Making a mini mal bit more progressive

[greypump]

If I was getting an 8ft minimal shaped for me as an all round do everything board, how could I get it made slightly more progressive whilst still keeping it very stable, forgiving and beginner friendly. I need a board that I can grow with and can't afford another!

Interested to hear about rails, concaves or v and why vs tend to be on minimals rather than concave etc. Also, should it be thruster or 2 +1?

(The 8ft is right for my size and experience.)

[Pornstar]

It all depends on how often you get to surf.
If you are advancing and get to go often to surf then you should be thinking about getting something that you may not be able to master at the moment but that you would grow into.

For example i surf 3-4 times a week.
I had been learning for about 6-8 months on shortboards.
I decided to had a hybrid funboard made for me (a 7´footer) so that i could learn easily. To make it more "shortboardlike" i decided that it had thinned down rails, somewhat of a concave and kicktail.

Big boards like minimals and the like are too wide so if you have deep concaves they slide off the face of the wave. The v on them would help them transition from rail to rail easier and have more hold.

Eventhough It helped me to advance tons, i got myself after 2 months with it a 6´3´´ shortboard. I couldnt believe how much better i had gotten from using the funboard, but since my first ride with the shortboard, I noticed that it was ten times more fun at the break i usually go than the bigger board. So since i got sad about seeing it gather dust i decided to put the funboard for sale.

At first I had the intention of keeping the funboard for small days but after comparing the 6´3 to it i decided to get a 6´0 small wave shortboard instead. Way more fun. Not that much of a dierence in the quantity of waves i catch with either of them, and on the shortboard i catch more quality (hollow steep ) waves than on the funboard.
So if you plan on keeping it i guess its okay to get it now as a transition and to keep it later as a small wave board.
But if you plan on going to shortboard land i would sugest buying a cheap used minimal for your current level and once you master it sell it and get a shortboard. Or you´ll end up like me losing $ or having it get all dusty at your garage.

It all depends on your level, on what you want to end up surfing (shortboard, minimals, longboards), how often you can hit the waves and finally what kind of waves you´ll be surfing the most..

[greypump]

Thanks Pornstar....I'm hoping to get out once a week but that is never guaranteed and the surf nearest me is pretty weak so need something bigger. Never going to be a shortboarder I reckon - took it all up too late.

But, I know (or people tell me) Mini Mals have limitations so I wanted to get one made that is a little bit more progressive than the normal mini mal. Suppose it will al be down to the rails, fin set up and stuff they do on the bottom but it's all that stuff I'm not sure about and wanted to be a bit more armed with knowledge before talking to a shaper.

[Pornstar]

Its never too late.

Yet there are people who never give up their minimals.

Whatever rocks your boat.

I tought you wanted to be a shortboarder in the future because you were inquiring about a "proggressive" minimal.

A minimal is a bigish board that will catch lots of waves in a very stable platform.

If you want something more "fun". Get a funboard.

If you want a super stable board that will handle the most as a surfboard yet its still going to be user friendly get a 7´hybrid. (Something like the Channel Islands M13)

[greypump]

Yip - I had thought of a funboard but I reckon I need to still start a big bigger than that - more float. I've heard of folk fine tuning their mini mals so that the rails and bottom of the board are a bit more "racey" so that's what I'm after. Like the look of the M13 by the way but the mini longboard version looks more suited to me...now that's got me thinking!

[drowningbitbybit]

You need a shapers opinion here - c'mon, shapers where are you? I know you're out there

But I'll add my two aussie cents anyway...

A funboard is basically a progressive mini-mal (or a softened short board, depends how you look at it) so look there for the kind of changes you might want to make. To keep the 'mini-malness' of the board, you just need to not go quite so far and to keep the mal outline.

So you'd introduce a little more rocker than a beginners mal, have slightly lower rails, and probably go with a thruster set up.

The worry is that you'll end up with a middle ground cant-do-anything board, rather than one that is more progressive. So, shapers, over to you...

[crepuscular]

how about this one? 7S super fish XL

http://www.surfindustries.com/surfboard ... FishXL.php

dont forget to check out the video on the page

[greypump]

how about this one? 7S super fish XL

http://www.surfindustries.com/surfboard ... FishXL.php

dont forget to check out the video on the page

Had actually looked at that but then didn't like the thin glassing and I want to buy from a shaper rather than a brand board. I sort of know now what I'm after it is a mini mal design I go for - will trust the shaper to tell me what can be done or whether I need to go for a diff design. Also wondering again about a 9 longboard with some perfomance characteristics. Decisions, decisions!

[IB_Surfer]

I had a friend that had the same problem, liked his minimal but did not like its' performance or size, so I turned him on to my shaper who made him a thick retro thruster that was much smaller but paddled and floated better. Here is a link to that thread, hope you find it usefull:

http://www.surfingsandiego.com/forum/fo ... D=2681&KW=

[greypump]

I had a friend that had the same problem, liked his minimal but did not like its' performance or size, so I turned him on to my shaper who made him a thick retro thruster that was much smaller but paddled and floated better. Here is a link to that thread, hope you find it usefull:

http://www.surfingsandiego.com/forum/fo ... D=2681&KW=

Sounds interesting but the link doesn't work I'm afraid.

[IB_Surfer]

just cliked on it, seems fine, maybe they where down before