Designing the Wakesurf Style custom board-Part 2 Board Shape

Welcome to Part II of our blog series detailing the making of the Wakesurf Style custom wake surfboard by Blusurf.  To celebrate the launch of Wakesurf Style we arranged for Blusurf, a world leader in custom performance wake surf boards to build a Wakesurf Style themed board for one of the Wakesurf Style team members.  Blusurf products utilize the finest sustainable elements and build processes offering riders a performance-based, environmentally conscious board designed and built in Washington State.  We worked with Jonathan Matthews – Blusurf’s “Founder and Shaper” throughout the process. In Part I we discussed why custom-made wake surf boards are a great option for all wake surfers.  In Part II we cover the shaping process of the board, the shape is customized and targeted for our Wakesurf Style team member.

Designing the Wakesurf Style custom board:

• Part I - The Graphics
• Part II – Shaping the Board
• Part III – Fin box, graphics, lamination and finishing

To recap, this board is being designed for one of the Wakesurf Style team members.  Their profile is as follows:  5’ 10” ~220lbs – the rider is intermediate level, free surfs with ease and expanding skills, exploring 180s, 360s and airs so more pop off the board is desired.  The board will be a Surf style board.

Designing the Board Shape

Rocker

After the graphics were decided the first thing Jonathan did was measure the rider’s stance width to determine the rocker shape and placement. The rocker is the curve that runs vertically through the board. The more rocker the more easily the turns but will compromise the speed of the board. Alternatively, a flat board with minimal rocker will be faster, but will turn harder. Extra rocker in the nose will give you some resistance to nose diving and extra tail rocker will help with the way the board turns. Too much rocker in the tail will make a board very slow.

In this case measuring our rider’s stance ensured the entry rocker of our board was not behind the front foot which helps prevent the rider from driving the nose of the board down into the water when simply trying to just glide with the boat.  Think of standing on the front leg of a rocking chair vs the middle. 

Rail

The Rail of a board is the edge. Typically surf style boards have more of a rounded rail while skim style boards have a hard and sharp rail. A sharp rail will help grip into the wave in the absence of large fins which is why you see this more on skim style boards. A rounded rail will give the board a looser feel and allow it to move up and down the wave more freely.  For this board Jonathan used a hybrid design,  with the forward and rear sections more rounded for a looser feel.   The mid-section is shaped with a sharper edge for down the line speed .

Nose Style

There are several types of noses that are used on wake surf boards some of the more common are:

• Blunt nose - The blunt nose type allows for a wide board. The extra width gives the wakesurf board lots of stability. This stability is one of the reasons it features so heavily in beginner wake surfboards.
• Pointed nose - This nose type holds the least amount of volume. This is the highest performance nose type and provides the most grip on a waves face with its’ sharper edges (rails). These sharper edges also make it possible to perform very quick and aggressive turns.

For this board we chose a softened blunt nose to enable a wider more parallel rail outline extending the flat surface which increases your down the line speed.  Our boat produces a wave that has a ton of push, so we don't need a full blunt nose as we will still have plenty of speed with the softened nose.  And at Wakesurf Style we love speed 😊

Tail Shape

The next item we considered was the tail.  There are several different types of tails depending on the type of ride you are looking for.  The most common tails are:

• Round Tail - The round tail performs well in a variety of conditions. This makes it ideal for beginner surfboards that will get used no matter the conditions. The tail type impacts the amount speed and maneuverability possible when turning. Expect smoother, more stable turns with the round tail type, great for beginners.
• Swallow and Fish Tails – These two types of tails are similar with both having triangular like wedges cut out of the bottom. The big difference from the other tail shapes is the additional pivot point. This gives the maneuverability to perform very sharp turns and cut backs in either direction. Swallow and fish tail surfboards are also very wide just before the tail. This therefore gives great stability, control and hold when transitioning from one rail to the other.
• Round Square and Squash Tails – These have very similar features, with the rounded square tail being based of the first ever tail type – the square tail. Both of these tails offer a great balance between stability, maneuverability and hold. The slight differences are in the width at the very end of the tails and the sharpness of the corners. The rounded square offers a more compact turning ability whilst the squash offers more hold on the face of a wave.

For this board the tail shape we chose something slightly different than the above. We used a rounded diamond which is similar to the Round and Squash tails but has a little more of a point.  This tail type helps to facilitate surface rotations while maintaining most of the volume one would have in a squash or square tail.

Cutting the Board

The board design is modeled using a computer which processes it and turns the design into a cuttable shape.  The pictures below shows our board rendered in the computer software and the shape prepared to cut:

 

The computer is connected to an automated router machine. A special foam block is put into the cutting equipment and the computer carves the board.  Using this special foam block for the board core produces an amazingly light but high-performance board.  This is different than the injection molding you would get from a mass produced wakesurf board.  Here you can see the foam block loaded into the routing machine:

And here is a photo of the top side of the board shaped:

And here is a short video showing the cutting in action:

This is what the board looks like after the second side is done being shaped:

And finally the board form after it is removed from the routing machine:

At this point you can get a good idea of the shape of the final board.  After this the board will go through a manual smoothing and shaping process, the fin boxes will be added and the processing will continue.  We will detail this in the next blog post so stay tuned to see what happens.  In the meantime visit the Wakesurf Style store where you can join the PNW Wakesurf Team by grabbing one of those t-shirts (women’s style / men’s style) used in the graphics for the top deck or other apparel (use coupon code 10OFFBLU1 to get 10% off your first Wakesurf Style purchase for a limited time). And be sure to visit the Blusurf website if you want to learn more about their history and products.

Designing the Wakesurf Style custom board:

• Part I - The Graphics
• Part II – Shaping the Board
• Part III – Fin box, graphics, lamination and finishing

If you have any questions, feel free to email us at info@wakesurfstyle.com