Awesome Rod. Can you give us a bit of a rundown on the strengths and weaknesses of the new design. How are these boards compared to your traditional designs.
Thanks Rod, you're input on this stuff is really spot on.
good to see your break is still the dropin arseol capital of the world,mutant looks solid in those waves,nice work.
Select to expand quotelog man said..
Awesome Rod. Can you give us a bit of a rundown on the strengths and weaknesses of the new design. How are these boards compared to your traditional designs.
Thanks Rod, you're input on this stuff is really spot on.
The easiest way to explain is to tell what happened in the surf at low tide yesterday when surfing the 6'8 MUTANT. The board is really 6'6 long when you measure the rail line, you have to deduct the diamond nose!!
In a word I'm FROTHING.
On friday surfing Aus moved the Long Board National Titles to my spot and let everyone know that it would be held there over the weekend.
Fortunately at 6am Saturday morning the swell was practically non existant because of the high tide so they moved the comp to another beach.
I new that at low tide the swell would jump and conditions would be excellent providing the wind didnt pick up from the NE to early.
The local crew din't turn up either as the comp was going to be there on Saturday.
By 10am after dropping the oldest boy at his Sat morning job the waves were pumping at around 3foot with some bigger sets and a light westerly which is a bit cross into the face but not too bumpy.
There was only a handfull of leftover compriders out around 12 or so not crowded at all.
After about an hour of surfing the 6'8 MUTANT, and as you can see in the video my surfing persona. Anyway the longboard crew started paddling over to me and complimenting me on how well the board went and also how well I surfed the board, unbelieveable!!
Every single surfer in the water on Saturday went out of their way to ask me about the board, how long it was how wide all the usual stuff even how did the nose snap off!!
The last guy to paddle over was the super cool goofy ripper ridding a Sunova mal.
So I guess the 6'8 Mutant is a success.
The video shows it all, just imagine that the waves were head high and the surfing is the same except really big round house cutbacks are easy and banking off the foam is a dream with no loss of control.
I made one of the sickest late late takeoffs on an overhead wave where I don't usually go because of the dredging at low tide and with rocks two feet away and the suckout ledge dry in font of you, madness, I didn't test my luck there again. The boards nose just supported my weight when it landed didn't catch on the corners I went into a screaming hooting bottom turn tight into the lip ending with a big slashing cutty.
All I know is that I am now a big fan of sub 7 foot SUP boards and parallel planshapes with NO hips. At this stage I think they work best as super short boards, just like the Vanguard style of sub 6 foot boards. There is absolutely no swing weight and no catching of the nose and tips.
I am using my standard bottom shape of subtle concaves, which is a slight (2mm)single concave setback from the nose around 500mm running into a slight (3mm) double concave spiral V (4mm) tail, this exits over the rocker ending in a flat pod section which has a 100mm flexy swallow that is 75mm deep. My trditional designs are the same except they end in pintails not swallows.
I have added a riblet to the centre of each swallow on the 6'8 MUTANT as I found that there was too much flex during cut backs. The riblets worked perfectly on Saturday and stiffened up the swallows just right for me.
The riblets can be used as a flex tuning device. All you have to do is add some depth of riblet for stiffness or sand way some depth of riblet for increased flex.
I have added another modification which is another two finboxes (now 6 boxes) they are set back a bit more and moved closer to the centre line so that the quad set up can be called a thruster quad.
The sunfish is on the bottom of this pic of the boards on my cars roofrack, this gives you a bit of perspective on how small the boards are.
Paddling is always a bit harder when you go shorter with board lengths. But now that I am used to Paddling the Mutant I don't really notice the difference except when trying to escape a wide bomb whitewater, but I usually see them in time anyway.
I suppose that paddling is the only negative very little glide if you stop.
The surfing is just so much better, easier and fun.
The stability is good and I have no trouble standing out the back in choppy conditions with backwash of the point and having to contend with the occasioal boat wake that we get. I think that for me 29.5"/750mm wideis just right and that I don't want to go narrower.
The length is just so pleasing, it lets you turn really tight into the pocket.
The flat rocker that I'm using is well tested and around 10 years old. I have modified it with a little more nose lift to keep the SUP nose above the chop. There is plenty of speed for getting around sections and the flex pod just makes a good rocker design excellent.
Being semi-retired means that my output is slow, I can only make around 50 boards a year out of epoxy and I make everything myself including surf paddles.
Not race paddles that you can use in the surf, but paddles specifically designed for wave riding and ther is a huge difference. I might start another post on surf paddle design if there is enough interest.
In the 60's, 70's and early 80's most surf board factories employed more than one shaper, and in the real early days factories would headhunt popular, original designer/ shapers off each other to come and shape at their factory to increase turnover. This gave the factory economies of scale and credibility on the beach and out in the water.
I have thought for a long time now that this is the way to go for AUS board companies to more easily to compete against the Multinational imported brands. Band together and get economies of scale. The advent of cnc shaping has made this a whole lot easier if only board factories would move out of the now traditional one brand one shaper/designer mould.
I am just frothing over this new Mutant design and can't wait for the next surf.
Select to expand quotefirstpoint said..
good to see your break is still the dropin arseol capital of the world,mutant looks solid in those waves,nice work.
I am the most dropped in on surfer at my spot, mostly because I can paddle thru the deadish section and backdoor the inside wall, the mals can't get thru from the outside on a lot of waves and the timid less experienced surfers hang around the inside section, it is also not so far to paddle out to from shore.
Yeeew Rod that looks like fun, can't wait to get home and take it for a spin. You might hafta get one under way for us lightweights, you know what colour I like 
PS: Shoulder feeling great, Sri Lanka in a week woohoo
Rod,another excellent design review.Of your two new sub 7 ft sups,which one do you like surfing best.
ie: if you could only surf one the Sunfish or mutant, which one would you choose and why?
I know this is a bit like asking which of your children you like the best but, give it a go!
Cheers, Rocket.
Select to expand quoterodriguez said..
Rod,another excellent design review.Of your two new sub 7 ft sups,which one do you like surfing best.
ie: if you could only surf one the Sunfish or mutant, which one would you choose and why?
I know this is a bit like asking which of your children you like the best but, give it a go!
Cheers, Rocket.
Gotta go to work been in the office too long.
The 6'8"MUTANT is the best SUP I have made so far.
The 6'8" MUTANT just turns and turns and naturally suits my Aussie surf style.
Have a look at Robdogs video of his son riding the 5'2 TOMO thats what it feels like but on a SUP
The 6'10" SunFish is the big brother cruiser and it has that distinctive Fish style of surfing where the hip has to be engaged.
The real secret to the MUTANT is its SHORT 6'8' LENGTH and the PARALLEL RAILS with NO HIP combined with a FLAT ROCKER.
With Parallel rails there is no hip to engage you can turn off a short length of rail or a full nose to tail rail full carving bootom turn.
The FLEX POD or variable rocker allows the board to generate more rail rocker which allows it to turn tighter with out loss of speed an drive.
In the video of the 6'8"MUTANT you can see that some of the cutbacks loose speed and drive suddenly. This was caused by the flex pod having to much flex and collapsing. To counter this I put a riblet on each wing of the fish and this stiffened up the pod just right. I had thought of making the flex pod with a removable section which can be replaced with a stiffer section of EVA to use as a flex control measure, softer EVA for smaller waves and Harder EVA for larger waves all velcroed in some how. But he riblet does the job and is easier to make and easier to tune by light sanding or adding resin but it is then a fixed design element.
By next year Sub 7ft boards will be everywhere and the real SUP surf revolution will be on.
JB Messenger was so right all those years ago.
Select to expand quoteboardbumps said..rodriguez said..
Rod,another excellent design review.Of your two new sub 7 ft sups,which one do you like surfing best.
ie: if you could only surf one the Sunfish or mutant, which one would you choose and why?
I know this is a bit like asking which of your children you like the best but, give it a go!
Cheers, Rocket.
Gotta go to work been in the office too long.
The 6'8"MUTANT is the best SUP I have made so far.
The 6'8" MUTANT just turns and turns and naturally suits my Aussie surf style.
Have a look at Robdogs video of his son riding the 5'2 TOMO thats what it feels like but on a SUP
The 6'10" SunFish is the big brother cruiser and it has that distinctive Fish style of surfing where the hip has to be engaged.
The real secret to the MUTANT is its SHORT 6'8' LENGTH and the PARALLEL RAILS with NO HIP combined with a FLAT ROCKER.
With Parallel rails there is no hip to engage you can turn off a short length of rail or a full nose to tail rail full carving bootom turn.
The FLEX POD or variable rocker allows the board to generate more rail rocker which allows it to turn tighter with out loss of speed an drive.
In the video of the 6'8"MUTANT you can see that some of the cutbacks loose speed and drive suddenly. This was caused by the flex pod having to much flex and collapsing. To counter this I put a riblet on each wing of the fish and this stiffened up the pod just right. I had thought of making the flex pod with a removable section which can be replaced with a stiffer section of EVA to use as a flex control measure, softer EVA for smaller waves and Harder EVA for larger waves all velcroed in some how. But he riblet does the job and is easier to make and easier to tune by light sanding or adding resin but it is then a fixed design element.
By next year Sub 7ft boards will be everywhere and the real SUP surf revolution will be on.
JB Messenger was so right all those years ago.
Thanks Rod,think your right re: 7 ft sups it will be like the 70's shortboard evolution experimentation period,where the boundaries where pushed to the limit.
Select to expand quoterodriguez said..boardbumps said..rodriguez said..
Rod,another excellent design review.Of your two new sub 7 ft sups,which one do you like surfing best.
ie: if you could only surf one the Sunfish or mutant, which one would you choose and why?
I know this is a bit like asking which of your children you like the best but, give it a go!
Cheers, Rocket.
Gotta go to work been in the office too long.
The 6'8"MUTANT is the best SUP I have made so far.
The 6'8" MUTANT just turns and turns and naturally suits my Aussie surf style.
Have a look at Robdogs video of his son riding the 5'2 TOMO thats what it feels like but on a SUP
The 6'10" SunFish is the big brother cruiser and it has that distinctive Fish style of surfing where the hip has to be engaged.
The real secret to the MUTANT is its SHORT 6'8' LENGTH and the PARALLEL RAILS with NO HIP combined with a FLAT ROCKER.
With Parallel rails there is no hip to engage you can turn off a short length of rail or a full nose to tail rail full carving bootom turn.
The FLEX POD or variable rocker allows the board to generate more rail rocker which allows it to turn tighter with out loss of speed an drive.
In the video of the 6'8"MUTANT you can see that some of the cutbacks loose speed and drive suddenly. This was caused by the flex pod having to much flex and collapsing. To counter this I put a riblet on each wing of the fish and this stiffened up the pod just right. I had thought of making the flex pod with a removable section which can be replaced with a stiffer section of EVA to use as a flex control measure, softer EVA for smaller waves and Harder EVA for larger waves all velcroed in some how. But he riblet does the job and is easier to make and easier to tune by light sanding or adding resin but it is then a fixed design element.
By next year Sub 7ft boards will be everywhere and the real SUP surf revolution will be on.
JB Messenger was so right all those years ago.
Thanks Rod,think your right re: 7 ft sups it will be like the 70's shortboard evolution experimentation period,where the boundaries where pushed to the limit.
Yes! this is like back in the 70' but shortboard evolution boosted with a paddle and 3rd millennium technology 
