Simmons keels for France

My friend, Renaud Cardinal of UWL Surfboards in France is doing a series of Mini-Simmons boards. I was stoked to get to do the double-foil, Simmons templte keel sets for him. Renaud left the wood selection up to me. I sent him 2 old school plywood sets and 3 in various exotic / premium woods. UWL builds some great boards over there. I'm anxious to see these boards when they are done. I will post them when the photo's show up.

(5) for France

Indonesian (Bali) Leeche wood

Brazilian walnut

California Redwood lace burl

8-0, 21st Century, Simmons Interpretation

This Cherry-red stick was inspired by my 10-0 Balsa Simmons reproduction and by some of the high-performance stuff RK, Joe Bauguess and a few others have been doing.

I wanted to incorporate some of the elements that really worked on the original board, but lose about 20 lbs, some length and blend in some modern performance characteristics.

It worked. This board Paddles and catches waves effortlessly. The low rocker and single-into-double concaves translate into superb hull speed. The forward placed, single-foil keels

give it superb lift at trim speed and it is a maneuverable rail-turner like a big fish.

The small, center, stabilizer fin adds just the right amount of tail drive and keeps the board from being too skaty. I think I'll be spending a lot of time on this one.

TwinFins: Cherry/Pavel template, redwood burl. Center fin: Mini-Simmons template

Moonlight Glassing did the incredible glass job.

Manta Ray Inlay

Burce Cochrane requested an exotic-wood inlay of a manta ray on the deck of the 9-0 bonzer I just finished shaping for him. We aim to please! Check out the incredible quilted grain on this one. approx. 6"x8"

Australia-bound hang-ups

These custom racks are headed to John Atwill in Australia. One set will cradle a favorite Tom Wegener 10-0 longboard. The other?? Hmmmmm.

woods; African mahogany and figured maple.

Holly's Hull

I was pleased to be invited to build the rudder for this incredible, hull-inspired, 9-0 round-pintail. The board was shaped by Steve Mast for Holly Yang, her winter board.
Thank you both. J.C.

Hullacious curves in Steve Mast's shaping bay

Holly, Steve, the new 9-0 on "The Hill" in Encinitas. Delivery day.

single-fin, concaves, wet sand.

J, Cherry 8.75" flex template.

Woods: African mahogany, Indonesian Narra, Flame maple, Peruvian walnut, with maple, cedar and purpleheart pinlines.

Holly Yang, new board, sunset........................Happy camper.

Aloha Holly, J.C.

New Glass-on, framed-art and Box fins

Framed fin for Bruce Cochrane.
Primavera background. Inlaid manatee; flame maple, narra, Brazilian walnut.

Glass-on Reverse "D" template for Terry Martin longboard. Owner: Alex Johnston
Bacote, flame maple, Peruvian walnut and maple pinlines.



9.75" "Zeke" template Glass-on for Tyler Surfboards. Owner Kevin Ho, Honolulu, HI
Peruvian walnut, narra, redwood with maple pinlines.

9.5" box fin for Charlie English, North Carolina. Flame maple with lace sycamore and zircote checkerboard pattern. Probably headed for a Greg Eavey longboard.

8-0, 21st Century, Simmons interpretation

This board was originally ordered by a friend in N. Carolina. He had ridden a 7'4" board of Corky Carrols when he was in Cabo. He said Corky's twin fin looked like a longboard with the back half cut off...but it was fun to ride. He had also just read TSJ's article about RK, Bauguess and the min-simms. We talked about what else he wanted in the board and I ordered a 9-3Y blank with some x-tra nose rocker so I could take the 8-0 template out of it and still have a little rocker.

When he found out how much it cost to ship the board to the east coast he changed his mind.

No Biggy.....but by that time I was too interested in the board to let it go. I went ahead and made this Simmons-ish 8'0" for myself to ride. It has a transitional rail, hard up-rail nose to hard down-rail tail like the original simmons and a wide round-diamond tail. The rest is pretty modern. It has a single-into double bottom. It will have a set of single-foil twins and a small center stabilizer fin placed about 2-1/2" up from the tail. The twins + 1 set up is out of some really cool redwood lace burl. The board is being glassed with a transparent cranberry tint both sides, at Moonlight Glassing of course. I'll keep ya posted.