INTRO
This particular model evolved from a well-known Sunshine Coast competitive Mal rider who swears by how manoeuvrable this design is and who encouraged me to put this model out there. As reluctant as I was having an Anti Mal model in the range, I succumbed so unashamedly here it is. To add more light weight liveliness to a board this size I have made this with a stringered eps blank and it is glassed with epoxy resin.
PLAN SHAPE
The tail shape is a pulled in chisel and the nose measurement 12” down is nearly 3” wider than that of the 12’ mark up from the tail which for a performance Mal is a necessity if you really want to swing that mother and do your walk to the nose. All in all nothing that unusual here and of course there are some pretty tight rules about dims on competitive mals so staying with the program with the Plan shape here. I have also included a round tail option for those who want a less aggressive flowing turn.
BOTTOM SHAPE
To facilitate all the goings on, on the deck, the lateral bottom shape has all the answers. Up front is a 5mm concave running down from the nose for nose riding anticks which then flows into a neutral flat bottom at the centre with an emerging double concave which gets deeper running into the last third which sports a deep vee with the double concave dug in either side creating a somewhat tilting squirty feel.
BOTTOM ROCKER
Like most performance Mals the nose rocker is actually the same measurement as the tail rocker, however with apex way behind centre the intensity of the tail curve is a lot more extreme c/f the casual curve running from the tip of the nose and the dugout concave straightening the stringer curve even more so as to allow a nose rider to be gliding rather than pushing water. At the other end the extreme curve in the last 24” encourages the swing speed and the tightness of the turn. After all- albeit these things are long and indeed front heavy, both the flip and the double concave vee in the tail will excite the rider with more potential to get down and get dirty.
FINS
As most performance Mals - the rules are the rules, so a 10” fin box and smartly positioned side bights are the norm.
GLASSING
Using an EPS blank with a decent backbone ie. a 5/16” stringer, the weight of this board is whipping light, particularly having not over glassed it due to the strength of this backbone it already has. Excluding big guns and tow boards, surfboards that are light, respond quicker and this fact is even more important than ever when riding lengthy boards in small waves.
DIMS
9.1 x 22 ½ x 2 ¾ = 65 lts
8.1 x 22 x 2 ¾ = 55.5 lts
7.1 x 21 ½ x 2 ¾ = 46.7 lts