New Porpoise

FOR SALE: The New Porpoise which I shaped for the Fish Fry. 6’0 x 22” x 2 5/8” Bernoulli single into double concave with bonzer feeder concave channels. New EVO4 Fish set up with American Ash Medium front runners and the new TS Foil LokBox cutaway keel-fish fins… the fins will add a huge amount of extra drive through the tail and when combined with the flatish tail rocker this board will really fly. Gloss and polish, double pinlines both sides.

The artwork reflects some things on my mind I guess… this March I was about to get on a plane to the Mentawais ; Ant and I had just got to the airport at 5am after driving through the night… and thought (obviously) “why not, we’re on holiday…beer!”… and then the disaster unfolded on the screens in front of us as we sat at the bar, later with Fukushima. It had a profound effect on me… and I guess this board was just my acknowledgement of this. The orcas crept in as I had recently found out that dead Orcas have to be treated as hazardous waste when they die as the blubber is so contaminated… So my thoughts are with all those in Japan… and with our cetacean friends.

       

Get it quick before I can’t resist waxing it up for a wetting… show price of £650 with an extra discount if it is going to Japan or to anyone with anything to do with cetaceans. Looks like this one is on its way to Japan, which is so perfectly fitting. But if it falls through for any reason express your interest now and I’ll get in touch.

gone dotty…

Part finished artwork on the new Porpoise

Glassing blues…

and bronzes and reds

The new 5’8 Sprat, the new 6’0 Porpoise, and the new 6’4 Atlantic POD… all nearing completion with subtle evolutions in the concaves rockers and foils.

new Porpoise

Just finished the new Porpoise. For some reason I’m loving shaping more than ever right now, everything seems to be really flowing; I can’t put my finger on it but everything just seems right…

6’0” x 22” x 2 5/8”. This board came out beautifully with the Bernoulli bottom, this time a single concave into a double… and especially the tail that i wanted to be more mammalian, and that’s exactly how it came out with its subtle blended curves and deep incut…

This board is going to get pretty intense from here on in with an organic blue tint, tubercle fins and I am hoping to find the time to do gloss coat speed channels originally created by Peter St Pierre’s father.

  

fresh foam

5’8” New Sprat Keelfish bonzer | 6’0” Porpoise Tubercle bonzer | 6’4” Atlantic POD EVO6 bonzer ready for shaping…

Poppy loves her bonzer…

Nice message from Nicky Stanley at Harbour Holidays about Poppy’s 5’8 Porpoise EVO3 with 7” Protect Safety fin…

“Its amazing, Poppy loves it :) thank you so much xxx”

Merry Christmas bonzer for Poppy

Poppy’s porpoise EVO3 bonzer

    

Custom bonzer surfboard for Poppy with a beautiful resin tint and a lot of pen artwork to follow.

Poppy’s Porpoise EVO3 bonzer

   

Buttercup - baby bonzer Porpoise

Resin tint by Jason Grey. Design, shaping and artwork by yours truly, Tim Stafford, for Lilia Grace, age 1yr.

Buttercup…

Porpoise update

It’s still off with the fins, but i had an excellent session on it at North Watergate last week… it just flew.

I think the secret was the board, as is, needed to be ridden harder with the current fin set up to get the best out of it.

It’s still off with the fins but now i see this as just improving the initial speed and getting it planing sooner rather than anything more radical. As a shape it is incredibly manoeuvrable and harnesses loads of energy… a really fun board for the small stuff.

Porpoise 2

After some revisions and test rides by Anthony, discussions with my guru-panel (Phil & Nigel) we have concluded that the area for improvement is fin placement. There was always going to be a lot of force going through them with the narrow base (and I have already cracked the rovings) but the proximity to the bonzer EVO3 sides is the real issue… so its off with all of them and then back on with some reinforcement. I am going to reduce the size of the bonzer side EVO3s to the same as the front EVO5 set up, AND most crucially give them more space between them… it has felt like the water at times is having to squeeze between them and this may account for the feeling of drag just before take off, which isn’t ideal for a lazy paddler like me. So an extra 1/2 inch gap should sort that out.

Anthony has been riding it quite a bit and is really loving it… he grabs it whenever he can and seems to just flow into a ridiculous number of long walled up waves. It’s definitely his small wave board of choice just exactly as it is… but for me the lazy paddler the reduction in drag will be welcome and should improve the boards already great speed.

There is definitely something special going on with this board, it just feels great under you when paddling and riding and seems to smooth out whatever your normal style is… and yet you can still whack it off the top when you feel inclined.

Wedges

I have to say that almost a week of clean swell, great light winds and sunshine are pretty rare but it all came together last week. I didn’t get in as often as i would have liked (“responsibilities”) but I got my share. Highlight was at a known beach break I'll call “Wedges” which had a wedging take off and a fast wall with plenty of juice. The freakfish was just awesome and i was stoked to have some guy ask me about it based on how it was surfing… it was handling late-late drops, and then just shooting round the sections into nice big carves and hooks, all backhand. I just loved it.

The porpoise is on the other hand in need of some mods. The biggest issue for me is that it doesn’t seem to get up planing as quickly as i would like. On the plus sides it is very drivey off the bottom and gets round sections beautifully, but it feels stiff off the top.  It’s the projected rake, so I'm going to sand the fins off and place them further up the board by a full inch, remove the EVO3 sides and replace them with EVO5 fronts only… all this should loosen the board up a bit and provide a little less drag which will help a little with wave entry speed too.

Anyways, I'm stoked to build an improved Porpoise, so someone please order one :)

French fancy with a fondant filling...

A new porpoise just got its stripes...

Nothing new under the sun...

I was browsing Duncan and Malcolm's site this evening and came across an interesting photo which proves the saying "there is nothing new under the sun"...

An early bonzer by Malcolm contrasted against a modern high performance | My "new" shapes: 6'0" Porpoise Vs. 6'10" Cleanline.

Porpoise christening…

First porpoise with the tubercle fins was tested yesterday at a small but clean Boobys Bay… it was only just big enough to surf but the odd waist high set came through and overcame the stiff offshore NEs. The board absolutely flew – really surprising was how it just loved to get up and go, all rides backside, flying across the face with more speed and lift than i had expected. I made lots of long lefts into the shallows with the board seeming to keep speed and flow throughout. The only drawback so far was on take off, a feeling of the board hanging in the lip, though this may have been the wide nose combined with the wind. Otherwise it felt very fluid especially considering the low rocker and straight tail outline. Pretty difficult to gauge the performance characteristics on such small waves but it definitely is a fun ride, just how different, how drivey, and whether it has any drawbacks we will have to wait until we get some more serious surf… hopefully soon…

More porpoise...

5'4" x 19 1/4" x 2 1/4" Porpoise

on Porpoise...

Porpoise bonzer EVO4 with tubercle fins: 6’0 x 22” x 2 5/8” low entry rocker with concave soft-channel running from the chest and under the front foot (V’d off the rails for roll and the concave for turbulence to overcome the width and enhance rail to rail flow)  into the double concave V with bonzer channels between the fins (guide the water flow)... with a little spiral V kick in the tail to keep it loose... just a little "almost" summer madness...

For my daughter...

Thought you might enjoy the artwork i did on her first birthday present...