Tuesday, November 4, 2014

4ft 2" x 21" Mini Simmons / and body board for Glenn deep in Victoria.

A bit of a challenge hand shaping this little puppy , but it turned out to be lots of fun. Glenn wants to be able to ride it finless as a body board or drop knee. Or put a set of keel fins in and ride it as a Mini Simmons.It has a full length concave that sneaks out through the nose between the rolled shoulders and a full width one out the back. Fast and full of lift.Also a slight concave deck to lay into.





 3mm rail band going on
 4mm and 3mm skins cut and ready for bagging
 Setting up the rocker table , as simple as it can be and all that is needed to hold the rocker
 Sucking it down onto the foam so that the foam is encapsulated in wood now
Simple and 2 hours later it will be all done.

All trimmed up and ready for the rail bands to be laminated
3 laminates of 5mm thick rail bands put on one at a time
 You will be amazed at the hold you can get with good quality masking tape
Cleaned up and trimmed up once again

Then nose and tail blocks laminated aon all at once

 Cleaning up with the hand plane once again


All ready to go off and have the fin boxes routed in and set in epoxy. Plus Glenn wants to be able to use it as a body board as well as a stand up Mini Simmons, so it will have a leash plug each end.
I like to use Futures boxes and fins as I have faith in the method I use to install them is strong and reliable. Because the board is so small and most fins too big I have taken a pair of these solid glass K2's and have the guys at Alkali Fins in Ballina re shape and foil them to a simmons inspired design I gave them. It will bring the area and size of the fin down a lot to suit the board.Plus the rounded profile will be way more fun and forgiving , as this is a powerful design as it currently is.
They did a great job and suit the board very well.


Oiled up with 4 coats of lanolin brings out the colour






A great little project that should give Glenn heaps fo fun.