It wasn't To Be, shaping that blank myself. I fully plan on building my own boards at some point. Maybe.
Ted, the man known as Clayfin, kindly offered to shape the blank for me. I cruised up to his house on Saturday and sat a spell. He's as cool as his blog implies, and it was a real pleasure to talk surfcraft with him. We're of a like mind on the Pet Cobra Model; a big summertime cruiser, fat rails, all about the glide. (I've resisted the temptation to call him back and tell him to do a pintail; next time, perhaps.)
I've wanted a classic noserider for a while. I do like the Hogfish, but I've always wanted to really develop that classic style. I never really saw myself as the shortboard type; if I keep at the Hog, I'm sure at some point I'll be...competant. And that's fine. But I'd really like to be good, and I keep coming back to the fact that I've always been pretty good on a longboard - I've even had some tiptime on the Hollingsworth, way back when I could take out the sidebites and ride it as a single fin (this was before the screws holding the sidefins rusted in place, and when I weighed what the board was shaped to carry).
So Ted's gonna get to work on it, Moonlight's gonna glass it, and it should ready for its maiden voyage by May. As for colors - I'm getting Volan glass, so I'm tempted to just keep it natural; that slight hint of Coke bottle green is classy. Moonlight charges an extra $70 for a resin tint. Suggestions are welcome.
HERE'S THE NEW MATERIAL, ONLY ON DVD:
A rounded pin? Interesting. Yes. Very. Make it so.
In theory, weight, volume, and parallel rails make for a noserider. Square tails are, in theory, a bit harder to turn; pins give one a bit of an advantage in cutbacks and pivots. Ted's gonna split the difference. Ultimately, though, it's as Mick Jagger says: the singer, not the song. This will be a first for me; I've never ridden a pin of any sort.