Love my mutant. Would not ride anything else. But many would disagree with me

Shinn Wave mutant 146 x 43. I changed the straps to a narrow soft surf footstraps to free up the feet a bit and put smaller fins up front.
It carves beautiful turns in the surf and on flat water. You can ride it backwards out through the surf with ease and quickly hop to toeside for carving on the face of small waves. Toeside is a breeze as well on flat water.

Downside - needs a bit more thickness in the rail midship and a V in the tail would be nice.



This is me V

Hi Robbie

The Shinn has 3 fins in the rear. The outer fins are slightly smaller but still big by TT standards. That said, I have put a bigger fin on the toeside rail to give a bit more bite in the toeside turns. It helps. The soft surf straps are a must too I feel.

The Shinn only comes in one size 146.

It doesn't ride like a TT. Not as loose as a TT but will get going in lighter wind due to the width. It really excels in carving fully power turns. I get a lot of comments on how hard it carves. In small surf it's great fun. If you treat the surf like a skate park and don't concentrate too much on just the wave face you can have a ball in small rubbishy waves.

Not sure what TT is equivalent. It's totally different. It doesn't ride like a surfboard either. Somewhere in between.

I have Ozone Reo's now and found they are well suited to the type of riding I like to do. After seriously breaking my foot 3 years ago on a bad landing I no longer jump and have adapted my style accordingly.

Cardboards wave,its an awesome board rides both ways like a dream and is awesome for toeside its so versatile its great in all conditions wouldnt be without it.
i have the rear strap set up slightly further forward so board gets up quick and you are driving flatter on the 3 rear surf fins when riding the opposite way you can crank it over hard out like a tt, have used it in anything from 10-40+ knots and it excells on gusty days with big lulls as you can just cruise through the lulls.

make me 1 to

Yep cardboards has toe'd in fins(def the way to go) and double concave rides just like a twinnie backwards on the edge,and more like a surfboard on the fins,has a lot of tip rocker and you can ride it real shallow and carve it real hard on the surf fins, well worth a demo,would have to say its the only board i've ever owned that i wouldn't part with,tried quite a few different mutants and none came close to the feel of the Wave.

I have had thoughts along similar lines.
It probably has something to do with being bored out of my brain for the last 6 weeks, recovering from a shoulder operation but ....

I was thinking of a blend of a surfboard and a twin tip, shaped from a surfboard blank.

Most twin tips have thin square rails. A few like the Jimmy Lewis Model 3, Underground SRF etc are close - they have a type of surf shaped rail but are still very thin like a snow board.

I would have it shaped with surf rails, a sharp edge near the tips becoming more round and soft towards the centre of the board. It would be shaped like a surfboard out of a blank and then glassed. The thickness could vary but basically 1 1/2 maybe 2 inches (depends how many pies I eat over the next 6 months)
This would allow the board to have more thickness than a traditional twin tip and hence more floatation and hopefully not be as power hungry as a Hammer or Jimmy Lewis type board for a similar length.
The bottom shape would be a single concave in the middle for speed blending into a slight double concave or vee through the fins.

You could have it set up with ether a twin fin setup on both ends to be loose or a thruster fin setup on your back foot and twin tip setup on the front foot like a Cardboard Wave. It would be pretty symmetrical so could be ridden either way like the Wave.

I believe the advantages would be a board that gets up on the plain early due to the extra thickness/buoyancy and a better carving quality of a surfboard.
The disadvantages, less strength/durability, and less pop due to the surf rails.

(I have a Cardboard Wave but it doesnt quite do what I want it to and I find it a little long for a twin tip. I am still yet to dial it in. I am not sure why and am still playing around with the footpad placement - maybe next summer I will sort it)

Anyway I would be interested in any feedback
I may even start shaping one in the next few months.

Definitely like to try the Cardboard wave. Flying High, I'll give you a call when the weather improves, if that's OK, for a demo.

The Shinn has a large foot pad, front and back (see photo), that doesn't lock you into one particular spot on the board while riding. The down side is that it is not thick and mine is pretty compressed these days and makes for sore heels after a few hours on the water.
One thing I found that helped the ridability of the Shinn was to get rid of the wide, hard foot straps and replace them with soft Cabrinha surf straps. They made a huge difference by giving more freedom of foot movement and saved me ankle injury on many occations when things didn't go the way I planned.

Plummet said...

ok v concave. hmmm.. that might be difficult to make. i'll consider it.

Most surfboards have a subtle concave running into a V in the tail. Not hard to do. I've made quite a few boards over the years with this concept

righto. i'll consider ways to put a double concave in the back and then feather it into a single concave moving to the front. At this point i envisage the front having more rocker and the back less. . . .. . . .... . .. .. .

It will be an amusing build. i've built a number of boards of the years. longboard skateboards and landboards mainly.

This will be my first kiteboard. And i'm going to do a mutant with varying concave rocker and make it out of bamboo carbon and glass.... whoot. no point starting easy. I might as well go balls to the wall.

my plan would be to use either Vlam bamboo 5mm or 2 x 2.6mm 5ply. it will be easier to press the complex concave with the 2.6mm ply layers. So i may run with that. But cooler to have a Vlam board...Time to do lots of thinking.

mate. that is a thing of beauty.

Nah i'll just box straight into the bamboo build. But it wont be surboard style thickiness. it will be 6mm total thickness more TT style. I want flex in my design. I don't like the complete rigidity of the surfboard foam core construction.

nice. i'm loving the discussion. good ideas. keep em rolling!

Plummet said...

ok v concave. hmmm.. that might be difficult to make. i'll consider it.

PS when i make one it won't be a foamy. it will be bamboo.

Radman. what does your cardboard have in the way of concave and rocker?

Will put a straight edge on it and take some pics to give you an idea ,your welcome to bowl down to Waik sometime and take it for a blast.

KIT33R said...

I made a kite surfboard out of pollonia timber a while back. Fun to ride but a bit on the heavy side and a lot of work. Plummet - would you consider making a prototype out of foam/fibreglass before going to the trouble of bamboo? Either way post photos and review.

That would be awesome behind a boat. Nice work btw

sorry

Krad is the Jimmy Lweis mutant you posted a pic of, only difference is that mine is blue.

i may take you up on that offer radman. but not sure when.