All in all I'd like the board to be both a fun and reliable little devil
Hi Todd….I’m coming out Friday afternoon to get a board ordered, but thought I’d drop you a line to give you some time to put together some thoughts on this project. Ideally, I’d like to get the board by mid-May because I’m taking a short trip to north San Diego county and might have a chance to ride a few waves there. I’d like a board short enough to lay down in the back of my SUV… a 6’10″ barely fits, but more ideally a board in the length of 6’2″ to 6’8″. The board should be versatile enough to be a travel board to ride in beach, reef or point breaks along southern california…maybe knee or waist high to a little overhead?…but I’d also like to be able to ride it in nice conditions at C street and/or fairgrounds in Ventura. As if that doesn’t create enough problems for a shaper, add these. I’m just under 6′ tall, and weigh 175 pounds before you add the wetsuit. I am in fair shape for my age (56)but definitely appreciate some glide and flotation in shorter boards. I primarily ride longboards,but do want to open my versatility in riding different equipment. You shaped me a 7’11″ elipse last year which paddles and glides great without being corky.
I used to ride boards in the 6’6″ to 7′ range, mostly eggs, and some that were shorter, but that was a long time ago. I have a 6’10″ twinzer winged fish shaped at Kane Garden. It is about 22″ wide and two and seven eigth inches thick. It floats and paddles fine, but sometimes rides a little corky, and can feel a little too loose (or not positive enough) in turns unless I really get it on edge. I’ll try to bring it to show you.
Particularly on shorter equipment I tend to weight my front foot a lot on turns. I have a tendency to stand forward even on the twinzer and have to remind myself to step back. I like boards that drive out of turns, but do appreciate the lines that can be drawn out of more modern equipment. I tend toward wider boards and have not found much use in years past for real narrow mini-gun type shapes.
I believe I’ll be real open minded to whatever you suggest (…or am I just confused…), but some of my initial thoughts might be like this. It I went shorter..like 6’2″… maybe a fish type shape would be best to get the advantages of the wide nose and tail in paddling, etc. On the other hand, that new Bullet single fin model seems to offer some interesting prospects in glide and drive given the outline, width configurations, etc.
I haven’t ruled out the Manatee, but not sure how it would be in a beach break scenario. Haven’t ruled out trifins…they seem to go great backside particularly…but I wonder how they would or would not fit my style and need for paddling ability. Probably a lot of other options you might come up with….or, given the task I and asking you to do, maybe you’ll just tell me to go away and leave you alone !
All in all I’d like the board to be both a fun and reliable little devil. Sounds a little impossible. Be interested in what you think. See you soon……………………..Brian Moore.
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Shaper Designed/Detailed Board
Proxy custom Epoxy Lil’ Rascal / Bullet Hybrid
6’4″ x 21″ x 2 7/8″ diamond tail – longboard box install + quad FCS
