Are you interested in making or building a board to kitesurf on?
Although it may seem like something way out of reach for most, it might not be as un-achievable as you would think. I recently built a new little weapon out of an old ****ty board I had lying around at home and it turned out pretty good. Obviously it's not going to look like a brand new professional board, but it's sure as hell something fun to do and ride.
If you're interested check out my blog for some more info and pictures -
howareya.wordpress.com/
I had a look at you pictures, and I guess you did a good job, The question is, what did you want to achive?
I have cut down boards a fair bit, usually to lose the last couple of inches which make a board drag due to the tail rocker and also to end up with a wider tail for easier planing.
Moving the fins so far forward will stiffen up a board, so the result in your case would be getting a board that gets up and goes fast now for wider turns on a wave. I guess cutting off the nose like that is ok now, because cranking it so that you come back down verticaly will be quite hard.
I wanted to make something that felt more like a Wakeskate or skateboard, for doing airs and sneaky little punts in smaller surf. Also I just wanted something to do that would also improve my glassing and shaping skills.
As you have mentioned I figured a wider tail and less rocker in the tail would give me a faster board and more area to "pop" off the lip. I also cut the nose where I did after watching a video of myself kiting and realising that the nose hardly ever even touched the water.
However you are wrong about the fins. They aren't far forward at all. The front fins are in the standard shapers position for a thruster setup, so are the further forward back middle fin plugs. The rear quad fins are in the same position they were on the old board before I cut the tail.
The board is actually super loose and I have been told that moving the 4 closer together on a quad makes it even looser. I liked how it felt surfing, but I think I need more time and a better session to adjust to it on a kite. However I think it will be a lot of fun!
Yes you are right, moving fins closer together makes a board looser, I do that with thrusters. Quads usually are already close together. Sorry but the pictures make it look like the fins are further forward could be the original shape had the thrusters spaced further appart for a board meant for big waves.
I can imagine its great as a wakeskate type of board in small waves now.
congrats anyway. building your own thing is one of the most rewarding aspects to surf sports.
I would be interested in learning how to make a twinny out of some timber, maybe something from laminate strips then glassed.
The only info along those lines was how to make a rather **ty plywood thing, but I want something that will lead to something a little more like the Youri Zoon Pro (extremely optimistic, I know)
Any good instructionals on how to make something like that floating around?
Sounds interesting Chris. I would like to do something similar but I feel like it would be a lot harder to get an end product I would actually want to ride when compared to a surfy haha.
On a side note I surfed the board again today and it was a lot of fun. Shoulder high waves made for some nice 360s and I even punted my first Frontside alley oop 360 air. I didn't land properly but this board definitely made it feel a lot easier to try. It felt a lot like a loose skateboard.
Is that a buffaloe in the background of the first pic?
And BTW " low spark of high heeled boys"-Good taste!.
hey bro's.
Yes making your own board is super rewarding shredding on a board you have built yourself.
kiteforum has a board builders section.
youtube has tones of vids.
kiteboards are actually very easy to physically make. the hard part is settling on the design and dimensions and then knowning how much glass etc to use to get the right flex patterns etc. most of that will be a suck it and see for the first deck then progress from there.
True that Plummet. I personally like a thin glass job, much like I would surf, it lets the board flex and feel alive. I put a couple of patches under my heels sometimes though if I'm worried it will dent badly.
Update on the design if anyone cares haha;
I tried it twice today kiting and got a surf in after.
I made 2 smaller half size fins this morningfor the back fins of the quad, out of an old set of fins, I also added a bit more rake . It went a lot better kiting as I felt it was a bit grippy and over-finned when powered by a kite and you don't need that extra lift that more fin area gives.
I later surfed it with the 2 smaller rear fins as well and it felt pretty under-finned.
So in conclusion:
Kite = G3000's in front and smaller half size fins in the rear.
Surf = G3000's all round.
