Kirt's 9-2 Nova Single-fin...

Kirt spends a lot of time in the water and has a pretty solid quiver. He approached me about a month ago and asked me to build him a 9-2 noserider single-fin. This board we came up with is really a comination of the Neo and the Nova, with pulled in tail, half-length concave, eggy 50/50 rails and balanced rocker (4" at both ends). Ray at Lucke Glassing is responsible for the beautiful blue resin tint bottom & rails, grey rein tint deck inlay and wild multi-color patch work (Kirk's idea) on the nose (all resin work, no spray).

Phil's new Widget...

After nearly ending his surfing career trying to surf his 10-6 in OH beach break, Phil asked me to shape hinm something that would fit better in that situation. After a lot of discussion, we came up with this 7'10" Widget 4/3. It can be surfed as a quad or a tri. With its full outline and 3.25" it offers plenty of paddling power. Singe- to double-concaves keeps it nimble and responsive: Finished off in S-Glass 6+6 Deck and 6 bottom, this board will be durable as well. (Forgive the crappy phone-cam pix)

Fin Fairy stopped by yesterday...

Once or twice a month I order fins, both for new boards and for customers that need a new fin to spice up their surfing. Yesterday's delivery had a little drama associated with it, but eventually Chuck Ames, owner of True Ames Fins, came to the rescue. Unlike some fin companies (who shall remain anonymous here) True Ames not only has great fins but great customer service and super-prompt delivery. So, yesterday here's what came:

1. This is a set of glasson marine-ply Geppys in the Hobie Fish template for Jay's future 7-8 Kingfish. Pretty sweet, eh?
2. This is a 9.5" Josh Farberow Flex fin for Jerry's future 9-8 Nova. This is the fin he'll use on those small days in South Carolina. My personal favorite for an all-around LB single-fin.
3. & 4. Here's Jerry's 2+1 set; a 7.5" L-Flex with Hexcore Sidebites in FCS. Never know when those hurricane swells will kick up.
5. This is a new center fin for Dan's 2+1 6-10 Mini-Nova. Dan wanted a little more hold on those bottom turns. I'm anxious to get some feedback from Dan on this fin.
6 & 7 This is a five-fin set for for Phil's new Widget 3/4. He'll use the CI template (7) in Hexcore when he wants to surf the board as a tri, or switch out the CI center fin for the two Hexcore TA sidebites (6) when he wants to surf the board as a quad. Using the combination of FCS plugs and Hexcore fins really keeps the weight down on multi-fin boards.
Remember, buy a new Thomas Patrick surfboard and get 30% off on any new set of fins, leash or board bag.

The process...

 I thought I'd show a little bit of the process of board building. This is a 10-2 for Steve down in Panama. After a long discussion via email, we settled on this hybrid longboard design which blends some classic features like egg rails and single-fin set-up with a more modern outline. The triple-cedar stringer and wood tailblock are just pure longboard no matter what era. Here's the board after final shaping:

Then the bottom lamination in Volan with light yellow resin tint

Getting ready to add stripes...

...and not just airspray, but genuine, old-school opaque resin stripes.

Just the bottom-half of the middle stripe is needed. Stripes will be "feathered" into hot coat to minimize raised edge and then entire board gets gloss coat.
All done and ready to go to Panama