The boards are taking shape:
The 9'6". Presently sitting around four inches thick. The tail is going to be thinned right out to almost nothing, and that nose kick is going to be pulled back as much as possible to smooth out the entry rocker.
The tail block will become a 3' swallow.
Just a bit of vee. The vee panel runs down to the fins where it twists into a flat where the tail double concave will go.
A nice clear look at the chine Tom puts out near the edge/under the rail. This contributes to the uber forgiving nature of his boards. They just refuse to catch rail.
The 8'. The tail block will become a four inch swallow.
I'm glad I went down and spoke with him, as the bottom and foil he was lining up for the 9'6" was heading towards 15' surf. After clarifying my innate cowardice for him he was pretty happy as he said he would be a lot freer with the bottom now as he would be working to make it work in smaller waves. He told the story of another local who got a similar board for similar reasons and brought it back after ten surfs as he went to the beach, saw 15' waves and thought "I can do that with this board" then proceeded to almost drown. He wanted to sell the board as he didn't want to do that to his family. I made it very clear that faced with 15' surf I would be happy to take photos (unless towing of course - it's too easy towing). Just because the board will do it doesn't mean the pilot will.
Both boards will have his proprietary "Claw" - five hand foiled fins glassed in with a bigger center fin.
