7'6 Legend Midlength Surfboard Single Fin

Legend
This one 7’6 x 21 1/22 x 2 13/16” 54 litres
Polyurethane Blank, Polyester Resin Laminate.
Rolled ‘V’ nose to mid-point, double concave through the tail.
Fat deck with rails tapered down to medium full, fine thin rails in the tail behind the wing.
Swallow tail for better hold and drive through the turns.
Okay so calling a board ‘Legend’ is pretentious. But there is a story behind this one. Before I became a full-time board maker/shaper/fool I was a partner in a joinery business. I went on a surfboard building course in the winter of 1978 (yep that is a long time ago). I made a 6’0 single fin fish which I still have and around 1979 I built in the joinery shop a board with a single fin and winged swallow tail. I copied the idea of this board from a thumb nail advert for Gordan and Smith Surfboards which I had seen in Surfer Magazine. My 7’6 surfed better than my fish and 7’2 Creamed Honey single fin which was so narrow in the tail. Time went by and I made more boards and this one got left in the back of the shed at Lightwave where around 1988 unbeknown to me my dear old partner Jonnie sold it!! Yep like what the ..! In 2022 a very kind customer contacted me and told me he had the board and would love to give it back, so I am now reunited with it. Many great days of surfing North Cornwall, Brittany and South Wales were had on that board. My first successful board made by me.
I have copied and adapted the original board, it has many rookie errors; like the outline is asymmetric, the thickness is all in the wrong place, the tail is too narrow for my extra 2 stone weight. But the essence of the board is still valid: flat deck, smooth rocker line, and a retention of the thickness to the nose and tail. The original has a flat bottom, I’ve modified it to be slightly rolled, with double concave and ‘V’ in the tail. The rocker is the same values as the original 5” in the nose and 2 ½” in the tail and I’ve kept it as a continuous curve. I have made the tail area wider so that the board will plane a bit earlier and of course sorted out the foil of the board so that the maximum thickness, the lowest point of the rocker and the widest point of the outline are all at the same point relative to the tail. It has a 10” FCS centre box with FCS11 side bite option. Now the board has great balance, is narrower than a lot of boards we make of this length and passes the easy to paddle test. Surfs beautifully in either small junk and holds steep and fast waves as well.
I am going to make more boards in this design from 7’0 to 8’0 so it is and always was a proper midlength surfboard with real credentials inspired 45 years ago.. who’d have thought?
Come and see for yourself I hope to put one into our demo quiver very soon, so you can take it out for a try.