I don’t always find the board I dream of amongst the major brands.
I always found it interesting to go and see a shaper and expose my ideas. At the end, sometimes, I would have been better off buying a board from a shop but I just find it less exciting.
Now I am talking about a 17’ DW SUP. The main problem is the cost. You just can’t have one made just to see how it works.
I went to see dale and told him my ideas. He was not really convinced so I ended up even less convinced !
But I talked to Travis and he told me it could be the way to go...
At the end I made a deal with dale, since computer shaping allows it, we’ll go exactly trough what I want and we’ll shape a board at a 1/5 scale. If it looks good then I’ll go ahead.
Guess what , it looks real good to me and now I am waiting for the full size
Of course it takes a bit more time and it has a cost, but I will even end up with a little replica board to put on the wall of my office
And the all process is very rewarding since you can try more radical options. We even corrected something after the 1st one came out and made a 2nd one.
That’s what I call service and thanks to dale to cope with everything.

Cool !

What are the basic dimensions for the board?
What is the thickness of the standing deck portion?
What do you like about the bigger volume nose?
What volume is it?

I feel that tail volumes are good, to force the tail to float up sooner on runners.

I look forward to seeing you post the finished product !

that looks great , i have to take my board in to Dale to get fixed up , i might see if he can turn into a 12,6 or a 14.

Simondo said...

Cool !

What are the basic dimensions for the board?
What is the thickness of the standing deck portion?
What do you like about the bigger volume nose?
What volume is it?

I feel that tail volumes are good, to force the tail to float up sooner on runners.

I look forward to seeing you post the finished product !

basic dimensions are 17' X 28"1/4 X 6" (4"1/2 to5" at the standing deck position)
the board has less front rocker and is narrower in front than all the boards dale did before so I wanted a lot of volume to allow some nosediving . The nose is 8cm thicker than usual so I can narrow it with a V bottom in front.
I know it will be hard with a side wind but that's not what I'll use it for. It will be pure downwind program.
I had the feeling I needed something like that after watching the OC6 at the 16.15 and 16.55 mark of oc16.tv/shows/31 and as he says before we need to try to develop something that works better. Maybe it will maybe it wont.
I have been training more with my ski lately and I just have a strong belief that we are pushing too much water with most of the DW boards we actually have.
The real question is "will I be able to steer it on the big runners?"
Hopefully I'll have the answer next week!

Hi Alain, I really like your ideas with this. Looking forward to having a go on this one. Maybe we should bring my DC14 and we can do some sea trials on them together.