Custom 6 Channel
Deep 6 Channel Single Fin
Today I shaped a board for a customer from NJ, Michael Letso. This board was a little different than most nowadays, first being a single fin that isn’t a longboard and second we incorporated a design made popular by Alan Byrne of Australia back in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Michael is a pretty big guy and the board is 6′6″ x 21 3/4″ x 3 1/8″ with a double wing swallow tail. The basic design is forward of center with good volume under the chest and nose which will facilitate better paddling.
I even shaped that old school “beak nose” to get the most volume out of the blank. The 6 deep channels are cut to run right out of the tail are designed to help create a little lift in the tail and channel the water flow directly off the rear of the board.
Mike's board
I’ve had many of these myself over the years and have liked them all. They tend to have good drive off the bottom and feel positive through the turns. They take a bit of extra time to shape and I had to bring an old custom made sanding block out to do them but it was fun to do one of these again.
Curtis may not be so happy when it comes to glassing and sanding it but we long ago learned a few tricks to make that a little easier also.
curtis,
what kind of beer do you drink?
or would you prefer a cash tip?
come on,it’s a single fin,i need the channels so to compensate.
scott made me two of these over the years, one got stolen, loved them both—however then i discovered bonzers—-my son loves his, it killed it in costra rica….think i might just revisit the channel hulls….sorry curtis
interesting.
i’ve been riding campbell brothers bonzers on and off for awhile now,too.
the channel bottom idea actually came from the similar descriptions allan byrne and malcolm campbell give for how their boards work.
they both say the same thing=unlimited speed,increased drive,increased hold,etc..
i was trying to make a single fin work as good or better than a bonzer and found out that scott is an expert shaper of channel bottoms,and obviously knows single fins.