Fins are too expensive

How do you justify £80 for a set of surfboard fins? FCS and Future seem to manage it but my conscience simply won't let me part with that kind of money. So instead then I've decided to whittle out my own from some wood and fibreglassing them through the wonder of Solarez sun curing resin. This'll be the first time I've tried to make some with FCS plugs so interesting to see how these turn out. Incidentally the pink ones are my interpretation of the Lost Controller fins and the brown and green ones are sneaky little bodyboard fins.

Jonesys Technicolor Dreamboat - The Longboard of Many Colours

So after a couple of weeks of struggle, numerous banged walls/doors and a lot of resin mess I've finally finished the biggest board I've built yet, and bar a few colour changes (would have liked a bit of yellow on the tail also) I have to say I'm quite pleased with the outcome. Now I just need to get it down the beach and start competing for waves with the paddle boarders, bring it on.

Big Board Small Shed

A few years back a 10 foot shaping shed seemed plenty big enough when the biggest boards I made were still under 6 foot. Squeezing a nine foot something longboard into there was quite the Tetris problem, more importantly, trying to get the finished bastard out of there without cracking a rail on the wall was too big am ask, as evidenced by the attractive repair job. 

Somehow though it's emerged unscathed and looks similar enough to the pictures of the Walden Magic for my tastes. Especially pleased considering I just whittled it out from the blank without the aid of a template  or markings, luck rather than judgement probably.

 

Jonesys longest wave and the start of the longboard

Took a trip to Morocco in March, neatly timed to coincide with possibly the only flat spell in an epic winter. Fortunately on the Thursday I was there the swell picked up enough to warrant giving Immsouane point a look. After a decidedly dodgy descent into the town, engine breaking to compensate for burnt out breaks, we were confronted with 2 foot waves and a healthy crowd of longboarders. Figuring the Jubilee Sim would struggle to compete I decided to rent a longboard from a local shop, a Nat Young designed Bic (putting aside my usual disdain for Bic's). By the time I'd gotten in the water the swell had picked up to head height and the crowd had tripled in size. Nonetheless by sitting a little outside there were plenty of rides to collect of leg shaping length. Finally got to live out my ambition of a wave so long it's easier to come into the beach and walk back to the take-off point. This video is the longest of several minute long rides and pretty much inspired me to get home and build myself a longboard.

I'd already pretty much decided on the artwork long before the board came to mind, being a fan of the work of Two Crows surfboards for a long time, basically going to go wild with some resin tints and see how it goes.

And as for the actual board itself I'm going to try and copy the design aspects of the Walden magic model, he seems to talk a good game and I always like to try something different, what's the worst that could happen?

Making Some Space With Another Board For Sale

Well I've been a bit slack with the blogging for a while, that darned vicious cycle of not updating but determined to get back in the game and got a lot of updates to catch up on. Now that the days are getting longer and I can get more work done I've decided to make some space in the garage by getting rid of some of my doublers so for anybody interested in a paipo the little yellow balsa number is up on eBay this week! Riding on the back of my new longboard incidentally. 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261472841467?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649