It all started with the fish when the innovative shapers and board builders out there decided to revisit the past for some inspiration. In doing so they brought back some lost skills such as resin tints and hand foiled fins.The Fish Fry has been a place for these fine craftsmen to showcase their skills. We have seen some amazing boards as shapers have pushed the boundaries over the last few years. As this new look at the fish has evolved to its many forms, it has influenced other shapes and designs along the way.This has spawned a renewed interest in other board forms by this same group and a wider following.Notably the Mini Simmons, Hulls, old school Logs and Pigs. It is pleasing to note that there are an increasing number of people building their own boards as well.All of this is to be applauded and celebrated as a positive for surfing.So it is only natural that these shapers and board builders continue to share their skills with us and include these other shapes at the Fish Fry.It has truly become a melting pot of ideas for like minded people.

Greenough inspired Velo Fish

At the fish fry there was a guy traveling up the coast in a bus who laid out a couple of great looking Greenough spoons and they got me thinking. It can be a little frustrating having a head full of ideas and doing nothing about them .So I decided that I would have to shape something as an experiment just for the hell of it. It is too small for me , but I have plenty of willing test pilots.

5ft 10" x 22" , not a lot of rocker...

The original spoon had a lot of flex in the solid glass bottom panel that flexed upwards to create a concave . So I have shaped the concave into the bottom front to back .

The idea was to squash the rail down to about 3" and give the deck some float and thickness. As the originals hardly float and are fairly heavy with all that solid glass. I Kept the hull bottom on the rails , but added the edge board and concave front to back.

A soft blend of many ideas and shapes coming together.

Still kept the concave spoon deck , but in a much more mellow fashion and at 2" thick it added the float that was lacking. If you look at some of the footage of the early spoons with just the hull bottom they really bounce around on the face. They were also lacking a little in waterline length at around 5ft 2". So I figure the flat edge board panel they later added acted like a planing plank on a speed boat and gave it something to sit up on and the added concave providing lift as well. I shaped the edge quite softly so as to not make the board track too much and blend everything together.

Anyway this is what it ended up like and the whole exercise has been very rewarding. I loved just carving away at the foam and look forward to the finished board glassed up.

3 comments:

unidentified said...

looking fwd for results.

kneeboarder said...

HI,
Thanks for the great job.

Can you tell me how you shaped these rails?

I am in the processing of designing my next edgeboard spoon and want to use your rail concept. It looks fantastic.
regards
max

Big Fish said...

Hi Max email me at grantnewby@bigpond.com or call me 07 55 395969