Yes! I actually googled "twin fin" to try and spark some ideas. 90% of my results were traditional fish which im not looking for. Not alot of true twin fin results. But of course the MR came up. Honestly the sharpeye got me intrigued because the dims and litterage all matched up to what id normally ride. Sort of completly forgot about the MR. I get excited easily.
I always like the look of this one as well: https://lostsurfboards.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/top-bott-rail_2.jpg
Just a thought....but something that guided my first few shaping decisions: I tried to avoid shaping a board that was similar to one I already had. My thought process was that shaping my own boards was a cheap and fun way to experiment with shapes/dimension/tails/fin setups that were alternatives to boards i already knew i liked. Basically new data points to expand my learning curve on board characteristics. If i knew i liked a 5'10" then shape a 5'5" to see how going shorter would change the performance....i ended up shaping some weird board choices along the way: - a thick 7'1" semi-gun pintail that absolutely sucked in waves under 6 feet but helped me figure out travel boards for big waves - a 2+1 finned 6 foot egg that helped me learn that i dont like single fin shortboards but rode great as a thruster - 4'11" beater type shape that blows me away in soft 2-3 footers. Fastest board had ever ridden at the time. Anyway...you get the point. Maybe consider changing a few variables. Its pretty easy to do considering your boards look nice to me and you can sell the board for what the materials cost to build it.
I agree and that's sort of what I'm aiming for. My first board i just did to see if i could even do it. Second was similar to what id ride but definitely not what id ride for myself. And this third...i havnt ridden a mid length in years. Might get long winded here but this is where my heads at. Last year my quiver was perfect. I have every condition covered. Then they dredged. Normally id ride my mini sims on small days but now if it's low tide, it's a real challenge. So i want somthing short, good paddler, and fast. Same idea as the mini sims just for punchier conditions. Really not sure if a twin is the answer. Id probably end up putting a guitar pick trailer in. But it's a problem id like to solve by creating somthing that'll work. And considering i don't own any twins it's the first thought that came to mind. Definitely need to put some thought into it. But 100% want to di somthing i don't already have. Experiment and step outside my comfort zone
Not going back to Costa this year, doing California's instead. Tickets already bought. Besides, it only cost about 100 bucks to make a board
Nice positive thought, but in reality ain't no one in this treade spending a mere 100 beans to shape a board. Labor....? It's never free. AOC & the 7 SI socialista sistahs will remind you of that bruh Cali's a good call tho
Touche. I thought you'd call me out on that. Your right. But tools are already owned/bought, after 3 boards i have a stock of glass and resin, got pigments and tints. So for my next board all i need is the blank and fin boxes! That'll cost me about 100. Excited for California, never been. Going to fly into Vegas, spend a day there with a buddy who lives there, then drive to big sur for a day or two, then just travel south and let the ocean make my decisions for me. I love CR, was planning on going back but this came up. Although i am tempted to try and pull both off
A wise old shaper once told me, cut some old socks and pull them up over your arms. That way you can wear short sleeves and keep your arms clean.
Genius. Absolutley genius. Going to use that one. I always get a drip or two stuck in my arm hair when reaching or whatever.
This actually reminds me. So this board i went crazy with trying to protect myself from resin. Coveralls, doubled up on gloves, hood, all covered up. I did a good job and didn't get any on me. Finished pulling the resin out of the glass, scratch my face with my forearm. Boom resin in ther beard.
Was just sketching on some graph paper trying to come up with a design, or really just messing with ideas. Im trying to take both Mitchell's advice of doing somthing diffrent and LBs advice early on of keeping the learning curve steep. Im going to spitball here, with a load of questions and opinions are appreciated from all. 1) My original idea waaaay back before i even started shaping was a twin fin. Im a thruster guy. Only quad i like is my minisims, a wide tailed board. Which lead me to believe i wouldn't like a twin too much. The light bulb went off and i had the idea of getting a twin fin but with channels to try and help it grip some. Like i said, this was before i started shaping. Ideas still cooking up there but i think that might be beyond my ability. Definitely somthing I'd like to try at some point though. So i was just sketching. Drew up a 5'5x19.5. Nose is 15" and tail is 14". Wide point is dead center since all my boards have it pushed up. Trying to do diffrent. Swallow tail with the butt crack only being an inch deep, 6 inches tip to tip. Not sure if id go straight twin, twin with a smaller stabilizer, 5 fin to try it all out. Don't know. Don't even know if I'll shape this. Just doodling around. It looked close but somthing was off. Drew it again but added a little wing cut. Now it looks good on paper at least, and way diffrent then anything i own. Think i might be on to somthing but i realized i don't know how to even go about adding wings. Did a quick swaylocks search. I saw guys talking about not putting the wings into the template and shaping them in after the fact. Those guys are insane and hard to follow at times. Any rules of thumb regarding wings? Placement, how deep to make them, how to go about shaping them (especially regarding shaping the rails with that break). Obviously id have to experiment but i have no boards to use as reference, its slow here, talking design is fun, and I'm constantly trying to learn.
Here's what i sketched up, I'm terrible at drawing so excuse my wacko lines. But you'll get the idea.
I line my wings up with the trailing edge of my fins. This way the water releases off the rail directly behind the fin, so the fin works as it should. One thing to keep in mind when shaping in wings is that you don't want to notch out behind the fin and change the rail line's angle. The rail line should be parallel in front of and behind the wing... just set inward more. Make sense? I draw my planshape on the blank per my dims, then pull the template up to an inch to make the wing. When I re-draw the tail behind the wing, I have two parallel lines from the wing to the swallow tip. I usually go 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch in for a wing. That pulls the tail in 1 to 1 1/2 inches behind the wing... which is pretty significant.
Thanks LB. That makes sense. So considering what you just said id imagine when it comes to the rails, the hard edge on the bottom starts from the wing down? Also, you'r cutting out the wing when you cut your outline? Or are you using that outside parallel line, shaping, then cut out the wing. The swaylocks guys really confused me on this one.
Everybody's got their own way... but I shape the board using the outside line, then cut the wing after I turn the rails. I flip the board over so it's bottom up, the put the template back on the board to make my parallel line inside the existing outline. Check symmetry, cut the wing, then flip it over and round off/blend the deck side rail. I usually start my tucked edge about 8 inches ahead of my rail fins, so it's fairly hard, but still slightly tucked, at the wing. Behind the wing the edge is hard and untucked.
Thanks LB. That was explained alot better then everything else i saw. Think i will definitely do some wings on ther next one, even if its just for the sake of doing somthing new. This at least gives me a starting point to figure things out from.
