The New Board

I have gotten the blank for the new SUP just about ready to go! I made a few modifications, over what I posted below. First of all I have been trying to get an idea how to do the rocker on a SUP and the truth is I have not been able to find all that much out, apart from a few general comments on the Stand Up Zone like the one I read that said there are some "crazy flat rockers out there." I suppose that is compared to your average surfboard. The problem for me is figuring out what the profile might look, and that is pretty hard to visualize this far from anyone else making boards. I can get an idea of overall shape, there are plenty of top views on the internet, but there are no side views like there usually are for sea kayaks. So, I decided to go with what I know. I cut the plywood stringer that runs down the center of the board with rocker close to what an Epic kayak has, 1 1/2 front and back, fairly sharp in the front and slow in the back.

While I was at it I moved the center on mass back making it more of a swede form than the fish form of the Stewart Campbell board shape I started out with. It is a good thing these boards are not as labor intensive as building a strip kayak, or I don't think I would be quite so inventive with my shaping.

A New SUP

Well, in usual fashion, about the time I get through with my first (insert something new that I just made), I start another, sleeker, hopefully faster version. Well, now that I have more-or-less finished my first SUP, I am starting another. This one will be 18 feet long, 4 inches narrower, have a much rounder bottom. If I am able to stand on it, hopefully it should be faster.



I am again starting with a photo of one of Stewart Campbell's boards, and then drawing it up and establishing dimensions with Illustrator, supplying the details and profile by thinking of a fast kayak. We will see how that works!



I ordered a couple of fins. It is still not clear to me what is the right way to fin a SUP for a river. Most of the rivers I would be likely to run will have shallow spots. The problem is that most SUP fins are long-- 10 to 12 inches. I think that a long fin will hit bottom and may negatively affect the kind of maneuverability that running a river will take. I ordered a 4 inch fin (designed to be a thruster) and a 4.5 inch fin. We will see, and I am sure eventually I will be making them :-)