Two Wheels and A Single-Fin: An Interview With Forrest Minchinton

Forrest Minchinton is not a surfboard shaper. That is to say rather that he never intended on becoming a surfboard shaper, on following in the footsteps of Mike Minchinton- the man who has spent the last three decades as Robert August’s head shaper and the last twenty-four years as his father. It was however exactly this aversion to a life in the shaping bay that led Forrest to pursue other, generally less worn paths which would eventually bring him back to the craft. In the last few months, the Huntington Beach native has taken up multiple residencies in Bali and Japan for shaping and, of all things, riding motorcycles. It was indeed his lifelong connection with dirt-biking that eventually led Forrest to hooking up with some old friends at Deus Ex Machina, a lifestyle brand specializing in motorcycle and surfing culture with flagship locations everywhere from L.A., to Bali, to Sydney, to even Milan. Through his recent adventures with Deus, Forrest has had the opportunity to work with some world class surfers and shapers to help define his own unique style and aesthetic of surfboards- a style that could have only been born from the kind of experience that comes from opening up your world to whatever paths may rise up to meet you. In Forrest’s case these paths were often well off the beaten track and covered in dirt, mud, and of course, foam dust.

            We caught up with Forrest in his newly built shaping room a little while back to talk about his latest mini-film feature Dust and how his recent forays into the jungles and deserts of the world have led him to starting his own surfboard brand.

-Joey Estrada

FOAM E-Z:  How did you originally get hooked up with the crew from Deus Ex Machina, was it more through your background in surfing or your background in riding motorcycles?

            FORREST MINCHINTON: I actually got hooked up with them through Dustin Humphrey, who’s an old friend, and I just went over there originally to hangout because all of my friends had been going over to Bali on surf trips. So he invited me out and offered me a place to stay, so I just went and while I was there I ended up shaping a board and they gave me a bike to ride and it kind of just took off from there. That was on my first trip when I went in October, and so after that I’ve been back once more last month and I’m going again in June.

FeZ: Were you doing similar sort of work in Japan as you were doing in Bali?

On the wave hunt in Bali

             Forrest: Yeah, so once I got hooked up with Dustin they brought me on board as a sort of ‘brand-ambassador’ and I got to take part in a big film that they’re making called South To Sian, so I did some riding in that. So I went to Japan for the premier for that movie and they asked me to shape some boards while I was there so I did some of that, did a little bit of riding, some surfing and yeah.

FeZ: Would you say you’re generally spending more time surfing or more time riding when you’re out on these trips, or is it a pretty even mix?

             Forrest: Really every day I would wake up at dawn, go surf with the boys, and then come back and shape until two-thirty or three in the afternoon and then we would head to the track, and that was like the daily routine. So it was like the perfect balance every day of work, surf, and moto. It was hectic but it was fun.

FeZ: We’re just going to assume that given who your dad is you’ve been surfing your whole life, how long have you been riding motorcycles?

           

Forrest getting some advice from his father

Forrest: It’s funny, everyone always says that like “oh you must have always surfed so how’d you get into motorcycles?,” but actually my dad is just as into motorcycles as he is into surfing, and always has been. My grandfather, his dad, was full on 100% biker, so growing it was really fifty-fifty. I honestly wanted nothing to do with surfing really. When I was I really young I was into it, but it wasn’t until I was like twelve that I got really into surfing again where I was going every day. But before that it was 100% motorcycles.

FeZ:  Has shaping always been in the picture for you or is that something you grew into wanting to do?

            Forrest: I grew up in the Spanners Factory back in the day, it was like my daycare. I pretty much went there every day after school and me and my buddies would make little boards out of rail-chunks and stuff, but I never wanted to be a shaper. I always told myself “oh, I’ll never do that, I want to get a real job,” so I did really good in school and then when I turned eighteen and I kinda realized, fuck school (laughs). I was enjoying not having to be tied down to a nine-to-five kind of thing. I was trying to make money to keep riding basically, so I started doing ding-repair here at Aloha Glassing. And it just went from people I knew coming in and saying “oh shape me a board,” so I would shape them a board and next thing I know I’m shaping another one for my next buddy. It really snowballed a little bit from there.

FeZ: You had a pretty nasty injury recently breaking your back while riding, how did that happen and how did that affect your surfing/riding/ shaping?

            Forrest: Yeah I broke my back in 2014, I was on a dirt bike as part of a video campaign for PacSun, and we were shooting it out in some sand dunes and I just overshot a jump. I had been hitting it all day too like a thousand times and I just went a little bigger on one run, and I don’t know what it was but I just went too big and landed on the flats. I broke my back, broke my knee, had a partial tear on my rotator cuff, broke my hand, and had a concussion. I really fucked myself. I was in a wheel chair for like three months. 

The single-fin was made for the barrel

                         

FeZ: Surfing and riding on the surface seem like two completely different sports, is there something that connects them for you or do you approach them independently as two completely different activities?

           

            Forrest: They’re way different on the surface but they’re exactly the same in that when you’re surfing and having a good session you get that flow, you know, that feeling where everything is just clicking and you’re not really thinking about anything outside of what’s happening in that moment, and that translates over to riding. Where really just all you can think about is what’s directly in front of you. Also with surfing and riding, this sounds cliché, but you have to pick your lines. It’s pretty much about speed, power, and flow like how surfing is. You have to pick a line and maintain your speed and keep your flow, it’s totally the same in that way. Even though they’re two separate things, you get that feeling from it, that same adrenaline rush or euphoria, or whatever it is.

            For one thing dirt is stationary whereas the water is moving, but instead of milking a wave for speed it’s more about bike control on your terrain, even though its stationary. I think the actions of what you do are polar opposites, as far as the muscles you use and the movements you make, but the feelings you get are the same.  For me at least.

FeZ: Were you approaching the way you were shaping your boards differently when you were in Bali than you would, say here in Huntington? How while you were in Japan?

           

            Forrest: Well for one, with all of the boards I make I always have the person in mind- whether it’s for a custom order where I’m trying to keep in mind that person and what they want, or if it’s for a shop geared towards the clientele that shops there and what they would want out of a board.

            So going there and coming from here, especially Orange County where what everyone wants seems to be (at least with the people I shape for) more performance based.  They want like a high performance shortboard or a high performance groveler beach-break board, and then we’re going there where obviously the waves are a little bit better. So I definitely approached it differently in that they’re geared more for a different type of wave. Also the surfers I was shaping boards for had a different approach to waves in general. It kind of changed my outlook, shaping with guys like Harrison [Roach] and Matt [Cuddihy]. They were riding more- I guess you would call them- ‘alternative’ boards, or boards that were more of a throwback to older design elements.

            Coming back I think I have more desire to make boards like that, like boards more… I hate to say ‘retro’ because we’re not making boards like they were made before, but we’re trying to take the good things from older style boards. There’re a lot of elements of old design that got passed over because people were moving onto the next thing. Like a single-fin works really good in the barrel, with a long pin-tail and a fuller nose, it actually works really good. Harrison will catch huge waves and get really barreled, if not more barreled than some of the guys that are on shorter boards because he’s going so fast and can take off so early. So I don’t know, I think I changed my outlook on what can be done on those styles of boards.

FeZ: Who are some of your favorite surfer or shapers you’ve worked with or shaped for so far? Have any of them had a major impact on the way you go about building boards?

           

            Forrest: Obviously my number one influence, mentor, and inspiration for everything would be my dad- if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in. Another guy, as far as the old school guys go, would be Mark Martinson, he’s a big influence. Not only in the boards he made since I was around him directly when I was growing up and watching him shape and how he shapes boards (which was a lot different than my dad in how he approaches it), but also because he was a really good surfer. He’s always been one of my favorites, at one point in time he was the best surfer in the world, being on the cover of magazines and just killin’ it, and he also shaped really well.

            I think nowadays I wouldn’t necessarily say anyone famous, but one of my best friends from here, Billy Hopkins, he’s for sure one of my favorite surfers.  I’ve spent the most time working with him directly on boards, you know, I would surf with him every day. I’d make him a board and then we would go out and ride it and I would see how his approach was to it to get genuine feedback. I love just love watching him surf, I grew up surfing with him. I would also say my younger brother Malakai, he’s another one who really works for it and is just one of my favorite surfers.

            Harrison Roach is another good friend, I just love that you can throw him on any board and he’ll go out there and make it look good. He can actually shape really well too, and most people don’t know that, and I respect that. There aren’t many guys out there that can surf really well and shape a decent board as well.

Riding through Lombok

FeZ: What can you tell us about the upcoming Deus Dust Project film? 

           

Forrest's home shaping bay in HB

            Forrest: Dustin was visiting us before my last trip to Bali when we were having those last swells when northside Seal Beach was breaking and Billy had no boards at the time so I lent him a 6’0 retro-inspired single fin- you know, glass-on fin, volan, three inches thick- the whole deal and he went out there on that and was catching bombs and getting really barreled. He got this one where he drops in, gets barreled, and when comes out, goes to kick out and does a flip and the video of it went fully viral for whatever reason. Even Clark Little posted the video and it was all over the news and it was the board I lent him.

            So long story short, Dustin saw it and said we should invite him to Bali. I was planning to go over there to shape and do some racing and they were like “since you’re shaping you should just have Billy come over we’ll just document it.” So that’s kind of how the project just came about, it was sort of the brand introducing me.

            So we brought Billy over, and while we were there we didn’t necessarily have a set plan, it was more like just go do what we do and we’ll document it. And then it turned out that Harrison ended up coming over so we did a couple collaborations with him on boards. We also did some for Billy, and for Matt Cuddihy who’s a really good longboarder from Noosa. We came up with the name because we were just laughing all the time about how I was always dusty. I would wake and go shape and be dusty, go to the track and get dusty, and they were just making fun of me calling it the Dust Project.

            It’s just a short film, only about ten minutes, just talking a little about who I am and what I do with those guys. It was kind of an afterthought honestly.

FeZ: Will the movie feature your guys’ dirtbike/pool session?

           

 Forrest: (laughs) I don’t know, that was on my last day and we woke up and that pool is actually a bar in Bali and in the afternoon it opens and they have all the boys come and skate the pool and it’s just a full-on raging bar. I mean anyone can skate it, but it always just gets ruled by the same guys. My friends are the ones that own the bar and we started talking about it and they were like “oh you should put the dirt bike in there!,” like joking and I was like “yeah, let’s do it!.” (laughs) So it was like three in the afternoon and we just started drinking some beers and three or four dudes just dropped the bike in there and we just started ripping it around, like doing tow-ins and stuff. Yeah, that was really fun.

Check out Forrest's work in the mini documentary Dust here:

                      

Boardroom 2016 Icons of Foam: Gerry Lopez

         Throughout the course of surfing history certain surfers have become synonymous with certain aspects of the sport, be it with a certain kind of board, a style of surfing, or in the case of Gerry Lopez, a location. Lopez rose to international notoriety in the seventies for his cool and elegant surfing in waves of serious consequence, most notably at the reefs of Hawaii’s famed Pipeline. The calm focus that Lopez was able to achieve in situations that would keep many surfers on the beach was due in part to the confidence that comes from knowing you’re riding the right equipment for the waves at hand, in this case, equipment that he himself had helped design. Gerry and his iconic Lightning Bolt Surfboards played a huge role in the shortboard revolution that was happening in that era and helped to establish a radical new style of surfing and its accompanying aesthetic. Over the next few decades he helped lay the groundwork for what we consider modern high performance surfing while influencing several generations of surfers and shapers.                              It comes as no surprise that Lopez will be joining the ranks of such influential shapers as Rusty Preisendorfer, Dick Brewer, and Ben Aipa among others to be honored in this years Icons of Foam shape-off for his contributions to the surfing world. Six shapers (Ryan Burch, Ryan Lovelace, Roger Hinds, Pat Rawson, Ron House, and Ward Coffey) have been chosen by Lopez himself to attempt to recreate one of his classic Lightning Bolt boards, so we sat down to talk with the Mr. Pipeline himself about The Boardroom show, surfboard design, and his insights on the past, present, and future of surfing that could only come from a lifetime spent in the water and in the shaping room.

- Joey Estrada

 FOAM E-Z: When did you first find out you were going to be honored for this years Boardroom Show, what was your reaction to that?

            Gerry Lopez: I was down here in January working with Robby Naish at the HanoHano Race, the first event of the stand-up paddleboard season. Rob Machado and I were surfing in front of his house at Cardiff Reef and ran into Scott [Bass, creator of the Boardroom Show] in the parking lot, and he asked me if I could come to the show this year. I came one year when he had it up in Ventura and I came I think the year before that when they had it in Del Mar, just briefly, and so I said ‘well I don’t know…’ And he said he wanted to do the Icons of Foam thing, and I said ‘I don’t know, I don’t know…’ And he just kept pressing me, so it was kind of hard to say no to him so finally I said o.k. [laughs].

FOAM E-Z: Sounds pretty informal.

            Gerry Lopez: Yeah kinda like most surfer things, so… here we are [laughs].

 FOAM E-Z: How did you go about choosing the six shapers for the shape off to replicate one of your classic boards?

 

            Gerry Lopez: Well that was really easy, I just thought about all these guys that I’ve shaped with and some of the young guys I’ve seen and when he [Scott Bass] said ‘Who do you want?,’ I just reeled the names off. The only guy who we couldn’t get a hold of was Tom Eberly so I said ‘Well what about Rawson? See if he wants to do it.’ And Pat said he would.

 F-EZ: No doubt they all jumped on the opportunity. It seems like your choices cover several generations of shapers, was this the intent?
 

            Gerry Lopez: Yeah I feel like we’ve really covered a lot of ground here. Ron House and I used to build boards together, you know back in the late sixties and all through the seventies. And Ward, he was younger, but he was always that shaper who I really admired his work and his surfing. And Roger, I’ve known him forever, and he was the returning winner*. With the Two Ryan’s I’ve always really liked the work they do and the stuff that happens on those boards that they make. So that’s what I suggested to Scott and he said that sounded good to him so I said ‘Okay then.’

 F-EZ: How often do you find yourself shaping boards these days?

            Gerry Lopez: Oh, well I mean as much as possible. You know, the shop is about ten minutes from my house, and my son is very interested in shaping so, yeah I spend a lot of time down there. I don’t produce a great deal, but I’m in there a lot.

F-EZ: You spend a majority of your time living in Oregon now, what is your shaping set up like there? Is it pretty similar to what you would have somewhere else, say in Hawaii or California for instance, or is it something much different?

            Gerry Lopez: No, I mean yeah my shop's in Bend, but you know, I’ve set up a lot of surfboard factories in my time and they’re pretty easy to do so it's pretty much like all the rest.

F-EZ: You’ve got it down to a science now eh?

            Gerry Lopez: [Laughs] Yeah I guess... it’s a nice little set-up though.

F-EZ: Has the change of climate affected your processes much? 

            Gerry Lopez: The resin actually works really good up there, the air’s really dry. I mean it’s cold so you have to heat it, but in some ways it’s easier to work with the resin and the foam there than it was in Hawaii.

F-EZ: Has your knowledge from shaping surfboards affected how you approach shaping stand-up paddle boards, or has what you’ve learned from shaping SUP’s affected the way you approach shaping surfboards at all?

            Gerry Lopez: No, I mean the stand-up boards are just big surfboards. That’s all a standup board is.

F-EZ: It seems like the level of interest in events like The Boardroom show and surfboard shaping /design in general continues to grow every year. Would you say that the shaping community is more open and willing to share some of it’s secrets and processes to the average surfer who is just curious or looking to learn shape their own boards now than was in previous decades?

            Gerry Lopez: Well in a nutshell, first of all there aren’t any secrets [laughs]. Everything that’s being done now had been done before. Definitely Bob Simmons has done most of it before anyone, shape and construction-wise. Secondly it's really not that hard to build a surfboard. If I can do it anyone can do it, and you know once someone does build their own board, whether they just shape a board or go through the whole process and glass it as well, they figure that out in a hurry. Then they also experience the satisfaction and everything else that comes with taking that board that they made out in the water and riding it and seeing that it actually surfs pretty damn good. From that point forward it’s just they want to do it again and do it better. And I don’t think that that’s changed, going back to the ancient Hawaiians, even though maybe it was a little more...eh, it wasn’t as easy to do back then.

            But I think the steps are the same, as far as going surfing, liking it, wanting to get better at it, and getting to a level where you’re pretty good at it, but not being able to go beyond a level that the shape of your surfboard kept you at. So you either get a better board or build yourself a better board and in that way you advance your surfing skills. And so if you build a board yourself at least you’re understanding the design of the board. Like I said, I don’t think that has changed since the very beginning of surfing.

F-EZ: Would you say that having knowledge of surfboard design and the shaping/glassing process has the ability to improve a person’s actual surfing ability? If so, in what ways?

            Gerry Lopez: I think so. I think when you understand things better you get a clearer picture of how it’s supposed to work.

F-EZ: Briefly, what do you think are the some of the most progressive as well as most detrimental trends in surfboard design happening right now?

            Gerry Lopez: Well I think it all helps in one way or another, just that some things help more than others. I think that there is really a lot of people interested in what was done in the past more now than ever before. At one point everybody was looking ahead and didn’t maybe grasp the concept that it’s all been done before, but maybe in the wrong combination of design features and factors. So putting them together in a different way might have a different outcome, and you really see almost as much experimentation in shape now as you saw when the boards first went short in the late sixties. The understanding that comes by seeing guys like Ryan Burch or Craig Anderson, or these guys that are riding these boards that are really not considered mainstream-type designs and are riding the hell out of them in like heavy-duty kinds of waves, or any kinds of waves, really making them work like you wish you could surf. Like Rob [Machado], he’s been riding boards here that are way off the grid for a long time and really riding them well. And you look at the board and you go ‘wow, I didn’t think you could do that on that board.’ I think that and I’ve been surfing boards for, shit, almost sixty years. And I thought I knew some stuff about it, and the more time goes on I realize more and more that I hardly know anything.

F-EZ: Especially now with the internet as a factor, it’s not even just about what you’ve personally experimented with, there’s also everything you can see or read about that other people all over the world are experimenting with, which you can take and apply to your own shapes and designs.
 

            Gerry Lopez: And that’s being done especially now because there’re way more surfers, on a greater scale than it was when the first short-boards started coming out and no one knew what they were supposed to look like, but everyone knew what they were supposed to work like. They were just supposed to work better than the boards we had before [laughs].

F-EZ: You’ve said that one should not try to ride the smallest board they possibly can ride, rather they should aim to ride the biggest board they can that will allow them to do what they want to do, why is this an important rule to keep in mind?

            Gerry Lopez: Well I saw a trend back in the eighties, where everybody was trying to ride a board like Kelly was riding, and I tried it too. Potato chip boards are really narrow with a lot of rocker, and I couldn’t catch any waves on it. And I realized right then that I was kidding myself- that I wasn’t as quick or lively, or as good as Kelly or Rob were. I needed more surfboard and I think that I’m more of what most surfers are like, I'm an average surfer, and someone like Rob or Kelly or any of the top guys are the cream floating on the top. Generally speaking, what they ride is probably way more advanced than what most people could ever figure out how to ride. So I think it’s better for the mainstream to pull back a little and just catch the wave before you figure out how you’re going to ride it because you can’t ride it until you catch it. A bigger surfboard is going to allow that to happen way easier than one that’s way too small.

            And you see that, I mean surfing is a sport of tremendous and continual frustrations, I think even for the really top guys, in lesser degrees of course. But if that’s all it ends up being for guys of medium ability then how long is it gonna be before they just go ‘screw-it, I’m not having any success, I’m gonna just go play tennis or baseball or something.’? So yeah, with a little bit more foam you can catch more waves and maybe learn a little bit more about riding because then instead of missing all the waves, you’re actually getting some.

F-EZ: It seems like you and Grubby Clark are pretty close, did you ever help him design/test any of the blanks back in the Clark Foam days?

            Gerry Lopez: Oh yeah I'm pretty sure I used, at one time or another, all of them.

F-EZ: Were there any that you had a particular attachment to, maybe that you put more time, effort, or attention into refining?

            Gerry Lopez: Well I had a blank in 1980 that was one of the biggest selling blanks that Clark Foam had just because that particular blank was a size (I think it was 6’9, I can’t quite remember anymore) that was the size board that everybody used. I mean you could get a lot of different sized boards out of that blank. So it wasn’t really super specialized, but it was close enough to shape and you could build a pretty strong surfboard out of it. When I built it for Clark I just made a blank that they didn't have, and one that I could use to shape the majority of the boards that I was riding at that time. 

            But all the way through Clark Foam Grubby and I were very close, we experimented with a lot of different stuff, you know. The tow-in high density blanks are another thing that comes to mind. I told him we needed to make the boards heavier and stronger, and trying to do it with stringers or fiberglass wasn’t the way to do it because the weight distribution kinda went askew. So I asked him, can you do it with the foam, so he made up some tow-in foam that he said were just about solid resin. But the foam was capable, it was actually really easy to shape, like all Clark Foam Blanks were, and it was really hard too. But still managed to have enough flex to have that factor into the design as well.

F-EZ: Where did you turn to for blanks after Clark Foam closed its doors in 2005? What sort of blanks and materials do you like to work with now?
 

            Gerry Lopez: Well U.S. Blanks, ‘cus that’s where everyone from Clark went [laughs]. Yeah I still use P.U. [polyurethane] foam and polyester resin. We do epoxy just because the paddle boards, SUP or prone, with polyurethane foam would just be too heavy, so pretty much you have to do them with polystyrene [EPS foam]. But yeah, I have a close relationship with U.S. Blanks, I think their service has just carried on what Clark Foam had become at the end, and maybe even better now. You can pretty much order what you want and get it pretty quick, the service at US Blanks is really outstanding. 

F-EZ: Do you work with a CNC machine and shape design programs ever or do you stick strictly to hand shaping?

            Gerry Lopez: Eh a little bit but not very much. Most of my shaping is from scratch. You know, I’m old school. I can probably, if you include the indexing of the blank, beat any shaping    machine around with my planer [laughs]. And for me that’s the best part of the shaping, the planer work. 

           

F-EZ: What sort of direction would you like to see surfing and surfboard design head next?

            Gerry Lopez: Well what I want doesn’t have anything to do with what’s going to happen. I just enjoy watching what is happening, because like I said, I think right now more is happening at the present than has almost ever happened in any other time in my short history of surfing. You can build a surfboard for any kind of wave and any level of surfer and make it so they can have fun on it. I think that now more than ever guys that are building surfboards understand that more clearly. That’s why you see such a wide variety of boards, and also so many surfers.

F-EZ: Will shaping always be in the picture for you or do you intend to retire from it at some point?

            Gerry Lopez: Well why would I do that? [Laughs] I mean as long as I continue to surf I’m always going to want to make my surfboards and all the boards for all my friends and everyone else.

Be sure to check our Gerry's website and Instagram to see what keep up on his work!

*Roger Hinds won the 2015 Icons of Foam shape-off honoring the work of Rusty Preisendorfer.

Re-(F)inventing The Wheel

Fifteen years ago almost every proud surfer in the line-up insisted on riding glass on fins and had 34 reasons to tell you exactly why they were better than fin systems.  Even as recent as ten years ago many people were still dubious of removable fins- in the 2008 movie One Track Mind, nearly every surfer interviewed on the subject from Mick to Dane to a young Kolohe insisted they only ride glass-ons (everyone except the ever experimental Kelly of course). Fast forward to 2016 however and it’s not only unlikely that you’ll find very many surfers at the top of the game riding boards with permanently affixed fins, its doubtful that’ll you find very many in your local lineup anymore either. And this is not just some big coincidence either. The reality of the matter is that these days the utility and value of being able to remove and exchange fins depending on the situation far outweighs whatever slight advantages glass-on fins may still retain over removable fin systems. In order to make use of this advantage though, it is first necessary to be able to tell the difference from one fin to the next how they may ride differently. When it comes to choosing a set of surfboard fins there are three main elements to consider apart from what sort of board the fins will go on (i.e. groveler, step-up, standard short board, etc.) or the conditions in which the fins will be ridden, which are as follows:  

 1.      The first and most generally most noticeable feature in a fin is the materials it is constructed with. Essentially some materials are more flexible than others and therefore will be more malleable when subjected to the pressures exerted on it while you are riding a wave. In general, powerful /hollow waves will require a stiffer fin that will resist energy already generated by the wave to help control speed and maintain a steady line, while a surfer on a wave which is more mushy and flat will benefit from a fin that has much greater flex pattern that will provide a springy and lively feel when pumping to help generate the speed needed to propel them through weaker sections. Stiffer fins tend to be ones that are made up of mostly fiberglass materials, while more flexible fins generally rely on a combination of honeycomb and carbon fiber lay-ups, though any of these materials can be combined to produce any sort of feel that exists between these two extremes.

    2.     The second aspect of fin design is the amount of rake in the fin, or how upright or curved back the fin is. Rake is a fairly simple concept to understand as the more upright a fin is the more pivot you will get out of your turn in addition to having a tighter turning radius. Conversely the more raked back a fin is, the more drive and stability you will achieve from the fin, creating a more carvey performance.

    3.     The last major feature to consider when selecting fins is the foil of the fin, or the distribution of the fins mass that is designed to affect the way water flows through the fin and how it propels the board forward. Fins with a flatter foil have a more stable and controlled feel to them, while fins with a more concaved foil will feel more springy and speed generating.

 If you’re interested in researching more about fin design a great place to start is here, where Futures have broken down all of these aspects in a detailed yet easy to understand system they have created called Ride Number.

            It should go without saying that just because removable fin systems have their own unique set of benefits that come with being able to refine your setup with a few turns of a fin key that glass on fins don’t still retain their own set of virtues. In fact in an attempt to close the performance gap between removable and glass-on fins, some companies have began testing fin systems that seek to emulate the construction and feel of glass-on fins such as with FCS and their Origin series of fins which blend the base of the fin smoothly into the box and board to create a smoother transition area from board to fin. As is always the case, there is never a right or wrong answer when it comes to dialing in your boards and equipment, all it takes is a little research, experimentation and open-mindedness to find what works best for you!

Ohana Day In Seal Beach Saturday April 16th

There are few sports that connect its athletes directly with nature in the way surfing connects us with the ocean- as a result we as surfers have a greater responsibility to preserve the quality and well being of the beaches that have come to define the lifestyles we live and love.  That’s why this Saturday the 16th we will be down at the Seal Beach Pier to support the Surfrider Foundation in their 9^th annual Ohana Family Day in a day an effort to spread a little environmental awareness while enjoying a day of fun and music down on the sand. The Huntington Beach/Seal Beach chapter of the Surfrider Foundation and Foam E-Z have a long history of involvement and mutual support, “since day one” as shop owner Brad Nadell puts it. Brad is a through and through Seal Beach native having grown up surfing the pier as a young grom, eventually working as an air-sprayer at Harbour Surfboards and then opening up Foam E-Z to serve the local shaping community. As a result of our shops history in the area, we were of course eager to jump on a chance to give back to the community that has allowed our shop to thrive and grow, as well as helping to spread awareness of environmental responsibility and education for the place we all consider to be a second home. In addition to the free surf lessons, beach clean up, and music stage Surfrider will be offering, we will have our own booth featuring some of our range of environmentally friendly products and knowledgeable staff, as well as some free swag and raffles you won’t want to miss out on. Be sure to stop by from 9-1 on Saturday, you’ll find us under the blue Foam E-Z tent!

Happy New Year From The Foam E-Z Family!

2015 has quickly come to a close and with it we are winding down on some of the busiest days we’ve seen here in the shop all year long. This past holiday season has been especially an especially busy one for the team here, which came as a little surprise considering we have been hard at work all year to bring together a whole range of new products and services to our customers. As a result of our busy season officially coming to a head it was necessary for the team to get together and celebrate everything that we’ve been able to accomplish this past year at our annual company Holiday Party a few weeks back at 320 Main in Seal Beach. There was indeed much to celebrate this year too, and as a result a long dinner easily turned into a late night of fun and festivity for the Foam E-Z family.

            Yes, there have been many changes this past year for Foam E-Z, perhaps most notably in the new faces joining the team here in the shop. After saying goodbye to former shop manager Jackson earlier this year, we were excited to welcome new manager Rob Lewis, a former customer and avid shaper, to step in and fill those shoes. Under Rob’s direction, we have been able to expand our line of products and services offered both online and in-store to keep up with latest technology and demand as it becomes available including (but not limited to) a full assortment of colored FCS II fin boxes, Futures new Generation and BlackStix fin series’, and variety of SUP Think Tank goods for those of you out there who prefer to remain more upright out in the water.

            We have also had the pleasure taking part in and sponsoring a whole host of local events which have allowed us to give back to and support the communities that have allowed the shop to thrive for the past twenty-two years.  The event that perhaps had the most impressive turnout was at the Huntington Surf and Sport Surf Demo Day where we had a tent just steps away from some fun surf at the Huntington Beach Pier while we were able to meet and connect with a whole handful of future board builders.

If our recent holiday party serves to be a sign of anything, it was surely a sign of the pure stoke and excitement our team at the shop here has heading into 2016. We have been all been working really hard here to bring a whole slew of new projects and ideas for the shop to life that you should keep an eye out for in the coming months. Among other things you can expect to see an expanded line of products available online and in store, more days available for shape lessons, and the launch of a new monthly blog!

Here's to a happy, healthy, prosperous, and adventurous 2016.  If you haven't already, be sure to Build Your Own Board (BYOB) as your 2016 New Years Resolution.

Thanks for all the support in 2015, see you next year!

The Guys at Foam E-Z

             

Rockers; A Detailed Explanation!

Everyone knows how important rocker is to the performance of a surfboard. US Blanks offers custom rockers at no charge, including private rocker templates.

While our master plugs were designed with a Natural Rocker that fits a variety of designs, we know that individual style and design will require adjustments.

We use the deck line to adjust rocker, and all adjustments are referenced to the Natural Rocker. If desired, we can adjust rocker to the bottom. Adjustments can be made from almost any point on a blank and from one blank size to another. Unless instructed, all rocker adjustments will be made from the center of the blank. If the adjustment is made from a point other than center, the adjustment point will be part of the description. Rockers transferred from one blank size to another will require a match point. Radical rocker adjustments may result in bumps or dips created in the deck line.

Selecting the exact right rocker profile will ensure that you have the perfect contour for your specific board design. Rocker helps determine board speed and turning radius.

Flatter Rocker = More Speed

More Rocker = Tighter Turning

NATURAL ROCKER


All blanks are designed with a Natural Rocker optimized for the widest range of potential design needs. Natural Rockers are written in number of inches that the tip of the nose and tip of the tail rise from the bottom plane of the blank.

The Rocker Formula:

Natural Rocker = Inches Rise in the Nose, Inches Rise in the Tail

(from the Bottom Plane)

Natural Rocker 5 -1/2″N, 2-1/16″T

The Nose is always written first. It begins with the number of inches the tip rises from the bottom plane of the blank and is followed by the letter “N”. A comma separates the Nose rocker from the Tail rocker. Likewise, the Tail rocker is written in number of inches the tip rises from the bottom plane of the blank and is followed by the letter “T”.

ROCKER ADJUSTMENTS


All Custom Rockers are written as adjustments from the Natural Rocker. Adjustments are made from the center of the deck unless otherwise specified.

Rocker Adjusted from Deck Center (the default adjustment)

+1/2”N +1/8”T

This indicates that the tip of the Nose is adjusted +1/2” and the Tail is adjusted +1/8” from the Natural Rocker and the adjustments were made from the center of the deck.

Rocker Adjusted from Location Other Than Deck Center

Adjustments made from a location other than Deck Centered (DC) are indicated by  the number, in inches, that follows the “N” or “T” in the rocker formula.

+1/2”N18” +1/8”T12”

This indicates that the tip of the Nose is adjusted +1/2” from the Natural Rocker, but only within the last 18” of the Nose. And the tail is adjusted +1/8” from the Natural Rocker but only in the last 12” of the Tail.

Rocker Adjusted from Multiple Locations

Rockers can also be adjusted from multiple locations within the Nose or Tail to add subtle rocker to a given area and then increased rocker to another area, (i.e., a “Flipped Tip” effect). This is indicated by simply adding values to the existing rocker formula.

+1/2”N18” +1/2”N12” +1/8”T12”


This indicates that the tip of the Nose is adjusted +1/2” from the Natural Rocker in the last 18” of the Nose and then an additional 1/2” in the last 12” of the Nose. And the tail is adjusted +1/8” from the Natural Rocker but only in the last 12” of the Tail.

AVAILABLE ROCKERS

A drop down menu of all available rockers accompany every blank page listed here  (and in the US Blanks catalog). If you can’t find what you need, we will gladly make you a custom rocker.  We can get your custom
rockered blanks within one week of ordering.  Let us know if we can help!

Thanks to US Blanks for this informative explanation of how rockers are determined.