Sub 4 foot board

I've been thinking about this for a bit now and I ordered enough foam to give it a shot. On the 1# density foam boards...of which I don't have any decent pictures, they were very bouyant. I'm sure that everyone that has ridden for more than a year knows the phenomenon of being able to size down and ride a smaller board with some mileage.

This board is 4'5" LOA. I believe that the same shape with a blunted nose could be made around 3'10".

I am going to try a 3'11" board...motly just to say it's sub 4'

I have outlined the areas that I believe aren't used when I ride this board...I won't take it down that far, but 6" off the nose I think will be easy.

Here's my 4 foot board.

2 x 4 It was also a flextail if I'm not mistaken

Outline and rocker cut. I'm going to wrap wrap the rails with h-80 - similar to placebo flexlite.

LOA is 3'11"

Hey Ed,

How about the ugliest stick contest?!

Rails done and a slight concave on the bottom.



(Message edited by surfdad on February 15, 2008)

Where did you get your foam?

i got mine at the foam factory , i bought 8 sheets for 78.00 delivered. 2x4x1 2lb.. hope to start project soon.

Jeff - I love the spackle work on that one.
If you glass it up without any more sanding on that - you'll definitely win!

I'm thinking that it will ride just fine. Who knows, you might be kickin some shuvs on that thing soon.

Hey Ronnie - I got several billets from WNC foam. They are great folks. Matt you've talked with them before, right?

http://wncsurf.com/

Salty - that's a killer deal! Are you a realtive or what?! What are you going to build?

You like the spackle BLOB's Matt? I don't know the shape just looks horrid to me. I swear I set it on the rack to shape and thought to myself - Really? Do I really want to ride that? What is that old saying? It's a shape only a mother could love!

Let's post up some pics on Surfer Magazine and see what Frank Booth has to say

Jeff - yes the spackle patches and blobs give it a special touch...

Yes, I've talked with the WNC guys - they are really nice. For now, I've got my foam from www.univfoam.com in blocks and have been cutting with hotwire.

LOL! Just in case I wasn't SURE that it was ugly, I could get his unbiased opinion? Great idea Ed, but honestly, I'm pretty confident that it is the ugliest shape ever.

I do love a good special ed - err, I mean just special touch. I got my first order of EPS fron Universal - that's the one that got lost in shipping. Good quality foam, the minimum dollar order is the only down side.

Maybe we could name the board after him. The Frank Booth Special?

Don't you mean the personality disorder special?

Ready for a skin...I'm not sure if I want to do top or bottom first. I want to wrap the rails with d-cell...so some planning time is in order.

From the Placebo site, the board that Josh Sleigh rides.



This is the construction methodology I want to employ. We've done everything but wrap the rails with d-cell. The OLD STYLE d-cell, as well as corecell and rohacell won't bend to that extreme without an oven/autoclave...it snaps. I don't have that heating ability in my driveway.

The new style d-cell will bend around a 1/8" radius - it's pretty amazing. I think that I will laminate the bottom skin and then the top skin next, trimming the excess after the lamination.

Jeff ,
I plan to make a copy of the trickboards that i have , the foam i got is 1 inch thick and hope it can bend some for the concave it will need and i plan to run a twin fin system on it.

Don't let your kids see these......

Look at the little rippers! Is that your family Billy? Very handsome. I like the kid sized boards...so much easier for them to learn and progress on. I don't think I've ever seen a kid specific board. My wife, Judy is very petite...4'11" and MAYBE 100 pounds with a PFD on. She really needs a smaller board like this.

Hey Salty, that should be a sweet build. What fin set up to you plan to use? Will it be a surfboard removable fin like FCS or Futures, or will you go with a wakeboard style fin?

i think i will go with rainbow surfdog fins from the mojo i have , dont want to spend the $ if the board dont work right,

Nice looking little grom board Billy!

gracias..the smallest board is 38" callin it the t-38 after the trainer jet and the other one is 3"11 surfed by a 14 year old 100 lb girl team rider.the 5'1 is a custom for olympic snow boarder ross powers.and yes,i wore out ross'new board before i sent it to him.heheheh

I decided on Carbon, just because I love the look

this carbon ride has timeless style jeff.well done..i guess the main reason theres not any mainstream kid specific boards is because the aku shaper wont shape down past 4'11"..

Thanks Billy,

Oh! I didn't realize that...I just always assumed it was a market issue...that the market wasn't big enough to justify making them that small. So, is ASC the only manuacturer to offer kid sized wakesurfers?

oh yeah, the market issue.lol.anyways besides that.as far as i know im the only one offering an entire line of kid customs,paddle boards and mini long boards with flex fins for the kiddies.the response has been huge for these.same goes for my new custom skim that debuts in the next wakesurf mag buyers guide.

Are you doing a skim? Cool...I'll keep an eye out for it.

All sealed up - I sanded the rails a bit - hence the fingerprints

Without fin boxes or traction it weighs 29.1 oz. I believe that two futures rail boxes will add about 4 oz, so that's 33 oz +/- or 2 pounds 1 oz?! Sheesh, makes me nervous to ride it like that.

I'll ride it , send it my way. hahahah

You're funny Mark! I get first dibs...if it breaks into pieces, I'll send the remains up, ok?

Ready to ride - check my rattle can art work fin boxes installed and the final weight is 31.8 oz. A sub 2 pound board! Sheesh.

I will be moving to the lake in 2 weeks then i can start to build some boards when the weather gets to 70

Hey Mark, keep us posted on your builds!

I finally got a chance to take the 3'11" board out. It rode well, and allowed me to carve a bit harder without catching the nose in the flats.

James didn't like it, mentioning that it was just too short for his stance.

As an experiment, I think it's cool that at 180 pounds I am able to ride a 3'11" EPS/Carbon board.

That's amazing. We're (second person singular) making and riding boards so small that we're stance limited.

looking good jeff!

i like the artwork as well.

Looks good, what lake is that?

Ed you are too funny with your grammatical syntax. I didn't have any problem with the length, but it does feel weird to look down and not see anything at the nose

Matt you are too kind - the rattle can art is HORRENDOUS but it's better than nothing.

Byron that's New Hogan - up in Valley Springs.

Cool. We are supposed to be camping there in a few weeks with some freinds.

My kids love the little boards pictured above. If they get into it I may have to buy or build one.
Ed, if you build a shorty and it doesn't work out for ya, I have some kids that may take it off your hands.

Joe, I'll probably never buy another surfboard. Making them is too much fun. I'm done building boards for the season and my wife is delighted. Next winter I plan to build a prize board for the 2009 Crush the Ice for Life event benefitting the ACS. Next season also I want to try working with a hot wire and EPS like Jeff and Matt have been doing. Saving blank shipping costs would be awesome.

If you wanted to take a look at the board build process I'd be happy to have you over but again, it will have to wait until next winter.

I have a small Trick Boardz demo board that I'd be happy to put in your hands for a while. I've found that the Trick Boardz, boards have been very good for teaching, especially youngsters and sub 100 pound surfers.

I have a few boards in my quiver. You know you have an open invitation to ride with my crew

I should be starting my season this Saturday Woo Hoo!

Joe,

If I may...my son is 16 now, but we shaped our first wakesurfers as a father/son project when James was 10 I think. James had some wild ideas with his - triple wings, pin stripes...seriously cool, if not functional. The time we spent learning about ployester resin, fiberglass how to install fins...those are some of the most treasured memories I have. The final product won't be as good as anything you can buy, but there is probably nothing that can replace that first ever voyage when your kids get up on the board they made with dad!

Wakesurfing and shaping offers so much in the way of family values...and the result will be MORE than adequate as they are learning.

I'd love to see a thread of you and the kids building!

As many know, Judy is quite petite and she's also a fairweather wakesurfer. We had air temps in the 90's, I believe yesterday, so Judy took the plunge. I had to share this photo of Judy on the 3'11" Look where she is riding. She's riding in the flats. She didn't blast down the face into the flats, she's just cruising along out there. I've seen Judy do this before and also Kayley Gordon. I'm sure that it's light weight combined with a "too big board." In Judy's situation a 3'11" x 19" x 1.5" is more board than she needs!