Saturday, March 21, 2009

9.0" glass-on Speed Rudder for C.T.


Finland birch plywood with maple-over-bubinga veneer.
This flexy, raked fin is going on a racy, Ice-blue-tinted, 9'-0" double-ender shaped by Christopher Tomlin.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

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




Sunday, March 15, 2009

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.