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.