I just finished a 5'11" Swallow Tail Shorty for my brother-in-law Myles Pallasch! Pics soon! Here are the design dimensions...

Here's my Myles Pallasch Model:

5'11" x 18 x 2 3/8" Deck to bottom rail before concaves (or 2 1/8" with calipers deck to bottom concave) at widepoint

Here's how you can lay out your template if you want to try to shape one yourself...

• N1 = 11 1/8" Wide

• N2 = 16 1/8" Wide

• Center at 35.5" = 17 7/8" - 17 15/16" Wide

• Wide Point is 18" and runs from the Nose back 37 3/4" to 40 1/8"

• T2 = 17.5"

• T1 = 14"

The Swallow Tail is 4.5" across, pin to pin, or corner to corner before you cut the swallow in.  The swallow can be 1 1/8" to 2 1/8" deep... or traditionally, it would be half the width of the tail (2 1/4" deep).

The board thickness before concaves are shaped in is 2 3/8" @ the center through wide point area, from Deck to bottom... after concaves are shaped in, a caliper reading will read 2 1/8" (because you are essentially putting 1/4" of single concave in the center portion of the board.

Rocker: using a straight edge with the fulcrum point in the center of the board (35.5" from the nose), measure the distance from the bottom edge of the nose to the straight edge.  Do the same for the tail....

• Nose rocker: 4.5"

• Tail rocker: 2 1/4"

Bottom Contours:  Single Concave with Double Barrel Concave running throughout...

• N1 has 1/16" of Single Concave (the Double Barrel doesn't start until 1/3rd back from the nose)
  

• N2 has 1/8" of Single Concave and 1/16" of Double Barrel Concave

• Center (35/5") through the Widepoint (from the nose back 37 3/4" to 40 1/8") has 3/16"-1/4" of Single Concave and 1/16" of Double Barrel Concave

• T2 has 3/16" - 1/4" of Single Concave and 1/8" of Double Barrel Concave

• T1 has 3/16" - 1/4" of Single Concave and 3/16" - 1/4" of Double Barrel Concave
  

The tail 1/3rd keeps a hard edge, going sharp from the tail up to blending with the rail tuck at the 1/3rd up from the tail mark...
(The Board length is 71", so 1/3rd of that is 23.666666666666666666666666666667")

The board works well as a Tri-fin or a Quad...

HAVE FUN!

Thank you Captain Eric Bertotti, Crew, and Oceanside Fire Department for the excellent opportunity to do a ride-along with you guys last evening.... and see how it's REALLY done!

ANOTHER PILOT WHALE MASSACRE IN DENMARK... Help the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to put a stop to this nonsense!

Fight the Slaughter!

In the following picture, the sea has been dyed red with the blood of a pod of thousands of Pilot Whales, herded into into a Denmark bay for an annual tradition of mammalian slaughter .

This happens EVERY YEAR  in the FEROE ISLANDS in DENMARK!

This traditional massacre represents a "right of passage" into adulthood for these young and very misled Denmark youth….

The Pilot Whales do not die right away... their bodies are penetrated with flensing hooks and knives, as they shriek and groan with audible cries!  They suffer a slow and agonizing death.

The Danes have no compassion as the docile marine mammals bleed slowly and suffer from their tremendous wounds as they fight, dying in a bay full of the blood of thousands of Pilot Whales from the same pod.

The COWARDS committing the mass slaughter are celebrated (as if this were a sporting event) by onlookers and fellow islanders as heroes of the island, having demonstrated their maturity... to the inhabitants of the island.

"...flensing hooks impaled into their their skulls and bodies as their bones are shattered by the blunt trauma and their skin is flensed off the bone while they writhe in agonizing pain, fighting for their lives..."

Obviously the Danish youth are misinformed and are not educated on the ecological effects of how the their actions negatively affect the entire marine ecosystem on a global scale.   Put together a program which goes to countries where mass slaughters like this are performed and accepted as part of the culture or tradition of the people of that area, and educate the people. Convince them that their cultural traditions must be reformed to stop these mass slaughterings of our fragile marine life.

STOP THE SENSELESS KILLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  YOU CAN HELP BY GETTING INVOLVED!!!!!!!!!!!!

SUPPORT THE SEA SHEPPARD SOCIETY!

Paul Gross on the basics of designing a hull

"Some general hull building info:

Typical outline dimensions, depending on how much drive versus manueverability you want, range from 16" x 21.5"(+5) x 15" (manueverable) to 18.75" x 22.5" (+10) x 15" (drive). Bascially, the more drive, the more nose area and further up the wide point. The further up the wide point, the wider it needs to be in the center to keep the tail wide enough as the outline curve tapers in. 15" is a safe tail width a foot up. Build forward from that number for most mainland small wave conditions. That's a good constant for a hull with no tail V.

If you want to use V, go up to 15.5" or even 16". Keep the V ahead of the fin. V behind the fin adds too much rocker to the rail line in the back. No drive. V in front of the fin flattens the middle rail rocker line, making the board fly out of turns. However, V kills the forward trim capability of hulls. Turns the board into more of a tail rider. Personal taste determines which is better.

6'8" to 7'8" is a comfortable length range, but not limited to that. 3" is a safe thickness, but you have to use a triplane or domed deck to keep the rails thin enough. Resist the temptation to go thinner with a flat deck. The bouyancy of the center area is what get these boards rolling in smaller conditions. If you want thinness, put it in the rails and tail. And keep the rails at least 60/40 or higher until the last 24" to 18". Rocker low...4-5" in the nose. 1-2" in the tail. A slight straight spot running through the middle. Avoid evenly curved rocker schemes.

Tail shape can range from anything from hard square to squash to arc to full roundtail to round pin. Swallows and pins don't seem to work on hulls for surf under 8'.

Use a fin box. Fin shape and placement are pretty important, and every board is different...so give yourself a chance to fool around and see what works for you in your surf. Most hulls like a 9" Greenough/Liddle/Frye fin between 8" and 14" up. Stick with the rear measurement in the beginning. The hulls with fins all the way up are used on proven shapes ridden in good point surf. Put the box 7" up, that will give you plenty of lattitude. Glass over the fin box if you want it to last.

Single 6oz. top and bottom, with either a 4 or 6 deck patch in the middle 3' of the board. Weight isn't super critical with flat rocker and a hull bottom. Use a sanded 320 W/D finish. It helps to water flow stay wetted out. Volan cloth is more durable, especially on boards that bend and twist a little bit. S-Cloth stiffens the structure, so use it sparingly.

The classic S-deck displacement hull, like this circa 1998 7'2" Paul Gross Designed Hull, has a 9" Greenough Stage IV fin, set 14" up from the tail at the trailing edge of the fin. The extreme forward placement is NOT intended to "loosen it up," but to allow the forward rail line to bury into a turn. The entire board (rocker, rails, and hull) is designed around this concept. It appears radical, but in fact it's carefully balanced. The thickness flow on this 7'2" Paul Gross Designed Hull is 1.625" one foot back from the nose, 3" in the center, 1.75" one foot up from the tail.

The tight, parallel track is unique to these boards. They are very fast down the line, but weak in vertical performance." -- Paul Gross (Swaylocks Resources)

My personally hand-shaped home quiver for my son and me, when we surf out front of our house...

1) The orange and blue one is a model I came up with for Gavin, called The Tadpole. He loves orange, so I had Afranio Albuquerque do a fire resin deck and a blue bottom wrapping around the rails with black pinlines. It's 4'11". He's almost growing out of it, so it'll get passed down to Bella and then Eden.

2) The next one is an exact, and I mean exact replica of my favorite 5'6" MEZ fish. The board I replicated was originally purchased from Raymond Turnipseed for $200. It looked exactly like this one, only the El Pescado I hand-shaped in this picture is 5'7". That is the only difference. I matched the opaque white up with the same blue and purple resin. I love to ride my fish with fins set more forward because I ride with my front foot way up and usually have my back foot right behind it, so I immediately fell in love with the original Mez fish, and in fact, used the same tail and fin placement on a blue fish that I hand-shaped for Delco Hagen in one of my older posts. This board was my toughest fish yet, because I had to get everything exact.

3) The third board from the left is a cross between the 5'7" fish (modified from my 5'6" Mez Fish) and the 6'0" Newshape Quad (to the left and right of it). I took the 5'7" fish template and and 6'0" Newshape template (Bill Thrailkill), and merged them together to get the 5'10" Destroyer Twin in this picture. I like my personal boards logo free, with hand signatures... keep it simple... build 'em... ride 'em.... pass 'em on.... build more of 'em!

4) The fourth board from the left, and my latest project in the "fishy" realm of boards is this 6'0" Bill Thrailkill Newshape Template with quad futues and optional FCS twins. This is my favorite of the 3 shown here that I ride. It is simply MAGIC!

5) I templated, and foiled this lime green flex fin too...

6) Not that you really care, but you probably wouldn't even notice the cap and shoes if I didn't tell you to check them out. The hand stitched patch cap is from Donegal, Ireland, purchased down the street from my shop at "O' Ireland" on Grand Avenue, Carlsbad. I spent quite a bit of time in Ireland back in 1995, so this cap reminds me of that trip whenever I put it on. I found it appropriate for these shots. The shoes are Etnies with matching patchwork courtesy of Etnies shoes and my brother-in-law Aaron Pallasch.

Daddy & Eden at the beach

Team Rider Christian Rodriguez.....

These photos are Christian Rodriguez at N.S. Huntington Beach
E-mail John Lyman Photos at lymanphoto@aol.com





Here's Christian's 5'6" Fish that I shaped. Luiz Masuzzo glassed it. The pic is from his phone, so I'll put some better pics up when he comes down here to surf.

The 5'10" x 21 3/8" x 2 1/2" x 9" tail (tip to tip) Bill Thrailkill "Destroyer Twin" is up for sale after being satisfyingly yet gently test ridden..

The 5'10" x 21 3/8" x 2 1/2" x 9" tail (tip to tip) Bill Thrailkill "Destroyer Twin" is up for sale after being satisfyingly yet gently test ridden... $500 FIRM

The 7'0" Freak of Laminar Flow has been SOLD...

The proud new owner of this unique board is Dan Salimone of San Jose, California. He purchased it for $600 including shipping and a brand new Legends board bag! What a deal! I'm very glad that he is the new owner... he lives in "Hull" territory and will be able to help me prove its theoretical design as one that is functional among the hull tribe of Central and Northern California.

The Freak of Laminar Flow

Here's my buddy Brad Whann holding The Freak after Rusty Whitlock glassed it and I foiled a fin for it. I threw a 15" Bahne box in there from the old Aipa Stinger days (7" from tail) and placed the base of trailing edge of my flex fin at 14" from the tail (for now).

The Freak of Laminar Flow

-Kawika (David Falkenau)
Artisan Surf Designs: Falkenau Surfboards & Fins
http://www.artisansurfdesigns.blogspot.com

Well, I've been pretty busy lately... shaping almost a board a day in my shop...

Soon I'll be posting pics of several boards I've shaped over the last few weeks....

6'2" Aaron Pallasch Shorty

6'0" New Shape Quad with BT Twin optional plugs... a personal board to demo (I have to foil the twins to custom fit the plug configuration)

6'9" New Shape Quad with BT Twin Surf Systems Slots... for Kenny Ball

7'0" Freak of Laminar Flow (Simmons, Greenough, Liddle, Gross, Krajewski, Noll, Velzy, Bernoulli, Lord, Hall inspired) Hull with 15" box glassed in 7" up from tail, allowing trailing edge of fin base to sit 11-14" up front tail block... plus hand foiled a 9.5" egg flex fin for it... a personal board to demo

7'6" Marathon Board (beginner board / wave catcher) for Steve Pullum

6'0" New Shape Quad with BT Twin Surf Systems Slots for Legends Surf Shop

5'6" Gomez/Johnson style hybrid Fish with custom art lams for Christian at Christian Surfers Huntington Beach

5'1" Custom Siglo 21 Magic Carpet Paipo/BellyBoard Stubby Hull (Emerald Green w/Beta Theta Pi logo) for Stan Stockdale

I also foiled several sets of glass on fins and made one skateboard

I'll be meeting every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with my business team for a new run of boards, clothing art, and fins for the NEW Adonai label.

Daddy, we love Wahoo's Fish Tacos!!!

One Volcano Bowl please! Me tooooooo! Yes! Extra black beans, please!

Did I mention I design tattoos, make custom fins, and skate decks too???

I shaped the 6'2" Aaron Pallasch Model seen below for Aaron Pallasch on August 4th, 2009

This is a 6'2" Single to Double Barrel Concave Tri that I designed and hand-shaped on Tuesday of last week... custom for my brother-in-law Aaron Pallash of Adonai Clothing Co. (www.adoniclothing.com)... he's a freak of nature when it comes to his aireal assault in the water... and he destroys boards. He will go through a polyester board in a week to a month (6'+, 190, size 11 shoes)... stomps through a deck laminated with carbon fiber... impact cloth... We were trying to figure out a glassing combination that he can't destroy on his landings, and found an amazing product from my friend Raul Espinosa over at Keahana. We are going to be making some of Aaron's boards using Keahana's blanks and Triaxial EPS Epoxy System. It's more expensive ($340 just to make each board) but they will outlast any other board out there.