Ode to Shaper Barry Snyder. Sometime I find a shaper that is not content with the way things are done. Barry is one of those shapers and he has taken the Mini Simmons design and put his own twist on the shape.
If you read his about me page on his website he says, “I believe a lobotomized circus monkey can sand out the grooves on a CNC’d surfboard blank.” The shaping industry is changing fast and shapers are moving more and more toward machining their designs, the OG hand-shapers are fading into the shadows of the craft—but Berry is holding strong.
Now, let’s see what he has to say about the Mini Simmons.
After building and riding a ‘traditional’ Mini Simmons Berry was discontent with it’s non-turnability.
How does he change the Mini Simmons shape?
In his words, these are the things he changed in his 2.0 version of the shape:
- Mellow concave w/ wide bevel running along rails.
- Lots of Vee with a deep double concave coming off tail.
- Diamond tail that is thinly foiled.
The new shape turns on a dime and he reminds us that constant refinement = progression.
Here is his result:
[ilink url=”http://www.barrysnyderdesigns.com/” target=”_blank”]For more on Berry click this link.[/ilink]
Diddo,
I couldn’t stand the turning radius of those huge fins. I love my minis with quad performance fin angles and sometime I switch it up to a twin or tri……………
Thanks Jonathan, interesting perspective.
Derek, MSS