Evening Session - 4/21/2020

There was supposed to be a little bump up on the south shore this evening, so Marlon and I went to check it out.  We hit Lots and it was an upcoming high tide at 1.2'.  There was zero wind.  And.... there was a bump up in the swell - chest to head high on the sets, waist to shoulder on the in betweens.  Marlon brought his longboard and was killing it - he was picking up a lot of the set waves at the peak and riding them all the way in.  I could not compete with the longboards (or the pretty intense crowd) as I brought the Pigfish for a second session.

This board flies going front side - as it should because it is a fish - long straighter rail line, harder, thinner rail mid board back, keeping some of that bite all the way up to the nose - it's the simple recipe for speed.

Going backside is a different story.  I may have made the rail a little too thick.  Or I may not have the right fins in the heel side.  Long story short is the board is loosey-goosey going left.  I will probably go another session with these Ryan Lovelace Quads in - but I may swap them out for a twinzer fin for more bite.  That said, cutting back from going front side, you bleed all that speed instantly in a non-binding heel side rail with loose fins - I had one turn just like this on a chest high wave - if I thought about it a little bit more, I think I could have done a 360... I still need to get the feel for this board before I can start doing things like that on instinct - that is what makes shaping your own boards so exciting - finding out what works and dialing in towards an optimized solution.

I think one early take away is asymmetrics work - and they work well.  I have a long way to in this experiment, but I'm sure it will be fun.  I have a Stubby dual single fin currently on the rack, but after that board, I think I'll just be shaping asymmetric surfboards from now on.