looking at the concave

Concave is the term given to the curve shaped into the bottom of the board, the depth of the concave varies on the board model, waves to be ridden and the shaper:

for a sucky wave like pipeline - a  deep single concave going to a vee out of the tail for bottom turns

for a more rolling wave like sunset - a shallow concave is used with a vee going out of the tail

Single Concave

 This  reduces the rocker curve of the board giving it directional speed whilst maintaining manouvrebility because the concave pushes the water down the middle of the board along the concave which acts as a very subtle channel.  The concave is used on most shortboards and some fish.  If the concave is too deep the board gets a bit twitchy although some surfers request a deep concave .

Double Concave

Two concaves are shaped into the bottom of the board between the middle of the fins this loosens up the board making it easier to surf the board from rail to rail, jetting the water between the fins.

                                                  Triple Concave

The single concave is shaped into the bottom of the board through to a double concave between the fins.

The  choice of concave depends upon surfer ability , intermediate surfers normally like a double concave because it makes the board easier to ride, a triple concave is more often requested by experienced surfers.  Team riders like single concave out through the tail with more under the back foot (between the fins)  giving it more control in the curl of the wave and making it more responsive.

But the main thing to remember is that many ingredients need to be right before you put the concave in.  Rocker and rail line have a lot to do with how much concave is put into a board but this will be talked about later.

The raw material for most of the boards I shape is made from the polyeurothane foam (PU).

The first blanks were made at the end of the 1950’s by a couple of famous Californian surfboard shapers but the man credited with perfecting the common blank as we know it today was Gordon “Grubby” Clark.

This changed surfboards overnight from the bolsa wood cores that they were before to lighter more high performance boards also this was the start of true production surfboards.  Today Clark Foam is no more but there are many different companies in the market making  large quantities of blanks in Australia, South Africa, Europe and California.  There are many different qualities of blanks but the best quality seem to come from places that have a stable climate - the Gold Coast ,California and South Africa.  This is because the constant temperature of  around 80 degrees gives a consistency for the blowing process minimising the air bubbles ( I am not sure exactly why this occurs as I am not a chemist ) but blanks blown in colder climates never seem to keep the quality consistent. Also a lot of the better blank companies still pour their mix, to blow their blanks by hand and this is a very fine art which gives better results than blowing the blanks with a machine.

Blanks come in many variations from hand shaping blank moulds to machine plug moulds most companies have at least 10 - 20 moulds on offer at all times with others that can be ordered.  Many of the top shapers have at one time designed plugs for the larger companies giving the product closer tolerance ie the starting rocker curve and thickness and rail line.  The original blanks were just lumps of foam.  Blanks can also be ordered with a shaper’s specific rocker curves this is achieved when the glueing up process of the stringer is done.  I only use US Blanks in the UK this company seems to have taken over from where Clark left off, they probably have the most diverse catalogue on the market today.  The foam is hard but very easy to shape and the stringer glue ups are excellent.  In Spain as there is no outlet for US Blanks I use Extra Foam which is made by Rod Mcdonald, in South Africa the foam is different to the US Blanks ie the chemical mix used,  it is very hard still and is easy to shape but has a different texture to the US Blanks also the wood used for the stringers is different to the US Blanks.

For Epoxy Blanks (EPS) see  - E - Epoxy  coming soon

But the best thing I saw was the waves.South and North fistral firing all week.

The Boy’s though were all surfing Little Fistral as it was a spring low tide.Big right breaking,but did’nt see Roger Knight who never misses a session.The sheriff and myself decided to give it a miss,the water is still cold.Everyone wearing skull caps and gloves.East wind,freezing at fistral.See you all at easter.

Next week I am back in England from the 9th.Check in at Seabase to order your new stiks.

It’s good to  see in the so called winter that there are lot’s of people surfing.North fistral was really Good to with plenty of the locals out too

line up shot

Finally I made it to the Portugese coast this weekend a solid two hour drive from Seville through orange groves and trees full of blossom. Through the border very mountainous and green following the coast beautiful sunshine .  When we got to the coast the Legend  team was there in full force just getting into their wetsuits and the Soul team wasn’t far behind.  The waves were pumping. So without further ado I was in  managed to surf for over four hours on Saturday . Sunday morning was even better by the second surf of the day I couldn’t paddle so headed on home to the Sunday evening traffic jams.

MB Surfing

Yes that’s me paddling out on my own on the 31st January.  Friday night there was a big storm in Seville but checking the wind guru website for the waves in Canos de Meca I saw there was a window to get a good two hour surf  on the Saturday morning early before the next storm came through.

Got up at six thirty, loaded the boards and my wetsuit into the car and left the bat cave straight into the first rain storm of the morning wondering if I had done the right thing. Seville to Canos de Meca is an hour and a half it was windy and raining all the way and the forecast didn’t seem to be very reliable as I was expecting clement weather.  I arrived at the Faro in the middle of a wind storm but suddenly saw a break in the weather see picture.

There was no one around it was eight o’clock in the morning , Wonkey was sleeping off his gin and tonics in his van so I got changed and paddled out on my 6′1 Allstar.  I surfed alone for an hour before Wonkey surfaced, I was told that lots of people had been checking the surf but weren’t going in as it looked a bit rough the sets were about 6 feet it was a lot better than it looked.

If you imagine a line drawn perpendicularly to the bottom of the board the central fin is always set at 90 degrees to the board but the two side  fins are tilted off this line by a certain amount, outwards.  On my boards I use four different fin angle settings depending on the board model.

#1. Three Degrees

Used for Twin fins and Vee Bottoms.

A twin fin surfs  loosley as it doesn’t have the third fin so the fins need to be set fairly straight to give the board drive.  Similarly with a vee bottomed board will give the fins more splay so you don’t want much angle on the fins otherwise you wouldn’t be able to control the board.

#2 Five degrees

For all boards shaped from 1995 - 2000- now used on custom boards when it is a particular surfer’s preference

I used to use five degrees for all my boards as it was a good general angle for boards with subtle contours it was also the industry standard. However with the greater control preshaping machines allow the shaper over the combination  of rocker, concaves etc, designs have become more specific and the five degree setting  is not so common. Now most shapers change their fin angles to suit the bottom contours of their designs.

#3 Six Degrees

Most Models

Six degrees is now my preferred default fin setting, I’ve moved it on one degree as my designs have more rocker curve and concave through the tail where the  fins go.  This extra concave through the tail acts to straighten the fins up therefore I have added an degree to splay the fins out more because if the fins were straighter the boards would become stiffer and less manouevrable.

#4 Eight Degrees

I use eight degrees for team boards with deep concaves from the team feedback, the eight degree setting compliments high performance boards perfectly balancing speed and directional  manouvrebility.

Four fins

The best place for more information on four fins is the master of the Quattro system Bruce Mckee everything I know about four fins I learnt from him. www.mckeesurf.com

N.B. A lot depends on where the fins are positioned on the boards aswell as the angle - most shapers fin positions are a closely guarded secret and are different depending on the size and model.

Coming to Soul

I made my first trip to Soul surfboards in Seville, in January 08.  Leaving England at this time of the year was a god send.  It was the middle of winter and not much good surf to be had.

I was coming because of a link made by my good friend Mike Ryan. Mike had been to working  with them in the winter of 2007 and said they were looking for a  named shaper who was  was known well in Spain.  I was excited, to be back in Spain after leaving Pukas at the end of 2003.

I arrived at Seville airport.  The sun was out and it was 25 degrees,perfect.  I  was met Jesus and Isreal, the bosses of soul surfboards at the airport and they took me  to the factory and the famous Legend’s surfshop. On arriving I was very impressed with the factory it was brand new and expertly set up, a perfect place to work.

While on my first trip I made 10 boards.  I was then invited  to come back once a month to work for them.  This all started very well but soon work was getting busier and I was not able to keep up.

Jesus asked if I fancied moving to Seville to work full time with them.  I accepted, Seabase now have me coming to shape once a month in the UK  and so  the family  and I are now living in Seville, enjoying the Andulician weather and the great surf here and in Portugal.

The countryside is really green all the way down to the coast quiet suprising really as this is the ‘frying pan’ of Spain. As we got to the coast there were flocks of flamingoes on the salt flats and across the plain maybe 6 kilometres away we could see the sea and thought that the waves looked rather smaller than we had expected.

Approaching the Faro

Another shot of the Faro even if I can’t get you pictures of the surf I know the Faro shots are very popular.

We were quite disappointed scorning the reliability of the information we had been given that morning and I was worried that I had over gunned myself as I had only brought my 6′6 Pocket Rocket whereas Wonkey had his 6′9 Single fin.  So instead of getting straight in we got our priorities sorted and had a chorizo sandwich on the beach washed down with a can of coke.  However over lunch we soon realised that the sets were much bigger than we had originally thought.

the line up don't be decived it was 2- 2 1/2 metres

We should have realised that it was big just because ther were no more than five people out as Wonkey says the as the waves get bigger the number of surfers gets less.  So without further ado we got ready .  It was a lovely warm day and clear, Africa beckoned on the horizon.

The Pocket Rocket

Ready to go

THE DROP

I had been out the back for about half an hour when this big set came along  the boys called in to it encouraging me to go I didn’t really want to take it but I did  very late, as I stood up on my board I was on tiptoes my body at full strectch my hands straight up above my head in the air,as I dropped in I ws holding onto my board with my toe nails my heart in my mouth but my board just gripped into the curl of the wave and  as we landed I did a bottom turn before it closed out. That was a long way.  The first thing Wonkey said when he got out was how was the drop on the wave three times my size so that makes it well over 16 feet I wasn’t looking behind me at the time !

So the best wave of the surf was my last one, the second of the set I took quite a late dropthen a big trim into a cut back past a longboarder paddling out then a big bottom turn into the next section which I raced as it walled upI did a snap at the end into the third section where I did a carve then a close out re-entry by then I was halfway across the beach so I bellied in very pleased with myself. So all in all it was a good test run of the Pocket Rocket as I have made a few changes to it and as a semi gun it really performed for me today.

After the drop I think I am a little bit taller than when I started