New build

[Surfdad]

Perimeter stringer, 5# polyurethane rails, 1/8" basswood stringers and 1.5# EPS core.

The rocker, deck, and outline rough cut.

[Surfdad]

I've teased my buddy Ed that Judy chases me down the road with a broom to remove the static cling EPS after shaping. Now, we've gone high tech.

[LovinPowell]

Judy is so fun, it looks like she embraces your projects as much as you do.

[KonaKing]

LOL SD

[Ks]

That looks awesome!....

I have been meaning to ask for your expert opinion on something, so here goes.

I have really progressed a lot this year surfing I can still not do any real tricks but I can free surf for quite some time while shredding up and down the wave.. which I love doing, but I want to advance a bit more.

I use either a IS Blue or IS Red. I can free surf both, but the Red is so much easier to gain speed on when I fall back out of the pocket, where on the BLUE, I feel I can man handle the board and do more stuff... but when I fall back, I almost always lose the wave... I think a perfect board would be in between the two, but IS does not offer anything else... So I was wondering if you know of any boards that would be what I am looking for? If not, how much does a custom one cost?

Im 6.4 and I weight 230 and I ride goofy.


Thanks in advance and keep up the good work!

[Surfdad]

Hey Lovin...I'm truly blessed to have such an understanding wife, but I think mostly she doesn't like me tracking foam through the house!

KK, isn't that a crazy picture? Judy had the vacuum cleaner out after she saw me covered in foam.

Ks, wow man, you have combined probably three attributes that work against you. In the ocean, the average surfer is 150 pounds and less than 6 feet tall. Skim folks are thin as rails from all that running.

If you have a pre-'07 Inland with the futures boxes, try swapping some fins before looking at a new board. IS came standard with 3.5's, step up to some 4+ inch fins. Vector II's or the Scimitars. That can help the drive of the Blue.

If, however, you have a newer IS with their proprietary fin system, you may have to think about a new board. IS is planning on offereing some new fins for the '09 season, but I'm not sure if they have any longer/deeper fins yet.

Tall guys, like yourself, have wider stances and that has an impact on the board you'll be comfortable riding, even if you weighed 130 pounds, your stance most likely would require you to ride a "longer" board than a 4'6", which a 130 pound rider could get away with.

I'd suggest you look at a minimum length of 5'

The IS boards are built very solidly. They have a wood laminate inside the board which allows the board to be very stiff and also a ton of external resin. They have the best quality finish of any of the commercial available boards...the offset to that is weight. If you hold a Blue up and compare it to a Shred Stixx, Props, Smed, TWP, etc you'll immediately notice the weight differential. Weight has both positive and negative affects on your riding. One is that it aids in turning and slayshing. The lack of bouyancy allows you to set your rail easier and harder compared to a board with more bouyancy. However, as you've noticed, it also has more mass and therefore momentum. Trying to pump out of a critical situation can be a challenge. The visual is to kick an empty show box with your foot - pretty easy. Fill that same shoe box with lead and it becomes progessively more hard to push it around. Once you have an opportunity to ride a lighter board than the blue, you'll see how much more responsive "light" can be.

Smed has the Warthog, not a bad choice. SS has the JaMako - some folks have a hard time with the extra wide tail on that board - certain worth looking in to. TWP has a Composite X 5.0. That is a super fast board, but doesn't carve as well as the JaMako. Another board that you might want to look at is the P5 Oogle. It's exceptionally slippery a very different ride than the two IS boards you've been on. It doesn't carve as well as any of the boards mentioned above and it has less drive, but it's flat "no rocker" plan does allow it to spin easily.

Custom boards are wonderful things to behold! You can get one for 400-500, or spend way more if you want. The one issue with a custom is that, you'll get exactly what you ask for. If you ask for a crappy board, you'll get one.

Most of the talented shapers can help you design exactly what you want, but it's best if you have a good idea to begin with.

Hope that helps!

[Ks]

Thanks

I was waiting for your answer...

I have the 2007.5 RED and the 2008 Blue.

I never thought about fins and what changes they make to the board.

Can you explain? ( using my 2 boards as the example)

Maybe fins could be my answer....maybe...

Hey Lovin...I'm truly blessed to have such an understanding wife, but I think mostly she doesn't like me tracking foam through the house!

KK, isn't that a crazy picture? Judy had the vacuum cleaner out after she saw me covered in foam.

Ks, wow man, you have combined probably three attributes that work against you. In the ocean, the average surfer is 150 pounds and less than 6 feet tall. Skim folks are thin as rails from all that running.

If you have a pre-'07 Inland with the futures boxes, try swapping some fins before looking at a new board. IS came standard with 3.5's, step up to some 4+ inch fins. Vector II's or the Scimitars. That can help the drive of the Blue.

If, however, you have a newer IS with their proprietary fin system, you may have to think about a new board. IS is planning on offereing some new fins for the '09 season, but I'm not sure if they have any longer/deeper fins yet.

Tall guys, like yourself, have wider stances and that has an impact on the board you'll be comfortable riding, even if you weighed 130 pounds, your stance most likely would require you to ride a "longer" board than a 4'6", which a 130 pound rider could get away with.

I'd suggest you look at a minimum length of 5'

The IS boards are built very solidly. They have a wood laminate inside the board which allows the board to be very stiff and also a ton of external resin. They have the best quality finish of any of the commercial available boards...the offset to that is weight. If you hold a Blue up and compare it to a Shred Stixx, Props, Smed, TWP, etc you'll immediately notice the weight differential. Weight has both positive and negative affects on your riding. One is that it aids in turning and slayshing. The lack of bouyancy allows you to set your rail easier and harder compared to a board with more bouyancy. However, as you've noticed, it also has more mass and therefore momentum. Trying to pump out of a critical situation can be a challenge. The visual is to kick an empty show box with your foot - pretty easy. Fill that same shoe box with lead and it becomes progessively more hard to push it around. Once you have an opportunity to ride a lighter board than the blue, you'll see how much more responsive "light" can be.

Smed has the Warthog, not a bad choice. SS has the JaMako - some folks have a hard time with the extra wide tail on that board - certain worth looking in to. TWP has a Composite X 5.0. That is a super fast board, but doesn't carve as well as the JaMako. Another board that you might want to look at is the P5 Oogle. It's exceptionally slippery a very different ride than the two IS boards you've been on. It doesn't carve as well as any of the boards mentioned above and it has less drive, but it's flat "no rocker" plan does allow it to spin easily.

Custom boards are wonderful things to behold! You can get one for 400-500, or spend way more if you want. The one issue with a custom is that, you'll get exactly what you ask for. If you ask for a crappy board, you'll get one.

Most of the talented shapers can help you design exactly what you want, but it's best if you have a good idea to begin with.

Hope that helps!

[Surfdad]

Fin discussion!

I could spend days on this subject, but I'll spare you that and just try to hit the high spots.

One of the things you face when buying a production board is that the fins are placed at what the manufacturer feels is the optimal setting, or in the case of the big three wakeboard manufacturers, what is easiest to manufacture. Using one of those first, you'll notice that the fins on a LF, HL, CWB have no toe-in (angle of the front of the fin towards the nose) and no cant (angle of the side of the fin out towards the rail). They just point straight ahead and straight up and down.

The IS boards have 1/2 the formula, all their boards typically have toe-in, but no cant.

Toe-in aids the board in turning, but it also creates additional drag and can slow some boards down. Cant provides lift and aids in release of the fins for aerials and lip slides.

The depth of the fin, especially when combined with less cant, adds drive to a board. The deeper and more vertical a fin, the more drive that board will have. The offset, is that same board will not release as well when equipped with less deep fins with more cant.

In your two boards, the newer model IS boards, you don't have an option of buying fins with less cant - because your fins have no cant to begin with. Someone with say a SS that was running a fin with significant cant, and that wanted more drive, could reduce the angle of the cant and gain more drive.

In your situation, the only thing you can play with is the depth. IS has offered 3.25 and 3.5 inch fins, if you could go up to 4.0 inch fins, you'd be able to feel the extra drive down-the-line.

What fins do, besides adding drag , is prevent any loss of energy side to side and transfer that to forward motion. The deeper the fin, the less energy is lost to sideways motion. The offset to that is it's tougher to cause the fins to fail. Many of the tricks that we do require the fins to fail. The lip slide is the perfect example, when you ride up and throw the tail out sideways, that trick involves the fins failing to do their job.

Finding the balance is sometimes a bit tricky. As a general rule of thumb, if you like the board overall, but need a bit more drive - deeper fins, or fins with less cant can usually help.

[Surfdad]

Hey Ks,

I just checked the IS website and they do offer a 4.5" fin for their proprietary box. Worth checking out.

http://www.inlandsurfer.com/shop/Det...=66&category=6

[Surfdad]

I decided to skin this one with Divinycell H45. H45 is a 3 pound cross-linked PVC foam. This should give me a very sturdy build. It currently weighs 1 pound 8 oz. I think with boxes and the final lamination I should be able to have the weight right at 3 pounds. Lighter than I expected.

[Surfdad]

The final weight came out at 2 pounds 14 oz. If it holds up that is crazy light. It'll be interesting to see if it stays in one piece!

[da.bell]

We want to see pictures of this trick or maybe even a movie.

[Surfdad]

The last time James broke a board, it just folded under him. There was this loud crack and then he was under water. I was LMAO so hard as he came up describing the board as "too fragile" The words he used to describe it were quite colorful.

This board, with fins and traction weighs 3.75 pounds! It's fully 1 pound lighter than his pro model. That doesn't sound like all that much, but it's a reduction of 25%.

[Surfdad]

It didn't break! One of the things that alternative materials causes is changes in design. This new board, being so light, shifted the center of balance of the board reward due to the realtively heavy fin pod, in relation to the light board. Also, James was saying that the nose knifed into the wake too much. The heavier rail material did sink easier, but the nose went into the wave face too much.

[da.bell]

Sounds like you need a bigger rocker on it..