the entry rocker and that goes into a double concave between the fins, it all needs a good tidy with just a couple lumps and bumps to iron out but all in all I'm pretty stoked on how its gone.

May do a bit more tomorrow, looks like the North coast is gonna be pumping though so I may have to take a little drive. :)

Part 1 - 6' MR- From start to finish

The few surfs I've had on my 5'5" twinny have been amazing, really good but I need an all round board for surfing any decent swells over 3 foot.

I made this template up on AKU shaper (with a little help from Jimo), its taken from a MR Super Twin but I've just reduced the width and pinched it in in a few places. Its gonna be 6' x 19 1/2" x 2 3/8" with fairly hard performance rails, single to double concaves into a Vee in the last few inches of the tail. Its going to have Lokbox RSC twin fins with a trailing fin.

I've heard alot about these MR shapes, the people I know that have one really rate them but for me its a matter of finding a good balance of modern day performance without loosing that really nice twinny feel.

Work starts tomorrow!

Black and white...

Ben Howey paddling out early in the morning at Leven a couple years ago.

Where I've been and where I'm going....

About 18 months ago I packed in surfing, I just had enough, the crowds the poor quality waves that we always seemed to get and new found love for analogue photography all prompted me to sell my boards and to move on, forget surfing and do what normal people do.

Looking back on it photography was such a big part of this downward spiral. Surf fitness is such a huge part of surfing that most of us take it for granted and the more shooting I was doing the less surf fit I became. When I jumped back on my 6'2" shortboard everything was so much harder and surfing just wasn't fun anymore.

I think I surfed twice last winter though, both times on my longboard (the only board I kept) in about 2 ft surf and had a great time. Then last April I went out again and came to my senses....I needed to surf again!

My standard surfboard has always been pretty similar to everyone elses, ever since 87' I've always ridden shortboard thrusters somewhere between 6' and 6'4". This is what all the guys were riding in the videos, all my mates were surfing them and when I went to a shaper for a new board this was what he told me to use ( 'albeit this years latest design which surfs mush amazingly!')

But with my fitness not at its best so I decided to go for something a little different. Their was something about these retro twin keel fish that I liked though, the thickness would certainly help but I also liked the idea of just cruising around and just surfing how I wanted to surf and not always aiming to hit the lip or do big turns. With this in mind I bought a 6' x 21" x 2.5" Black and White twinny and the thing flies, I mean it really flies like nothing I've ever surfed before, it was just what I needed.

So this is it, almost like starting afresh as far as board design is concerned. I've now made two boards which in itself has taught me more about board design than what I've learnt in the last twenty years. Although I may shape a thruster at some point my sights are set more towards alternative board design. Nothing to way out or freaky but I suppose my goal is to make surfboards which I think will surf well at my local beach, something which performs but most importantly something which puts a huge grin on my face and makes me stoked to be back in the water again!

I'm playing about with a couple designs on AKU and I'II add them in good time. One thing is for sure though....Foam is definately your friend!!

Another classic Leven day 2/2/07

This day was the straw the broke the camels back for me as far as surf photography was concerned. It really was classic Leven conditions with really good light and 4 ft and offshore, these days were so rare and after this days shooting I just wanted to shoot perfect waves with good light all the time but sadly this is the UK.
Think this was the day that me and Ratman met up with Lloydy and Raff, good times.
1st pic Rat in a hole, 2nd pic Porthleven main peak.

5'5" performance twinny.....

Sooooo stoked on this board, just finished it yesterday.
5'5" x 21 x 2.5 with single concave all the way through going out to a flicked out Vee on the tail.
I just wanted a board that could grovel in the worst of it but still manage to hit a lip and after its first real test drive today it definately does that!
Never gone this small on a board though, smallest board I've ever ridden in the past was a 5'9" RNF that I took to Oz years ago but this little twinny surfs nothing like that. It hasnt got the twitchyness that the RNF had, its a very front foot orientated board which has loads of volume to make up for its length but the Vee in the tail makes it very responsive on turns.
Looking forward to testing it in different conditions though and I'm pretty sure I'm going to play with some variations of this template in the future.

Porthleven 17/2/07

Couple pics from the hardrive from Leven a couple years ago. Seems a shame to hide em' away so I'II add some pics in between posts on board building.

5'10 keel fish

This is the first board I have ever made, board number one, 5'10" x21" x2.5" single to Vee with Lokbox Zippys fins. After weeks of research going through endless threads on Swaylocks, watching mind numbing video clips on YouTube and running my phone bill up by yapping to a mate who knows a bit, this was the end result.....
It surfs ok but not great. I reckon I thinned it out a little too much and looking at it now it has too much rocker.
ALOT learnt in making this board though.