Getting ready for summer...

This winter, in Ventura County, we had lots of great surf, but Spring is here and with Summer just around the corner it was time to build a small-wave longboard.

This is my Classic Model, at least its the latest iteration of the Classic. For 2015 I've moved the widepoint behind center, giving the shape a more "Pig-ish" look and feel. The rails are pinched 60/40 with no tucked edge. The bottom has a blended, half-length nose concave that becomes slightly convex in the middle, and then transitions into a rolled panel-V in the tail. The rocker is fairly flat to match up with the small flat waves we have here in the summer. The NR is 4" and the TR is 3-5/8"

This blank had a couple of tiny surface holes caused by air bubbles, so my first choice of a resin tint color was not to be. Instead< we went with this "Dejon" yellow opaques, with red and black pinlines. Glassing schedule was 6oz + 6oz deck, and 6oz bottom.

The board's dimensions are 9'6" 17-1/4" x 23" x 15-5/8"  3" 79L. At 19lbs the board has the heft of a proper noserider to it, largely due to the 3/8" redwood stringer. Finished off with a through fin-box leash loop and True Ames 9.5" Velzy Nose Rider fin, the board performs as as well as it looks.

Kirt's Classic...

I really enjoy being challenged by my customers. It gets me out of my comfort zone, and spices things up. As much as I appreciate the classic look of a coke-bottle-green noserider, you can only do so many solid resin tints before it gets, well, boring. I can always rely upon customer Kirt to stir things up, and his request for this 9-3 Classic Model was no exception.

This 9-3 x 23" x 3-1/8" round-pin single-fin, has 50/50 rails, half-length nose concave and extraordinary resin work by Ray Lucke. The board was done with a multi-colored, reversed-lap deck and solid blue tint bottom inlay. A double pinline on the bottom neatly cleans things up.

To get a glimpse of the complicated process required to produce this very special lamination work go here. Ray and I have been building boards together for over 4yrs and I think this definitely one of the best that we've done. We'd love to build your next board. Challenge us!

Introducing the V-Pig...

In 1966 Nat Young won the World Surfing Championship on a 9-2 longboard, which was almost a foot shorter than the other competitors. Surfers around the world took notice, and immediately began to shorten their equipment. In 1968, an Australian shaper names Bob McTavish added an extreme V-tail to his already shortened (8'10") board, and was able to greatly reduce the radius of his turns. This shortened turning radius led to more across-trimline surfing and eventually to the vertical surfing style we see today. This board is an exploration of those early design features, and is inspired by other modern examples of this shape, such as the Gene Cooper's V-2, Ryan Lovelace's V-Bowls and Steve Boehne's Aussie '68. When my customer, Kirt, saw a couple of these, he immediately recognized the potential and just had to have one.

The main goal of this design was to build a small-wave noserider, that turns on a dime, feels lively under foot, but still offers good noseriding. Starting with the basic wide-point behind center Pig outline, I shrunk the length to 8-10 and added some width in the tail and nose. The rails are slightly pinched, 50/50 with just a touch of down rail in the last 6". I started the extreme V  about 39" from the tail and maintained it all the way out the tail. This V adds almost an inch of rocker at the rail, and is the key to quick, flowing turns. A 2/3-length concave on the bottom enhances noseriding.

And here is the V-Pig in the eager hands of its owner (and co-conspirator) Kirt.

This is a good shot showing the extreme "V"

All V-Bottoms need a thin, flexy fin. Kirt chose a True Ames Velzy Classic

Summer salvation...

I'm calling this 10-0 Classic the "White Knight" because it's white and its going to save me from the summer-time dragons. Made of 2-lb EPS with a solid 4oz+4oz+4oz S-glass deck and 4oz+4oz S-cloth bottom, this board is light (only 17.5lbs!!) and strong.

This 10'0" Classic is 18" x 23-1/4" x 15-1/2"  3-1/4" 83.4L Blank was sealed with epoxy and micro-balloons, and then laminated with a whisper of white resin tint, giving the board a slightly opaque look. The board also sports the new "Thomas Patrick" logo on the rails, with little pointy pinline gizmos just to spice things up. 

Finally, I added my old, trusty red TA Velzy Noserider Fin. 

Took it out this weekend at Mondo's which is the acid test for small-wave, summertime LBs. Had no trouble paddling into weak, waist-high peelers, or making slalom turns through the surf-class foamies.  If, like me, you're tired of loosing set waves to SUPers on barges and groms on 9-6 logs, order up a 10-0 to 10-6 White Knight and slay those summer-time dragons.. 

A Classic for Eddie...

Eddie from Santa Barbara picked up his new 9-6 Classic today.

Board's a beauty with light-grey resin tint bottom and rails, poppy-gold resin-tint tail-dip, and two-tone, black/orange deck pinline. Double, 1/8" Cedar stringers adds a real "classic" touch.

Eddie can't wait to recover from that broken-ankle....

Summer is just around the corner....

A quick check of the local surf conditions confirms that Winter is over and that it's time to break out the small-wave gear. Here's a few ideas for maximizing your fun quotient in small waves.


         


                48" T-Belly

5-4 Mini-Widget, 5-fin set-up

5-1 Mini-Widget, 5-fin set-up.

7-3 Widget 5-Fin Set-up

7-8 Kingfish with Gephart Marine-ply  Keel Fins




And, of course an irreplaceable 9-6 Single-fin Classic

Summer orders are starting to build, but current wait time is only 6-weeks. Wait a minute, in 6 weeks it will be mid-June!? Better hurry!

A couple of Classics....

   Hot, breezy days have people lining up to get their next custom summer board. Here's a pair of Classics on the lamination rack.

Both boards are resin tint, with resin tint deck inlay. Traditional lap-line, pinline will be added after hot-coat.  Old school lamination to match the feel of old school 50/50 rails and single-fin glide. A couple of more Classics in the wings, including a triple-stringer and one for yours truly...errr, the shop, I mean. Don't get caught without a log for the summer, order your Classic today.

9-8 Classic anyone...?

Polished up, nice and shiny...looking for an owner

Late summer noserider, Part 2...

Finally picked up my new 10-0 Classic. Just the ticket for those small days at the Point. Dims are 18-3/4"x23-1/2"x15-3/4"   3-1/4" thick.



This board has the typical "Classic Model" features: half-length, blended nose-concave, moderate tail-"V", low entry rocker and slight flip in tail rocker.

I usually do the traditional "eggy" 50/50 rail on the Classic, but this time I went with a more modern 60/40 tucked rail. That tucked edge provides good water release for a slippier" ride.

That fin is the new Slick Regulator by True Ames. Every new board deserves a new fin!

Surf has been hit and miss...

Sunday was a hit, despite the crowd. This one lined-up pretty good for me.

I surfed my 10yr-old 9-9 Infinity because it was Sunday and my new 9-9 was in the shop having a ding repaired from last Sunday (yep, got a rail bash during my second session). Lesson learned: No new boards on the weekends when the surf-desperados are out in full force. Monday was smaller, but less crowded and I had my blue 9-9 back in water. I really like the feel of this board. It catches waves easy, but not quite as easy as the Infinity. That wide-tail really helps getting into waves. But, my Classic feels much more responsive than my Infinity. The Infinity has a wide 15-1/2" tail with a 7" tailblock, while my new 9-9 Classic has a 14-3/4" round-pin tail. Tail rocker is about the same in both boards. The round-pin has a smooth, predictable turn and a much smaller turning radius. I'm experimenting with the True Ames Greenough 4A 9.25" fin and it seems to fit this shape pretty well.

Classic Blues....

I'll be the first to admit that shapers are pretty spoiled when it comes to new boards. I pretty much ride a new board every couple of months. And with that kind of frequency, its pretty easy to fall into the "just-another-new-board" mentality when it comes to evaluating the latest-greatest stick in the quiver. But this blue board is special...really special.

When I started to design this board I was aiming for a true classic noserider (even considered doing a Pig), with wide-point slightly behind center, 50/50 rails and nose concave. I wanted a LB shape that would work well in the small, slow, point-break surf that that I find about 70% of the time at my local break. And to better compete for waves with the young hipsters on their old-school logs, I knew I needed a little more volume and a lot less rocker than my 9-6 Nova. I decided a 9-9 x 23 x 3-1/4" would offer a good compromise between float and responsiveness. Nose rocker would be 4-1/4" and tail rocker would be 3-5/8". I chose a round pin tail shape to make the tail easier to sink when turning and when making steeper/later take-offs, and kept the nose at 18" to compensate for the flatter nose rocker. A lot of shapers like to put a 19"-20" wide nose on their noseriders, but I don't care for the aesthetics of the wide nose, and they make the outline too parallel and move the wide point forward of center. As always, I drew up the board in Aku, and printed out the spec sheet. This would be my shaping plan.

I found that my shape would be easily accommodated in a 10-2B blank with natural rocker, and after a quick visit to Fiberglass Hawaii in Ventura, I had the blank on my shaping racks and my planer in my hand. There is an old military saying that the battle plan is the first casuality of contact with the enemy. Same is thing is true for shaping when not doing a board for a customer. When the dust settled, I had what amounted to a progressive single-fin longboard.

Dimensions stayed the same, but I pinched the rails for a more foiled look and added plenty of tail V for smooth turning. The three tone resin tint job turned out great thanks to Ray at Lucke Glassing. 

I decided to go with a  9"True Ames Greenough 4A fin in matching blue.

These pix were taken last week, just before I waxed it up for the first session. I lucked out with some nice shoulder-high waves and a small crowd in the water.  Board paddled easy, caught waves with little effort and turned very smoothly. Noserides were stable and seemed to last forever. In short, this board may be the best LB I've ever built. 

More teasin'....

I can't wait for this board to be finished. It has four shades of blue, all done with resin tints on the foam before glassing clear.

Tailblock

Deck Nose

These shots were taken at the "hot coat" stage.

Bottom looking towards nose

There's been some amazing work coming out of Lucke Glassing lately.