Got to have a 5min ride of a nobile skim over the weekend. Great fun in light winds.

I'm going to make a plywood one as I already have some spare fins and deck grip lying around in the shed.

Can anyone tell me how much rocker these things have? It felt pretty flat.

mike

Hi Guys,

Skim boards are almost dead flat. There is not much rocker apart from the nose on most.

Here is a page for you to check out with design specs on their whole range

www.nemolution.com/summer08/products_boards.php

You may have trouble in getting them stiff enough using 5mm ply. Maybe a couple of longitudinal stringers may help.

Both North and Airush are doing Skims this year but are pretty cost prohibitive when compared to normal Skimboards.

Cheers,

KH

Hey mate,

Pretty much dead flat, except for some nose lift as Darren said. You could try putting a bit of tail rocker in if you wanted to use it in the surf, but I'm guessing you will want it for light winds.

The stiffer the better, although a tiny bit of flex wouldn't hurt.

Keep the rails fairly parallel, should make it easier to ride and a bit better upwind.

Put a proper tail on it, the Nobile tail is not what you want. A square tail would be an OK compromise.

Leave the fins in the shed, they are useless.

Enjoy
Matt

Thanks guys. The general idea is to make it as cheap and light as possible. I have done a ply board before and went over the top. Glass and inserts for pads/straps... paint job etc. I ended up with a nice looking but HEAVY board. It did the job for a while before starting to crack under the strain.

For this one. Trace the shape off an existing skim (nobile or craxy fly). Glue two sheets of 5 or 6mm ply together with 3 or 4 cm of nose rocker and 2cm of tail rocker. Cut to shape. Sand rails. drill holes for fins. Paint with marine varnish. Either glue on deck pads or just wax it.

Sure it will be a bit heavy but if i like it and end up riding it a lot then I'll buy a real one.

mike

just whipped my measuring tape out... its exactly 1.5mm at the tail and 1.63mm at the nose 58 wide and 105 long

Has anyone tried foam skimboards? Costco have them for pretty cheap and I'm tempted to try one.

Hey Rowdy

I happened to be looking into skimboards last week and was actually looking at a large Exile in S glass as below from the US.
It seems a lot of the guys prefer the S glass over the full carbon as it has a little bit more flex.

http://www.skimcity.com/store/product.php?productid=28050&cat=0&page=1

They have heaps of different brands though, but from what I could gather the Exiles and the Zaps seem to be the most popular. I emailed Greg to get a price for shipping a large exile to Perth.

"We are usually able to sneak boards in via the postal service.
Cost to you is about $70 USD.
A 2nd board would add about $10-$20."

So it work out at $415 + $70= $485 USD converts to approx $475+$80 = $555 AUD.
I decided not to worry about it for now but am wondering, what do you think of yours?

What i found was the full carbon was really a lightwind machine because of its stiffness.
If you skim on it you also notice just how far you can travel due to how ridgid it is.
It is a very efficent board and with just about no flex and a huge planning area it has little resistance.

I have riden a few zaps (and others) and it really isn't the same deal. However if you get a decent board like you mentioned you are still more likely to get going on that before anyhting else.

p.s. The full carbon Exile is so light that I have actually sent the kite to do boosts without having to grab the board to keep it on my feet... no joke.

heres acouple of my test board befor painting it`s clegcell core , abs rails , 3 layers of 195 glass top and bottom in epoxy resin . 150cm long 48 cm wide 10mm rocker in tail 30mm in tip , 3 fin option . layed up on glass and vac bagged made by a mate of mine.

results too flexible , needs more tip rocker . feels a little wide in surf but gets going quickly and in very light wind . bottom was relayed with some carbon and extra glass to stiffen and i spent some more time on it . brings a new dimension to my kitting . not real good in chop but awesome fun in flat water or in small clean waves.


photo of rocker


my next one will be same shape with more tip rocker in full carbon .
here`s my mates one 150x45 semi carbon 5 fin option and footstrab option as well