Having a Custom Skim made. HELP!!

[Sammy]

Hi All,

new on here so firstly a hello!! Cant wait to get shredding strapless

So, i know a shaper locally to me who is interested in making a kitespecific skimboard.
he's never made a skim before, let alone a kite skim, so i'm a little bit of guinea pig for him. But has recently started making kite wave boards and has been shaping surfboards for yonks.

I've never ridden a skim but this opportunity to have one made for me is too good to miss so i have a few questions for you guys!

I'll be riding chop and small - medium waves when my TT is underpowered on a 12m (or if i like it, in more wind on an 8m) - So probably anything from 15- early 20s.

Firstly, as a beginner do i want any specific shape/rocker/dimensions

How about fins? it seems you guys are dead against them but would it be handy to have the option?? If so, how many, what positions etc.

Deck pads? Its a PU board (he's never made an epoxy one) so i'm guessing these are probably beneficial to protect the deck of the board from pressure dings.

basically i'm asking what is the best set up for a beginner in chop and waves.

i'm 175 pounds (12 stone) ish.

Thanks for you help.

Sam

[Lonny]

Hey Sam,

Welcome to Lose the Straps! Thank you for joining us here.

From my perspective unless the guy is going to basically shape you the skim for free I would probably skip the custom skim for right now. First off, you need to ride a few skims before you can tell a shaper what you want in a board, and since he has no experience in shaping skims he really cannot design a board based on previous designs. My advice would be to pick one the production skims from ZAP, Roush, Victoria, Exile, etc. Check out the reviews here and there is a lot of good information:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=157 - If you follow the basic dimensions posted here and in previous post you should be in good shape.

Here are some other useful posts asking the similar questions:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=229
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=171
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=124

If you still want to build one here is a post on building a skim:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=136

I would definitely go with pads, but it is really personal taste.

Let me know if I can help any further.

Welcome to riding Strapless. Its a great ride!