K4 and Custom CNC!

I am really happy to be riding K4 fins giving feedback to Steve Thorpe. Steve has been working really hard with a few riders to develop the fins (in a number of shapes) to innovate the concept and encourage people to try more different fin shttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifet ups to find the best for their board, style and the conditions. He provides an affordable way to do this with high performance fins that are more flexible generally than G10s, giving more drive and grip. I am very keen to experiment with the fins as a lighter rider as I think their flexiness will help a lot as I cannot provide as much force on the fins as a heavier rider, so it makes sense to vary the flex and size depending on rider weight! So I have a good set to test in Chile and will let you know the feedback. I am off in two weeks and absolutely can't wait! HERE is the link to Steve's tuning section of his site, an interesting read!



So as promised, here are some pics of my 58l custom in the making from Jim at Puravida Boardriders. It is the smallest board Jim has made to date and will be a great test of his down the line and high wind 'Rock Star' shape! My board is the very first of Jim's super accurate CNC shapes, which he hopes to develop across all the sizes. I am really looking forward to helping him in the research and development of this board, being a rarely used size. I really hope that more girls and lighter riders can make the most out of these size customs, as we have never been able to sail the right size board for our weight!

Jim has tailored the overall size, volume distribution, stance and footstrap widths to my needs for a board for higher winds and/or bigger waves, where the face may well be choppy, so that I can have (hopefully!) full control and not be afraid to bounce out in the bottom turn. So here are the pics:

Blank ready to be cut:

Shaping machine cutting the deck:

Cutting the bottom:

All shaped up ready for the top sandwich:

Bottom sandwich on: