Select to expand quotechrispy said..wavemaniac said..
...thanks for your opinion Chrispy,is Andy on leave?
You're welcome
He is probably lurking like the rest of us ,or got better stuff to do than be on here like the rest of us
Or at the altar of Ryan and frothing and hating all the fake hype that surrounds surfing
Haha, for sure... I'm unashamedly a massive fan of Ryans work, but when someone shapes you that magic board, that board that connects you to the wave like nothing else you've experienced... well people have fallen in love over less hey...
I've been super lucky to have surfed plenty of amazing boards on the way, Campbell bros, Merrick, Takayama's, Mctavish, Christenson, Brewer, SDR, DVS, Outer Islands, Greg Liddle a few Salty specials ;) etc etc... All amazing and super gifted shapers. Ideally i'd love to add an Andreini, a Parmenter, A Skip Frye and a Christine Brailsford Caro to that list but hey, there's time...
And for the record, I'm actually pretty sure that the Lovelace is not the best board or the best shaper of this bunch... It just happens that what he shapes connects with me and where i'm at... And that can be a pretty random and unique thing... My best magic board prior to the Lovelace was a $70 beat up old 6ft fish I bought at a garage sale, awesome board
Select to expand quotechrispy said..Hydroman said..AndyrooMac said..Hydroman said..
"Have you actually ridden a Cosmic twin though or just sold on the marketing hype?"
Guilty, nope. Just love the look and outline of the triple stringer.
"At the end of the day, the best board is the one YOU enjoy surfing... so just keep surfing the thing you love."
Spot on brother.
"I just saw your Walden is a 7'8"!!! that must be around 70ltrs"
Yes 7'8, but no it's 52L. Your mate must be riding the Mega Mini Magic, that in the 7'8 is up around the 70L.
Mine is just the Mini Magic, stupid marketing distinctions made up by Walden as they tried to slot multi volume versions of the same design into the market.
Got some guys around where I surf are blown away when they realise I'm on a 7'8 Walden "grandad bod board". Get comments like "Never seen a mini mal blow the fins out the back of the lip before", "Hey Old Mate how do you throw that thing around like it's a short board?" So I wouldn't say it's a squashed log as such, although it can nose ride amazingly as well. It just has too much performance in it to equate it too a log or even a fat fun board design.
I've ridden a Christenson in 7'0 and I still think the Walden goes better than it did.
If you want to get an idea of the current equivalent to mine it's called the dual core mini magic. A way better looker than mine, same outline and bottom shape but still a typical egg mid board.
surfsupwarehouse.com.au/product/walden-mini-magic-dual-core/
It sounds like your style is not really conducive to the "traditional" Midlength boards, your really using a bigger board to surf like a Short Board.
Those traditional mids origins are from the transition era, with some modern refinement but ultimately designed for natural trim and glide (without pumping!!!), smooth lines and drawn out turns which is where a Christenson C-Bucket/Flat Tracker, Tak mid, Lovelace mid etc excels, I'd also throw the Joel Fitz board you love into that mix, not really shaped "to rip". I mean, for me, the best Mid riders are Trevor Gordon, Ryan Burch, Joel Tudor, Devon Howard, Torren Martin etc. Those guys are amazing surfers but they're never "blowing the fins out" The below is a great example, really simple and beautiful surfing...
There are however a bunch of excellent "Big Boy Short Boards" that I would say are more in your wheelhouse so maybe that more where you should be looking and there's more info on those boards in the SB room to be fair... I mean this is technically the Longboard room...
Awesome vid Andyroomac, just the medicine I needed this afternoon.
Yeah ... Nah, I love that style of surfing and emulate it on any wave I get like that. But here in Perth we don't get many long runners like that, our waves are POW, one maybe two moves and your done unless you want to hit one of 3 or 4 super crowded reefs in a 100km stretch of coastline.
That is my preferred surfing, long lines, mellow style, relaxed, and the boards I've ridden have all done exactly that. But this Walden thingy has got dynamite in it's rails and a rocket in it's tail. With the 2 plus 1 it was good, quick, predictable and surfed much like your clip but still able to send it to the lip like Devon Howard does with the CI Mid, so awesome pivot. But it had a limiter, you could feel that middle fin hit it's max warp and then it would start humming.
So I went weird and threw in a set of the Futures K2 keels for an experiment because I couldn't afford a Morning of the Earth long twin. And holy bat mobile booster rockets. Went from quick to max warp speed, suddenly making sections and getting 3 to 4 moves in on a wave instead of one to two. As for blowing the fins, that's my signature bail move at closeout, just send it vertical after everyone's thinking your a crusty old geezer. Feels even better when you nail the landings consistently, but no not my every turn style, just amazed me that this board had it in her and just did it like a mind meld.
I did the SB with a Yahoo Yallingup Hippie, good volume 6'4 board but.... mehh, no style. The longest they made was the 6'9, I love the extra length for the glide, paddle in and nose ride, but volume alone does not give me that.
So I'll stop banging on about the Big W and just hang around here watching the ripper boards people post up. Besides I might not have it much longer anyway, depending on how long it takes my shaper to make my a custom 7'6 based on it.
Lol,I can blow the fins out of a mal if I'm not going to make it as well ...I do applaud you ,from when you first came on here saying you couldn't surf to blowing fins is a great achievement
My 7'6 surfs way better than the Walden...way way better ...
But thankfully my dad bod has allowed me to surf my 5'10 bonzer lately with the fun banks we have had 
Hey so can I, but finding I'm making more often than not now.
Yeah had 35 years of cobwebs and dust to deal with. All coming back to me now I'm back in the water more and retuning the motor skills.
Really weird when I first hopped back on, the brain still remembers what you could do but it takes time for the body to catch up.
What's your 7'6? Can't recall sorry.
5'10 is brilliant for a dad bod, mine with dodgy joints won't let me go below 6'6 roughly 40L.
Keep it up, expect to see you Shredding Avalon on that.
Select to expand quoteMacaha said..
Nah that's awesome Hydromann it's all about fun. Stoked your frothing mate
That's it hey Macaha, keeping the stoke alive.
Boards are weird or what? People are even weirder though?
I've ridden some big names that you think would be magic, and they're not. I've ridden some beautiful boards that look the goods but sucked. And I've ridden some pop outs and cheapies that work. Then in amongst it all you end up with a dog ugly thing that looks like a beginner fun board but goes like the clappers.
But because it's not the right colour, shape, size, brand, shaper, or a conventional design etc. people don't give it a thought and scoff?
So many people myself included do this, we close our minds off to anything different and miss out on something potentially amazing.
It's weird coming back into it after 35 years, it's just so apparent. The progression in design from 90's matchsticks to so many fish, eggs and mids as well as mals today is incredible. Yet I see so many middle aged guys struggling on their 90's mentality boards. Yeah new shapes and contours but still trying to plough around on 28L?
Then getting stroppy and pissy at everyone else for catching waves. How the hell is that fun?
Had a young bloke like that out at out local, well mid 30's young. Struggling on a 5'11 under volume shorty. Have him a ride on my SSB when I had it and he frothed. Wave after wave and he could still turn it. He ended up with a Timbre Tek 7'4, wondering why he didn't do it years ago? And frothing big time.
For me I'll try anything, and if it works I'll sing it's praises, Oz, Thai, China, US whatever. If it works it works.
Select to expand quoteHydroman said..Macaha said..
Nah that's awesome Hydromann it's all about fun. Stoked your frothing mate
That's it hey Macaha, keeping the stoke alive.
Boards are weird or what? People are even weirder though?
I've ridden some big names that you think would be magic, and they're not. I've ridden some beautiful boards that look the goods but sucked. And I've ridden some pop outs and cheapies that work. Then in amongst it all you end up with a dog ugly thing that looks like a beginner fun board but goes like the clappers.
But because it's not the right colour, shape, size, brand, shaper, or a conventional design etc. people don't give it a thought and scoff?
So many people myself included do this, we close our minds off to anything different and miss out on something potentially amazing.
It's weird coming back into it after 35 years, it's just so apparent. The progression in design from 90's matchsticks to so many fish, eggs and mids as well as mals today is incredible. Yet I see so many middle aged guys struggling on their 90's mentality boards. Yeah new shapes and contours but still trying to plough around on 28L?
Then getting stroppy and pissy at everyone else for catching waves. How the hell is that fun?
Had a young bloke like that out at out local, well mid 30's young. Struggling on a 5'11 under volume shorty. Have him a ride on my SSB when I had it and he frothed. Wave after wave and he could still turn it. He ended up with a Timbre Tek 7'4, wondering why he didn't do it years ago? And frothing big time.
For me I'll try anything, and if it works I'll sing it's praises, Oz, Thai, China, US whatever. If it works it works.
Absolutely dude, as i've said before, surf what makes YOU happy...
My second fave board ever was a $70 old beat up fish that looked like it should be at the tip... wish i'd kept and restored that thing with the skills i'm learning now...
My current go to boards are boards i've made myself, I LOVE the Lovelace but if I want to develop my skills as a shaper I need to better understand my own boards... anyways my glassing is bad... REALLY BAD... so they look like sh1t but they do actually work and riding something you have built yourself just adds an extra dimension to the experience.
Select to expand quoteAndyrooMac said..Hydroman said..Macaha said..
Nah that's awesome Hydromann it's all about fun. Stoked your frothing mate
That's it hey Macaha, keeping the stoke alive.
Boards are weird or what? People are even weirder though?
I've ridden some big names that you think would be magic, and they're not. I've ridden some beautiful boards that look the goods but sucked. And I've ridden some pop outs and cheapies that work. Then in amongst it all you end up with a dog ugly thing that looks like a beginner fun board but goes like the clappers.
But because it's not the right colour, shape, size, brand, shaper, or a conventional design etc. people don't give it a thought and scoff?
So many people myself included do this, we close our minds off to anything different and miss out on something potentially amazing.
It's weird coming back into it after 35 years, it's just so apparent. The progression in design from 90's matchsticks to so many fish, eggs and mids as well as mals today is incredible. Yet I see so many middle aged guys struggling on their 90's mentality boards. Yeah new shapes and contours but still trying to plough around on 28L?
Then getting stroppy and pissy at everyone else for catching waves. How the hell is that fun?
Had a young bloke like that out at out local, well mid 30's young. Struggling on a 5'11 under volume shorty. Have him a ride on my SSB when I had it and he frothed. Wave after wave and he could still turn it. He ended up with a Timbre Tek 7'4, wondering why he didn't do it years ago? And frothing big time.
For me I'll try anything, and if it works I'll sing it's praises, Oz, Thai, China, US whatever. If it works it works.
Absolutely dude, as i've said before, surf what makes YOU happy...
My second fave board ever was a $70 old beat up fish that looked like it should be at the tip... wish i'd kept and restored that thing with the skills i'm learning now...
My current go to boards are boards i've made myself, I LOVE the Lovelace but if I want to develop my skills as a shaper I need to better understand my own boards... anyways my glassing is bad... REALLY BAD... so they look like sh1t but they do actually work and riding something you have built yourself just adds an extra dimension to the experience.
Right on Andy, up cycle is an awesome buzzword in hipster circles ;-)
I'm no hipster though, been called everything from a Viking (because I only got half a hair cut, short buzzed sides long front and back with bushy beard) to bad Santa because I apparently looked like Santa and was getting too many waves.
Any who I'm smack in the middle of trying to resurrect my favourite board that I snapped last year, a 6'10 Webber Double Diamond.
It did a near total de-lamination of the bottom, so I glued it back together, put in some stringers, and started reshaping the bottom to include bevelled rails.
So far so good, glassing shouldn't be too big an issue. Just rebuilt two mals, one was a clean snap EPS and fixed by gluing back together, stringers, butterfly and diamond patch, plus rail reo's. Has held up really well, had it out in 7' and nose ploughed the set of the day and it didn't snap again, gotta be happy with that for a free board. The other was a crease on a nearly new Stewart Hydro Hull, arrrrgggghhh the fury, anyway all patched up and resprayed the entire bottom to match, looks like new.
Anyway the Webber is giving me a little grief at the moment, I over sanded in a couple of areas on the blank and am trying to figure out the best way to re-add foam? Everyone keeps suggesting Qcell mix but then you have two different hardness surfaces that you are sanding and the softer one always feathers out around the hard one. If anyone on here has any suggestions I'm all ears.
Select to expand quoteTux said..
Where are the beveled rails
Cheers Tux,
Don't have another blank :-(
Bevels are mild, half that of the Walden because not enough material to go heavier.
Select to expand quoteHydroman said..Tux said..
Where are the beveled rails
Cheers Tux,
Don't have another blank :-(
Bevels are mild, half that of the Walden because not enough material to go heavier.
Yeah, What Tux said....
Any board shapers will give you their
off cuts.
All good, had some Knauff board hidden away.
Heavier density but good as gold for infill.
Bit of humour on this wet ****ty Saturday.
www.swellnet.com/news/ding-alley/2021/03/19/local-surfer-has-no-idea-what-long-twin-fin-doing-under-arm
True story though rather than non-fiction...especially the part about the re-direct.
Done and dusted new / upcycled midlength.
Once was a 6'10 Webber Double diamond, now a blue diamond with hull bottom and twin / quad setup.
So got a decent surf in the other day on the revamped Webber.
Need to tweak the fin combo for a bit more drive but for a garage hack job she went awesome.
I thought the beveled rail at the front was going to cause me grief because of how thin it ended up and the hard edge. But it never bit once, even on tight turns and steep drops with the nose working hard.
Only issue was the paddle in after riding a 7'8 for so long, gotten lazy with the length.
Gotta be happy though, a board destined for land fill revived for less than a couple of hundred bucks. A new mid in this design was going to set me back six times that.
Hydro
Select to expand quoteevansquirrell said..
Some pics below. Best part for me is the notches in the fin box letting you move the fin mid surf (we put Kumano bearings in the fins to have them click in/out. No screws/plates) That's where I've really started to get a feeling for the board.
Can you please elaborate on your fin / bearing setup ! I would love to know how it works
thanks
luke
The ball bearings are made by Kumano Fin Systems. We were getting a heap of fins from Larry Allison in the States with them already installed. Great for being able to move the fin around mid surf. Similar to what FCS2 fins have going on now, pin holds the front of the fin steady in the finbox and the back clicks into the track in along the base of the finbox.
You can retro-fit, as I did with this fin and a bunch of others, but you'll need to know the track height within the box to make sure they're in the right position on the fin and will properly click into place within the fin box.
It definitely makes things easier when you're unsure about fin position, or when you're riding something completely different than what you're used to and your initial fin position feels way off after the first few waves.
I've been riding a heap of Ellis' edge boards lately and it's been perfect dialling in where the GG power blade needs to sit, as the perfect spot for them is visually WAY too far back from what I'm used to.
Select to expand quoteevansquirrell said..
The ball bearings are made by Kumano Fin Systems. We were getting a heap of fins from Larry Allison in the States with them already installed. Great for being able to move the fin around mid surf. Similar to what FCS2 fins have going on now, pin holds the front of the fin steady in the finbox and the back clicks into the track in along the base of the finbox.
You can retro-fit, as I did with this fin and a bunch of others, but you'll need to know the track height within the box to make sure they're in the right position on the fin and will properly click into place within the fin box.
It definitely makes things easier when you're unsure about fin position, or when you're riding something completely different than what you're used to and your initial fin position feels way off after the first few waves.
I've been riding a heap of Ellis' edge boards lately and it's been perfect dialling in where the GG power blade needs to sit, as the perfect spot for them is visually WAY too far back from what I'm used to.
Thanks for that !
Select to expand quoteevansquirrell said..
The ball bearings are made by Kumano Fin Systems. We were getting a heap of fins from Larry Allison in the States with them already installed. Great for being able to move the fin around mid surf. Similar to what FCS2 fins have going on now, pin holds the front of the fin steady in the finbox and the back clicks into the track in along the base of the finbox.
You can retro-fit, as I did with this fin and a bunch of others, but you'll need to know the track height within the box to make sure they're in the right position on the fin and will properly click into place within the fin box.
It definitely makes things easier when you're unsure about fin position, or when you're riding something completely different than what you're used to and your initial fin position feels way off after the first few waves.
I've been riding a heap of Ellis' edge boards lately and it's been perfect dialling in where the GG power blade needs to sit, as the perfect spot for them is visually WAY too far back from what I'm used to.
Hi Evan,
Do the power blades work as well in non edge boards like your evo's for example?
I have only tried one (in a non-edge board) in a 6'6" Stand Up Spoon of mine, and it actually went phenomenal. Mind you, it was in absolutely perfect waves at The Pass, with plenty of bottom tension in the wave, which is exactly what these fins need to really start working properly.
I could see it working in something else of ours like an Evo as you mentioned, but the fin box at it's standard position would be way too far forward I think. The one on the Stand Up Spoon I made/rode was set a touch further back to accomodate the PB, but I feel like it could be even further back, which I will be testing out on another 7 footer I'm currently making.
GG undoubtably knows his stuff, no denying that, and these fins work very differently to what I've certainly become accustomed to, but they open you up to a whole new dimension of speed and minimal drag/resistance. Very addictive.
Select to expand quoteonefin said..evansquirrell said..
The ball bearings are made by Kumano Fin Systems. We were getting a heap of fins from Larry Allison in the States with them already installed. Great for being able to move the fin around mid surf. Similar to what FCS2 fins have going on now, pin holds the front of the fin steady in the finbox and the back clicks into the track in along the base of the finbox.
You can retro-fit, as I did with this fin and a bunch of others, but you'll need to know the track height within the box to make sure they're in the right position on the fin and will properly click into place within the fin box.
It definitely makes things easier when you're unsure about fin position, or when you're riding something completely different than what you're used to and your initial fin position feels way off after the first few waves.
I've been riding a heap of Ellis' edge boards lately and it's been perfect dialling in where the GG power blade needs to sit, as the perfect spot for them is visually WAY too far back from what I'm used to.
Hi Evan,
Do the power blades work as well in non edge boards like your evo's for example?
Hi Onegin,
If you like the powerblade style fins also check out the Takayama Halo series singles, sides, twins, and quads.
I was running a 7.5" raked flex glass with SB1 fins in both my 7'8 and 9'0 boards. Great fin combo but could always feel it hit a wall when trying to generate speed pumping the face. On larger more powerful waves they would go quick but sang and throttled back quickly in fat sections. Pivot and drive were good.
Then I fitted a set of Halo's. Wow! These fins generate awesome drive and pivot amazingly. Don't got the speed limiter feel from them like a raked fin can. Running a home made polycarbonate 7.5 centre Halo design with 4 1/8" Futures sides in glass. Go great in either the 7'8 or 9'0 mal.
Hydro
