Lazor Zap 2.0

New lazor zap shaped identically to the one i did in the spring but glassed with resin-x...1.7# e.p.s. core with resin-x instead of epoxy...should have a nice, polyester flex feel with the feather weight and durability of styro-pox (to coin a phrase i got from john lucas)...
got some cool "green" recycled fins from my fcs rep to compliment the package. stoked!

ZAP !

gave my lazor zap a facelift..rode it quite a bit during the hurricane swells we got and decided it's a keeper. the epoxy was turning brown so it was time for a paint job...turned out OK

Jesse's waveskate

jesse poyer's new waveskate...

6'0" x 21 1/2" x 2 3/4"
polyester/PU..full gloss

more fins

another set...gephart template

fin making

long time, no post...sorry, been very involved with the updating and unveiling of my new website...all the brainchild of my buddy, jamie borders, webmaster extrordinaire..."thank you" doesn't adequately convey my feelings, jamo...the site is off the chart.

got around to making a couple of sets of fins for two mini-simmons i've been riding all summer. making a set of fins can be a fun job since it doesn't take that long (instant gratification) and the results are often eye-pleasing...these half-moon shaped jobs really work well in the 5'2"..

using the FCS fusion system is a real advantage, too....simple to get nice results.

New Quad for Brandon

brandon blackmon brought in a couple of boards he was currently riding to see if i could combine some of the attributes of both into a single board. the result was this diamond tail quad that's 6'4 x 21 1/2" x 2 3/4". he emailed a picture of a WW I bi-plane (sopwith camel) for the target insiginia, the celery green color came from a photo of a campbell bros. bonzer.

Summer Shorty For Sale

i optimistically shaped this for myself soon after the shoulder surgery but am realizing there's no way i'll paddle a board this small in the foreseeable future.

it's e.p.s./epoxy (marko 1.9 lb. blank).....5'7" x 19 1/4" x 2 3/8" w/ fcs fusion system.......I'm letting it go for $400 without fins (420 with) so i can build myself another version scaled up to help with my lousy paddling.

oh yeah...brand new...never even been waxed

Nugget for Kevin

man, i LOVE "outside the box" projects..

Kevin Stickel e-mailed from pensacola about building a mccoy style nugget.. that's right up my alley...i've been riding cheyne horan inspired boards since 1985..i could do this in my sleep!

kevin and i talked over the phone 3 or 4 times before things got underway..but from then on,
it was my baby.

the board is shaped and he emails a pic of a classic ford race car built to compete with the ferrari's of it's day...the colorwork was fun...let's mimic a classic race car on a surfboard..

longboards-simple color

there's something to be said for clean, basic color...there are times when economy says way more than those "try to top this" heroic efforts..just in one of those moods, ( keep it simple, stupid!)

imagine a small circular red decal in the target...clean...

the one in the foreground is a custom for wade dowling..the other is a stocker for sunrise surf shop. it'll be on the rack in a week...don't wait!

lazor zap- 27 years after..

got ahold of a mccoy lazor zap from the early 80's...basically a version of what cheyne horan rode to victory in the '83 OP pro at huntington beach...made a rocker template and gave it to my best friend pete from charleston, sc...anyone that surfs the washout in folly beach knows pete kohn. he and his board building bud "grasshopper" hot-wired a nice 1.7# eps stringerless for me to build the replica.
i've always liked mccoys...actually missed them the first time around but devoted myself to and delved deeply into them starting in '89...19" tails and single fins..weird looks from everyone..how do you keep that thing from spinning out? it's all RAIL and ZEN...if you've been there you know.
this keeper ended up as a thruster,( i'm cheating i know), but will be more forgiving in the long run and i'm not getting any younger ...53 years old on a 5'11"...whew..

for those of you new to the show...those mccoy "no-nose" outlines (as they were referred to then) were "sampled" by simon anderson during the incubation of the modern thruster..THIS IS WHERE IT ALL STARTED..credit ceded where it's due....

Jesse's mini-gun for Costa Rica

ramping up for his yearly foray to costa rica, jesse poyer orders up a mini gun to compliment his fish. we basically took the outline of a 7'4", cut 4 inches of the nose and slightly rounded it. a nice, compact package that will handle size and paddle well.

Javier's new " Pescado Gordo"

saturday morning board pick-ups at the factory...always a fun time. long time friend javier fabrega's latest one, a super wide twin keel for summer. 5'8" x 22 1/2" x 2 7/8"..pulled out of a 610 Rhyno for just the right rocker with plenty of foam left to get a clean deck line. rather than glass-ons, we went with the F-3 system which takes either fcs or futures...lots of possibilities.

New one for spring

finally getting up and running at work....working at a slow pace but in there nonetheless.

shaped this one last weekend out of a 1.9# marko...it's meant to bridge the gap between performance shortboard and round nose fish. some guys just can't get past the extra nose width of a fish..it kinda hinders the vertical attack in smaller surf. this board has enough planing width to catch waves like a fish but will turn tighter in the pocket and off the top.

got to come up with a catchy name...

it's 5'7" x 19 1/4" x 2 3/8"...eps/epoxy and weighs in right at 5 lbs.

Franken-planer

the more i use this thing, the more i like it.....it's a hitachi p-20 stretched out enough to mimic the ergonomics of a skil 100, but light enough that i won't (hopefully) tear my rotator cuff off the bone again...i used the stock hitachi depth adjustment knob with a 3/16" allen wrench in conjunction with a clark modified front shoe...feels nice so far..

but the depth adjustment is way sloppier, but i'll take that over another major surgery...

haha!

anyone that uses a hitachi/clark mod planer has got to be going "huh?"...how did the handle get so far back?...a sunday afternoon in the workshop and a lot of filing and epoxy.........

Back in the saddle (no, not yet)

went in to try and glass the shape from my previous post...thankfully i used this as a test run for epoxy laminations on urethane blanks...i had all the time in the world and needed it ....i can't lift my right arm past 8:00 o'clock (visualize it) so laminating is going to be the main impediment to me getting back up and running at work...if i can't glass 'em, they're not getting done....geez....

still managed to get it glassed!

Back in the saddle (sort of)

put on my green hi-tops and took the morning of st. patrick's day to turn the rails and tune up a practice shape prior to getting back to work sometime next week. tinkered with the shape off and on for the last week or so, mostly having to resort to using my left hand...was able to use the right arm today if i kept it pinned to my side. not bad for a 9 week layoff.

the shape is something i've been wanting to do since i got back on my twin fins late last year...this is a real performance twin for our area...it's not a retro shape in any way...basic high performance short board dimensions tweaked a bit to allow for a heavy front foot drive through your turns but still a controlled cutback off the back foot...less nose (ears) facilitates a more vertical (conventional thruster) attack.

winter quiver / west side Oahu

As per the previous post, tully sends a photo...not a board shot but great pic of him in very sizeable point surf at makaha. there's a lot of salt mist in the foreground so it's difficult to make him out but if you enlarge it...whoa...heavy.

the quiver tie-in is that he's on an 8'10" i shaped him back in the fall of 2006....chris christenson was in town and shaped a couple of fishes in my factory, i glassed them, etc. i wondered that since he was shaping brad gerlach's guns at that time, could he help me draw out an decent 8'10"?? he was more than gracious to share and used some of my outdated willis bros. and brewer templates to piece together what turned out be be a really nice gun...he even gave up bottom contours, rocker, fins...like i said, gracious and turning it into a fun project.

still have the template taken off that finished board in the stack in my shaping room...now,if i can just get tully to shoot a pic before the board snaps...

winter quiver / N. Fla. style

a friend of mine who lives at makaha called me around christmas to touch base and catch up on current goings-on, how's the wife, etc... john tully, who lived in jax beach all his life, married a lovely woman (nicki) a few years back and relocated to oahu's west side. he'd always spend part of every winter on the north shore anyway so it was just a natural progression. we're talking and he says "so what are you riding these days?" (that's always good for at least 15 minutes of good give and take) ...i tell him i'll go out in the garage and grab the two boards i've been riding the most lately, photograph them and send off an email so he can see 'em.

i describe them over the phone...both are stringerless eps/epoxy twin fins, but at opposite ends of what constitutes the twin fin spectrum....a 6'2" MR style performance twin fin modeled on the state of the art twins of '79 - '80.. a very valid choice of equipment for an older (40-55 yr.) guy who can and still wants to push through and link those turns with speed and flow. the other board is basically a 5'2" that feels like a bar of soap slinging around the bath tub...it's a "mini-simmons", which to those "in the know" is a concept that's been done and dusted a couple of years or so ago. (check surfer's journal vol 17, # 6, check richard kenvin's "hydrodynamica" blog archives to view the progression)...regardless...they are ridiculously fun in the kind of surf we get in north florida.

tully was amused and said he'd forward some photos to me, also......

hull planshapes

someone asked what the outline of the hull in the title box looked like...here's the 6'10" and 6'6"...both stringerless EPS.

the 6'10" was shaped out of 2 # EPS and finished out around 5 1/2 lbs ...the 6'6" came out of 2.5# and ended up just under 6 lbs.

sold the 6'10" but the 6'6" is a KEEPER.

these were both single fins with the boxes WAY up as true hulls should be, but i've done a few with an optional quad set-up lately that have worked well in our beach breaky, short period waves.

shoulder rehab/recovery

what does this picture have to do with a complete rotator cuff tear?.........

.the surgeon who repaired my right shoulder 2 weeks ago lifted my SKIL 100 during an office visit and said i wouldn't be using THAT anymore, too heavy for the amount of damage i had (bummer)...so i'm in the process of tuning/tweaking/lightening these hitachis (green planers) in the months off i'm having to take.

i'm REALLY going to miss using what has become an extension of my right arm ....anyone out there have some advice for lightening a SKIL 100?