have to work on my skills I guess). It's a DECAY Scimitar, shaper is from NZ, great board, I have more than 400 sessions on it and it's still awesome.Just to give you an idea what any new board is up against.
As I said before, McCoy is a surf board shaper with great ideas outside the box, and I wanted to give it a try for kiting. Impossible to get my hands on one where I live, so I had to build one.
I'll say it straight up front: this board comes VERY close to the board I'm looking for. None of the 20 boards I have tried this year (mostly kite surfboards, some surf boards) were anywhere near what I want. I'm riding in messy shore break with light winds half of the time, and that's where the board has to work. No easy task.
The McCoy Nugget 5.3 x 20" has quite a bit of rocker in the tip, but almost any in the tail. It has a strong convex bottom from tip to tail (8mm), as opposed to any other modern board out there. The outline is unusual, with the wide point far back, an with a round tail. I built it half the thickness of the original, which is huge. I came out at 4cm for the best part of the board, thinning out in the tip.
These design features lead to a very stable, very forgiving board (loads of surface in the back), which still turns with ease - I mean really loose - due to the convex bottom. No tail rocker - a really long flat section - is good for low end, and the concave makes it loose enough so you don't need tail rocker. The tip has quite a bit of rocker which is nice as the board does not pearl. I had it out 5 times now, from 12 kn to 20kn to 15kn gusting 30kn, and it was an easy and fun ride all the time. Board is fast. And it's so forgiving. Upwind: as good as my Decay, which is pretty sharp.
There you go, I'm really stoked. I will ride it for some time and probably in spring build a follow-up changing small bits and pieces, fine tuning so to speak. I also handed it out to a couple of advanced strapless riders on our beach, and they went "wow". So whenever you see a McCoy nugget or any of his other small boards, don't let it go. Try it. You will be amazed.
Now, if you (like me) are living far from McCoy land, you have to build one. And here is how:
I started with the same technique as the other woodies, making a plan in AKUshaper, cutting stringer and ribs out of 5mm ply wood, gluing the skeleton together, and covering it with stripes of 3mm ply wood. The light quality in each case, weight counts, and marine ply weighs a ton. Don't use it.
Fill the board with PU foam for strength, sand it to shape, laminate 2x 4OZ top and bottom with epoxy, in go the fin plugs, and you can go for a ride
That was easy wasn't it?There are lots and lots of little details in this process. I therefore took some pics to illustrate where I did things differently from former boards. I also found a good link of a very skilled board builder who uses the same technique, but solid wood deck instead. Real beauties, I'll do one like this later on.
Now here's the link, http://nwkite.com/forums/t-12112-0-asc-0.html&sid=fc9aa78260d13d3f4b792f04f0fa34ca
and here are some pics for you. I won't comment much this time, feel free to shoot me any question you have about those tricks and licks.
cheers, tungsten
