Advice on size for first time build

[SupScott]

Hi,
I’m looking for advice for a first-time build for surfing the rare waves of the Irish Sea. My local break in Dublin is usually only knee high mush, from short period wind swell. It'll maybe get waist high on an even rarer good day. I’m 6ft @ 180lbs, 41yo and I’ve been riding a 10’7 inflatable from Decathlon for the last 3 years. It’s 32” wide, 6” thick @ 310L. I’m well beyond beginner level now and need a hard board to progress, the inflatable can be retired to days with the kids.
Not much 2nd hand market here for surf sups and a self build has been in my head for too long, probably from lurking on the Zone!
I want something that’s just as good in the small waves coz that’s my bread ‘n butter. I’ve surfed a friend’s hard board of similar length and width with only (only ) 170 litres so I don’t mind stepping down in volume from there.
Would anyone with more experience like to suggest a shape/size/volume for me? I reckon a classic longboard shape would go well, but not sure on size. Not really interested in flat water cruising. Need to keep it simple too as it’s my first build    Long term plan would be to build another board more performance oriented if this goes well. High hopes, eh!

Thanks
Scott

[burchas]

Welcome to the zone SupScott

I can’t say I envy you with the amount of information coming your way.
If you’ve been lurking on the zone for a while, you’ll know what I mean

It sounds like you already know more or less what kind of board you’re looking
to have, longboard style, 10-11 foot, 150-170 volume.

Maybe you can narrow down the answers you’ll get by what kind of features,
Shape wise, worth considering and what style riding most interests you.

If you could demo more boards that seems like a good fit for what you’re looking
To have, I think it will help you a lot. I know it did for me before I went with my shape.

[surfcowboy]

Lol Burchas. But it’s true, we have tons of info here.

I’d offer that making a mid length or short board like a fish first is way easier and let’s you mess up a few materials instead of a lot of material on a 10’ longboard SUP.

In good news a 10’ -11’ small wave board can be super easy to shape. Glassing is more of a challenge. Another option to learn is to make a small boogie board or something to learn to glass. I made 2 handplanes and when the second one turned out good enough, I started a board.

Good luck, I’m 99% sure you won’t follow this advice but that’s also fun. Hopefully you’ll end up more to the BigGreen/magentawave side and less like the guy who made those giant flat water molded boards out of like $1000 worth of resin and glass that we’ve yet to see completed. (If that guy reads this, please post up. There’s no shame in trying something. I built a foil that I’ll likely never surf but man, I learned so much and I’ll bet I surf my second foil.)

Can’t wait to see your second board man. Building is super fun.

[PaddleSpot]

Hi

Did you look at Atuacores website for a pre-shaped blank and the supplies ?

https://www.atuacores.com/surfshop/127-mod%C3%A8les-sup-paddle

[SupScott]

I just got my hot-wire cutter working in the last couple of days so I'm gonna try shape my own from builders merchant's EPS sheets. I hadn't come across Atuacores but I'll take a look at their other equipment and see how they compare with local suppliers.

I'm mostly looking for a board that glides well and catches the small stuff. But also want to be able to throw in turns if the waves are big enough. I guess my style (if I have one) is suited to longboarding. I get across to the Atlantic coast a few times a year so I'd like it to be usable when waves are head-high, which is as big as I've taken the inflatable into.

Thanks surfcowboy, I'm a bit over-methodical so I'll probably try shape a rail and concave bottom on some scrap foam first

Thanks,
Scott

[surfcowboy]

Yes, definitely work on scrap foam and practice for sure. Especially on glassing. These things are gigantic and it’s hard to get the glass wet before the epoxy starts to kick as a beginner.

One thing I’ll pass on. DW on here, who is a truly great shaper, talked me out of concaves and v when I started and so far I’ve had no need of them for SUP.

A lot of great boards are dead flat on the bottom. Makes them fast and if you decide you need it, you can do it on the next board you shape. But unless you’re an absolute master surfer, you very likely won’t be able to notice that 5mm of concave in the bottom. I did not.

[burchas]

One thing I’ll pass on. DW on here, who is a truly great shaper, talked me out of concaves and v when I started and so far I’ve had no need of them for SUP.

^+1
Great advice! Turned out be great and predictable ride for me when I went with flat on my recent board. The board before that had a double barrel concave to V
and I could really feel it stalling in critical moments, turn out it easy to f*ck-up the flow. The other thing I'll add is copying a proven rocker line. Yup, that's another
lesson learned the hard way

[SupScott]

Flat bottom it is so! In fairness, my inflatable is flat and I found it to have more glide in the small stuff compared to another hard board I've tried, a Fatstick Red Ripper.

The other thing I'll add is copying a proven rocker line.

So what constitutes a proven rocker line? Any production scale board? Any recommendations?

Thanks

[TallDude]

Flat bottom it is so! In fairness, my inflatable is flat and I found it to have more glide in the small stuff compared to another hard board I've tried, a Fatstick Red Ripper.

The other thing I'll add is copying a proven rocker line.

So what constitutes a proven rocker line? Any production scale board? Any recommendations?

Thanks

Ahhh... yes?  The magic rocker is the Holy Grail.  Continuous vs. Staged

Scott, Look at the link at the bottom of my tag line. That's where you need to start. Shape 3Dx. From there you can start to understand the design components.
Here's a link to some basic's on design..  http://www.surfscience.com/topics/surfboard-anatomy/rocker/different-rocker-shapes
You can pm me if you need help.

[burchas]

Flat bottom it is so! In fairness, my inflatable is flat and I found it to have more glide in the small stuff compared to another hard board I've tried, a Fatstick Red Ripper.

The other thing I'll add is copying a proven rocker line.

So what constitutes a proven rocker line? Any production scale board? Any recommendations?

Thanks

My starting point was the Naish Nalu. The good thing about Naish models is
The variety of sizes they have.  I’m sure one of these we’ll match your specs.

The other good thing about Naish is the 3D models they have of the boards.
Can be very helpful.

I’d also take a look at fanatic website. The Stylemaster longboard with a
different rocker line, 3D model available as well.

I’ll echo Talldude about Shape 3D. Really addicting but I learned so much using it.

[SupScott]

Thanks TallDude & Burchas. Been busy with work and holidays but back into it now 
There's some features in the current Lite edition of Shape 3Dx which aren't available any more (such as superimposing a ghost image). I did the design in BoardCAD as I wanted to stay close to my iSup's outline. I'd already started playing with BoardCAD anyway so in combination with the shape3D tutorial I've made good progress. I have an outline and profile that I'm happy with, its 10'7" x 31" x 4 1/8" and came in at 151L. But I wonder if the nose and tail are thick enough, especially for attempting nose-riding.
Tail: 0.9", Nose: 0.625"

Any thoughts?

[surfcowboy]

Others can weigh in but I’d add a half inch to both of those measurements for a 10’ sup unless it’s extremely low volume.

[Area 10]

Honestly, it would be cheaper for you to buy a new board from Gong. And you’d end up with a better design. Only go the self-build route if you really just want to build a board. Don’t do it because you think it will be cheaper or that you’ll end up with anything that you’ll actually want to use.

Last year I bought two boards from Gong: a 12-6 surf cruiser, and a 11ft longboard. They are full wood sandwich with carbon reinforced decks and Kevlar rails. The fit and finish is excellent and they are proving very durable, and have FCSII boxes, decent deck pads, and really nice handles. Each of them cost around 600 GBP delivered. If you made those boards, you’d spend more on materials alone.

A more expensive, but still good value, option for mushy small surf conditions is one of the Hypr Hawaii boards. They do some very stable low volume all-round/surf SUPs that would maximise your fun. It would be a million miles better than your inflatable. The UK distributor is called Richard and you can contact him on FB etc. And no, I’m not connected to either Hypr or Gong. But I do surf conditions like you describe, a lot.

[SupScott]

Honestly, it would be cheaper for you to buy a new board from Gong. And you’d end up with a better design. Only go the self-build route if you really just want to build a board. Don’t do it because you think it will be cheaper or that you’ll end up with anything that you’ll actually want to use.

Haha, you've thrown me into turmoil!
Originally, I started out just wanting to progress to a hard board from the inflatable but the self-build idea got into my mind somehow and got legs. In fairness, it'd probably take me a year to get around to finishing a project like this and/or take over lots of other things I could be doing. I must have changed my mind a half dozen times over the weekend but I think I'll heed your advice Area 10.
I've had a look into the Gong boards and the NFA 10' @140L looks like it'd be a good option for someone of my size and ability, don't want to go too small. The Pack option of board, leash, bag, paddle is coming in at just over €1K. Delivery alone is over one hundred euro. You definitely got a good price. Remarkably, even my wife is encouraging me to buy a production board and skip the self-build journey!

I sure like the notion of a self-build, maybe I can think about it again some time in the future when the kids are older and not hanging off me! Gotta stop lurking in the Shape Shack 

Thanks to all
Scott

[Area 10]

Yeah I got a good deal from Gong on end-of-year stock. But their prices are still amazing - they are full PVC sandwich boards, after all, which you usually only get on high-end boards like Jimmy Lewis etc.

Virtually any hard board will be a great step up from your inflatable. The NFA is a really great board. But would the 10ft be too much of a leap for you in those conditions? Big boards tend to be more fun in small weak mushy conditions. So don’t rule out the 11ft NFA maybe. You’ll love the extra stability, and if your waves are really crappy, you aren’t going to be pulling any fancy manoeuvres anyway. The 11ft will still be hugely better to surf than your inflatable: not even in the same class, in fact.

A good thing about buying a production board is that if you buy a popular model it will have resale value when you decide to move on. A home-grown board will be worth absolutely zip, even if you have poured a thousand pounds-worth of materials into it. You’d probably end up sticking it on the wall, or making a table out of it etc because you can’t sell it.