FCS Twin Fins - Oak/EP - Speed Dialer copy - UPDATE

Excellent weekend of testing, surfing and constructing.

The short list;

1. finished and tested the FCS speed dialer fins (see below)
2. fit (2) new FCS plugs on a customers hybrid OZ fish
3. (2) structural ding repairs on the swallow tips of the OZ fish
4. sanded and prepped (3) structural dings on a Rusty Surftech Gun
5. surf'd our brains out on a fast, rock reef point (8-10FT swell)
6. started work on a customers 5'10 Firewire - Sweet Potato copy (see below for teaser)

The Five Lab is booming! with more and more work coming in everyday.

Lots of exciting things in the works for FIVE - New blog site to go up in a few weeks, product photo shoot is booked and a surf safari essay with WATERSHOTS and hand drawn surf map

Thanks goes out to all of you dedicated lake surfers

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Out of the vacuum and ready for prep sanding and hotcoat.

hotcoat

wood grain

ready for finish sand and polish

hotcoat 2.0

ready for finish sand and polish

mounted and ready for a surf (5'10 Retro Fish pictured)

moments before they hit the water.

Fun 3FT day with only two of your buddies out at a local spot (only 5 mins from the FIVE lab) makes for a wonderful session - let alone when you get to surf a brand new (to you) board and fins with the water is still nice and warm!

Fin Report:

Good - Fast, loose and positive flex out of turns (a good thing).

Bad - scared to surf them in anything over 4FT as the wood core used for the tabs is questionable.

Next time - great template, excellent graphics but need new mounting system (ie: carbon fiber roving/poles drilled into core, then solid epoxy tabs generated by mold.

Thanks

Five Boys'

Teaser - new customer board:

5'10" Firewire Sweet Potato copy - 2LB EPS/custom Poplar stringer

 

Ekk! Surgery Round 2.0 - 6'6" x 20" x 2 3/8" EPS/EP Quad

This poor board; built with the perfect surf in mind...Thumping Mal Pais, CR beach breaks.
One of the later models shaped by Jamers' - a hybrid fish copy, the shape was meant to do it all.

- Quad, wide, thick tailed; But still small enough to duck dive and surf rail to rail.

Then this happened:

On a night like this:

Needless to say there was a ding created and the board was parked for the rest of the trip.

Upon returning back to the FIVE Lab; Jamers' rebuilt the rail on the quad. Then the board sat... and sat.... and sat...upon rediscovering The Quad, it had become subject to a surfboards worst enemy.

MOISTURE.

Riddled with black moldy foam; there was no other option, but, surgery.

Undiscovered Square Headed Shark attack?

*note: see the bear sticker in the background? that was surgery #1.

2.5LB EPS plug shaped to match

Heavy glassing schedule and prep sanding

Hotcoat (note: the bulge was sanded smooth, needed to double up the glass)

New Travel quiver waxed and ready right in time for our first hurricane surf of the year.

(right: 6'10" hybrid. left: 6'6" fish)

A good wax job is worth its weight in gold...

Why buy an ultra light board if you are going to put 3LBS of wax on it?

FCS Twin Fins - Oak/EP - Speed Dialer copy

Inspired from some drunken talks with an old time longboarder and his love for wooden "Wingnut" Longboard fins.

Further, I made a comment on a local lake surf forum about fin construction (see it here: Neville Park on fins) and it got me thinking...


Five - FCS - Twiny - Speedialer copy
Oak with 6/6oz and custom graphic (inside) and 6/4oz (outside) *note: the 6oz on the outside has been cut short to allow the tip of the fin to flex more
Large single outside foil, with deep trench foil in rear release.
small but deep inside foil to meet the trench on the outside.


This foil *should - be fast and skatey (not a surprise for the board its going on, 5'11" Retro Fish)


This combo of foiling is stolen from the quad sets, where the fin not only generates lift, but disruption of water flow and drive when cutting through the water on a turn.


Right now the fins have been sitting in a vaccum bag for the night and when taken out they are lighter than production fins and seem stronger (just been playing with them doing hand driven strength tests)

The real fun will be surfing them and see how the truly work



The Wombat - EPS/EP - 5'10" x 22" x 2 7/8"

The first post, always hard to find the perfect material to make "the first post" with; Perhaps I will jump in mid way.

This is FIVE's new surf-skate.
Like Danes' Dumpster Diver or Kellys' 5'-nothing fishy/hybrid's.
Its short, fat, quad and complex concaves.

Low entry rocker and float forward.
Bat tail
Nev P shape