mutant build

yep been thinking about a board for a long time. Faded onto thing about a mutant around march.

The hardest thing about building a kiteboard is deciding on the size shape and amount of rocker and concave.


construction is 5mm vertically laminated bamboo core. 1 x 600 grm triaxle glass top and bottom. 1 x 150mm of 450gram carbon uni stringer on the bottom. I have the inserts indulgently waterjet cut out of 5mm 316 stainless.

The graphic is printed on rice paper an placed underneith the glass during layup.

resin is west system with 206 slow hardener.

I built my press and board using a skillsaw, jigsaw, drill and sander. no big industrial tools were used. Oh i used a tap to tap the inserts.

Rad man. Yeah the katana rides real small for its size too. thats why i widened the TT end by 2cm and which made it wider through the center too. I think thats part of why this board has better light wind performance.

Ive got a new build in mind,have just been drawing up plans for a surfboard mutant,i want the float of the sb and the versatility of the wave,thinking along the lines of a thruster one end and a quad the other,prob in the 4'8-4'10 range 19'-20'wide

Don't think the triple thruster will work ,on the cardboards to get the max out of the board you ride the thruster set flatter and the nose cranked like a tt with the extra length on the tt side I would doubt it would track as well ,I used to have a 5'2 surfboard that was blunt both ends like the wave that I modified and put nose fins on it was awesome rode backwards like the wave ,wish I'd never sold it.
If you were gonna do another build I would widen the tips more and put a bit more rocker in right at the tip,downside on the cutlass is the lack of tip volume and lack of tip rocker so you have to be well powered for it to rock.

ok TEST 2.

cross on 14-20 knots. 13m edge.

wind was northerly which is crap for waves. it chops them up and makes them messy. Its also not my normal direction.


anyway. started with the bindings on the widest setting. This made the board squirrelly and also slowish to turn on the wave face.

so i set the bindings on the furtherest back setting. This gace the board a real surf feel in the wave face. Very nice. But oing back out backwards I have to weight the rear to stop nose diving. It also made the board. more squirelly.

So i set the bindings to full foward. (ps I have 3 settings 40, 60, 80mm offset.
In the full foward position the board became more solid and the squirellyness almost disappeared.

The wind then pulled up to 20 knots and a boosting session ensued. boosting in this setting was sweet backwards or fowards.

So in summary. If i want to really ride waves hard and just survive going out backwards i'll set the bindings back. If i want to boost to the moon on the way out and have ok wave performance on the way in i'll set it further foward.

I may end up re-drilling the thruster end side fins to straighter. But i think that will sacrifice wave perfomance.

Lastly the weird undulating i am feeling i think is due to the center of the board being too flexible.

so for the next build I'll add some thickness to the center. and i like radmans idea or more rocker at the tips. so i will do that too.

But for now i think theres several months of testing before i embark on the second build.

ps grins are still very big. Now i can't wait until i get a westerly and clean waves to a real wave trial.

Radman. Can you get a photo of the wave and teh cutlass side by side so i can see the difference?

YEeeeeeeeeha!
Just finished an insane 30 to 40knot 6m reo storm session. dodging trees and logs in the water and me to double me dumpers.

squirellyness id all gone. i just needed to adapt my technique a bit.

man this board likes to be ride HARD! the harder the stupider the better.

i almost got into a barrel ! got slapped on the back by the white wash as i popped out!


yeah!

can you tell important pleased?

Glad youve got it dialled in plummet,today would of been good to try the Cutlass again,but wind was cross off 20-35 standing the waves up from a k+ out all the way in so the 5'8 SB was the call ,unreal ride am shattered.

hehehe

Can you tell i'm pleased.

posted that from me smart phone and it autocorrected me!!..

Welcome Plummet, to the world of mutants. I can't ride anything else these days!

I agree when riding the thing backwards you should not expect too much - just get out the back. I spend a lot of time riding mine toeside, so that now I'm as competent either way. Do you have a sliding spreader bar? It makes a huge difference on a mutant by allowing you to comfortably get the pull over onto your hip when toeside.

Ahhhhhh!. the first spring westerly and the first real cranking westerly on the mutant. The last couple of months have pretty much been northerly and sloppy waves.

Today saw 20-37 knots of peeling head high plus waves with cross cross on wind up at the point. I was running a 60mm surf dog on the middle and the TT fins on the side. Its a little slidier than the full on surf fin but suits my style sweetly.

I could slam and warp factor 9 on the way of punch over and off waves the the slash up something fiece on the way back in.

Very very please. excellento!!!.... oh yeah. yeha...

i don't notice any torsional flex. did you try nuplex ?

stink!.

if you cant get triaxle then try for unidirectional and double bias.

you could use uni on the bottom and double bias on the top!