Still feeling the keels...

My first fish, circa 2001ish... shaped by a buddy. He laid up all of the glass panels, cut out and foiled those keels himself. You can't tell in the photo but they had a neat smoke-colored tint to them. I rode the board with those fins for a few years. They've got a pretty wide base and they're set pretty far back, parallel to the stringer. It gave the board a lot of drive but it tended to feel a little stiff. I think it allowed me to push the board into conditions it probably wasn't meant for (think well-overhead point surf). At some point, maybe a year ago or so, the same buddy knocked those fins off, incorporated them into some kind of art project and glassed on some of the wood Geppys from True Ames in their place. We moved the keels up slightly and gave them a slight toe-in. I haven't had the chance to ride it much since then (because it's been on long-term loan to the shaper) but the general consensus is that the new fin set-up works really well!

All the same, I thought this shot that I took of the old keels when I was in Australia back '03 came out bitchin'.

[=Black][=1][ 1]5'8 Christenson here in the UK.[/]

6'2 Christenson

[/][/][=Black][=1][ 1]Mason Surfboards 6'2 - shaped here in the UK[/][/][/]

N B,
Pavel sure has the Mojo. They all look perfect to my eye. No funk.

Nico, those are 'wicked' keels. Keep it coming, boys n girls! Mike

hey tim,

welcome! good to have more uk folks on this thread....

Yep, two customs. Rich is a good friend of one of my co-workers who grew up surfing with him, so we went down to SD to see him a year ago or so and spend a weekend with him getting some boards shaped.

I actually don't know much about the dimensions of the boards other than that the quad is a 5'8" and the twin keel is a 5'9". I simply told Rich the general length of board I wanted and the types of waves I mostly surf and let him do the rest. We got to watch him shape all of them but I don't recall him spending much time taking measurements as he went along. He just laid down the templates and ran with it. I figure he's done enough to know when he's got it right.

The boards work great although I'm anxious to try some different fins on the quad and see how it affects the ride.

As far as comparing my Pavel twin keel to the superbank, i think the superbank tends to have a little more of a full nose (maybe wide point a little farther forward?) and you tend to ride it a little bit shorter. Although I don't have any personal experience with the superbank design other that fondling a couple of shaped blanks in Rich's shaping shop. They look like fun.

funny how you can tell who's put the time in to really figure it all out too....

always good to see some really ride a fish correctly.

besides me of course, lol

Hi Guys

Don't get much time these days to get some boards done. But here's my ride from the last batch. Stringerless with gehart big fins, a tad over 3" thick.









and one I did for a friend





Happy Christmas Joe

I love the foil on yours surferguy80. Did you build it?

What about some Brom's? There used to be some in the photo archives back when he posted here. I always thought his were the best of the best. Including the SD guys. Mike

That is a COOL board!

Absolutely inlove with my 5'8 mabile keel at the moment. Really flies:

Also have this locally shaped 5'10 copied from an original 72 jim blears shape. Great fun down the line but a mare to duckdive and not as loose off the top as the mabile:

...do "mini keels " [probox tabbed] count ?

home made ...

Just got a new 5'5" Rainbow Pavel superbank keel...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29626008@N04/

It completely caught me off guard, this thing rips!... i was thinking when i ordered this it was gonna be relaxed small wave fishin... this things burns down the line with such a smooth, connected, powerful acute trim and arcs cutbacks from way way down on the shoulder with speed and drive for days thru the cutback... swoops, compresses and extends with so much drive and finesse... surfs so under my feet and so solid i dont think my speedialer will be seeing much water.... cant wait to get it into some good surf, and never thought id be saying that about a traditional fish!... cheers to keel riders!

Thanks for posting pics!

All mine execpt the red quad is a bud's 5'8" christenson

the keel with blue fins is my little brother's at a flyweight's 5'2" x 19 3/4

More pics of the pavel in my link...feel free post more of those

Sweet little ride.
pm me if you're interested and I'll show you how to post pics.If I can do it anyone can. : )

New Mackies, sidecut flexies. The waxed one is Mick's prototype and looks like being my demo board (STOKED!) It came with some experimental fins in to the bargain. The other one is new, clean as a whistle and looks insane. It has the glassed on keels which are ultra foiled and feel really flexy. I know I'm biased but Mick is doing some of the most exciting new surfboard design out there and I for one cannot wait for some sort of swell to come to lovely SoCal!

Just glassed these on Sunday - still have to sand and polish.

Will post board pics later

Shwuz and Rooster- the boards are fresh in and I haven't had a chance to ride it yet- Mick sent these other modified keels too.
Shwuz, that veneer work is beautiful- I'd hate to wax that board.

you have to use firefox to post pics from a mac, not safari. you also need a photobucket or flicker account as with PC's

Updated after HC and sanding

Here are my two Frye's with Geppy's: my 5'10" "BabyBlue" and my 6'9" Longfish "BigRed"... My wife snapped this shot of Skip and me when I went down to his shop to see my "surprise gifts"!












Jerry Ingham admiring his handy work on those difficult glass jobs. Blue is my favorite color, but this Salmon tint came out bitchin'!




The weekend after Clark closed his doors, I drove over to the back yard shack I was shaping in and grabbed my last two fish blanks (a 6'2"C and a 6'9"Y). I threw them in the car, drove them down to Skip's shop and asked him what I could do with them. He said, "Well, I could make two fish out of them!" He took 'em, wrote my name on them, and asked me what sizes I wanted. I wanted a 5'3" or a 5'5" or a 5'6" and he talked me in to a 5'10" and a 6'9". He took 'em in an moved 'em to the front of the line and said, I'll call you soon...

I ended up getting one on my birthday with some new Skippy shirts, a new cap, and a blue beenie from his private stash. The other one was on Christmas. They were both surprises from Skip and my Wife... then Jerry Ingham glassed 'em over at Javier's at XTR (however, they are poly..not epoxy). What a gift!!!! Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's a better photo(i hope) of a keel fish I built almost 3 years ago. I rode it a lot this Fall. Geppies.

And the bottome. I think I figured out how to make them bigger. Hope not too big. Mike