Custom Surfboard

[Bill]

Thinking of having a custom surfboard made. An important point for me is upwind ability. Think this is important as if you can get back up wind quickly, you can ride more waves! Gonna have medium volume (around 25 ltrs) and 5 fins (so I can go 4 fins if I want more upwind ability). What is the main thing to include for upwind? Is it straight sides (so front and back come out fairly quickly - perhaps a fishtail- to give a straight-sh edge)?

I weigh around 76kg or 170 pounds.

Thanks

[madworld]

Plenty of nice production boards out there. North Wam, Cabrinha Spade or cabrinha s- quad, Ocean Rodeo Duke 2.0 many others. You need a board with reduced tail rocker or the board will just want to plane off the wind. Any thing more aggressive like the pro model boards will not go upwind but are assume down the line.

[WMFG]

Firewire Vanguard (production in kite construction) is well regarded as offering exceptional upwind ability. Lots of reviews/infos on this site.

If you want a custom board try a Johnno from http://www.amundsoncustoms.com/johns-boards/kiteboards/
He's been making custom kite-surfboards since the early days of kiting.

Lots of good options on the market. I'd be cautious about overly optimizing around upwind ability, good all-around surfboards go upwind well. Vanguard being an exceptional example of this.

[Bushflyr]

Just stop. Basically the questions you're asking mean you have no idea what to ask for. "Upwind ability" has no consideration in board qualities for those of us that ride waves regularly. Who cares if you can pull 25 meters higher on a tack if the on wave handling sucks? Also, you mention volume. Don't. Volume matters when you're paddling into a wave. It's completely irrelevant when you have a kite to pull you. Surface area and bottom contour matter.

So, having said all that, buy a 5.2 vanguard and be done with it. You'll never regret that board at your weight.

[TomW]

I've not ridden a ton of boards, but spent 4 years on a Slingshot Celeritas thruster, a year on a Spacepickel quad. I thought both those boards went upwind ok. I'm 78-80 kg. Kitesurfing 14 years.
Then I built a 4-8 quad in a cutoff nose and tail design. Fins in tight cluster and minimal toe in, front and rear fins parallel toe in on each side. This board was magic. Super fast, turns fast, upwind. if anything wrong, its too twitchy, turns too easy. I've built 3 more, now a batch of 5.
People waiting for them. Just a hobby builder, so I think I got lucky and stumbled onto a good design.
You don't need a custom, but there's a big difference between boards. Pretty sure the magic is fineå placement, toe-in. Kitesurfing is not the same as surfing.

[TomW]

[Bill]

That looks a nice board tom. Some deep channels underneath. Similar to some of the firewire boards. Got any more pictures? How thick is the board. Its very short at 4' 8"

[handy]

for boards going upwind like a freight train, there a few important points.
Outline the straighter the better, deep single concave bottom, a flat stringer rocker, hard pulled down rails.
i'm building a lot of boards like that check https://www.facebook.com/andyhaitz.customboardsor have a look at http://ahcustoms.ch/

[BWD]

The stub

DIY Paipo/mini-simmons inspired upwind/lightwind machine:
5'x22.5"X1.25"
Cheap and dirty 3mm ply skins, foam. Bulletproof but heavy. Next version will have thinner plywood skins and/or just glass on bottom.
Saved about 10-12 sessions for me. Kind of like a hydrofoil* but only needs about 8" depth.
Extra width makes it float nicely on jumps, pulled in tail makes it turn "automatically" yet super stable....
Just throwing out there as example of a design tailored to specific needs. Don't think I'd go
with it in >3' waves but was very nice for summer.

*sort of a joke, sort of true

[NHKitesurfer]

DSC_0124.JPG

Are these the carbon fibre/kevlar boards made in Sweden and sold in the DR? If so, I took a close look at Marshal's board but did not get a chance to ride it. Maybe when Chuck get's back with his new board I'll give it a try before buying a Vader after all