Mini Simmons

A place for longboarders, eggers, fish riders... if alternative surfcraft is your game, here's the place to chat about it

Moderators: collnarra, PeepeelaPew, Butts, Shari, the kalakau kid, Forum Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
Cpt.Caveman
barnacle
Posts: 1594
Joined: Sun Nov 21, 2004 9:13 am
Location: Sydney - Everywhere and nowhere.

Mini Simmons

Post by Cpt.Caveman » Mon Jul 05, 2010 5:24 pm

I have been seeing more and more of these on the internet, but have never seen one in the surf, nor have I heard much about them. Has anyone here ridden one? Whats the ride and the feel like? Any opinions?

http://mini-simmons.blogspot.com/
Davros wrote:Ego saved - surfing experience rubbish.

User avatar
jimmy
Snowy McAllister
Posts: 5642
Joined: Fri Jun 05, 2009 12:12 pm

Re: Mini Simmons

Post by jimmy » Mon Jul 05, 2010 6:47 pm

Cpt.Caveman wrote:I have been seeing more and more of these on the internet, but have never seen one in the surf, nor have I heard much about them. Has anyone here ridden one? Whats the ride and the feel like? Any opinions?

http://mini-simmons.blogspot.com/
Theres probably a reason you've never seen one in the surf..
Hatchnam wrote:
Thu Sep 12, 2019 1:13 pm
How about tame down the scatter gun must consecutively post on every thread behaviour you compulsive mongoloid.
swvic wrote:
Mon Feb 01, 2021 11:54 pm
Actually, that’s interesting. Take note, beanpole

User avatar
Cpt.Caveman
barnacle
Posts: 1594
Joined: Sun Nov 21, 2004 9:13 am
Location: Sydney - Everywhere and nowhere.

Re: Mini Simmons

Post by Cpt.Caveman » Mon Jul 05, 2010 7:22 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKgK_Gd-81w

I tend to like my boards to have more modern pulled in tails and conventional fin placement, even if its a twinny. It looks like it does a pretty good job of holding speed though!
Davros wrote:Ego saved - surfing experience rubbish.

JET01
barnacle
Posts: 1048
Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2007 4:04 pm

Re: Mini Simmons

Post by JET01 » Mon Jul 05, 2010 8:12 pm

Stuart Paterson at PCC surfboards has shaped a few recently, has one you can demo, it's about 5'10 x 22 x 2 5/8 from memory. Diverse is doing them too.
My mate took one for a test ride a while back... Great paddler, fast and loose as a goose....
Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.

User avatar
Cpt.Caveman
barnacle
Posts: 1594
Joined: Sun Nov 21, 2004 9:13 am
Location: Sydney - Everywhere and nowhere.

Re: Mini Simmons

Post by Cpt.Caveman » Tue Jul 06, 2010 8:59 am

I think it looks like fun actually. Considering how gutless the waves are he looks like hes going super fast and using that speed well, particularly with the shorter one (5'2"?) in the second part of the video. I would much prefer to own one of these instead of a mal for uninteresting gutless days.
Davros wrote:Ego saved - surfing experience rubbish.

User avatar
Cpt.Caveman
barnacle
Posts: 1594
Joined: Sun Nov 21, 2004 9:13 am
Location: Sydney - Everywhere and nowhere.

Re: Mini Simmons

Post by Cpt.Caveman » Tue Jul 06, 2010 11:57 am

As far as I understand they are usually over 20" wide and over 2 1/2" thick, and it would paddle better and carry more speed than a more standard short board template because there is more volume and planing area directly underneath your feet, especially the back foot.

You could make it standard by drawing the volume out more like a typical HPS, but then it would be a very different ride and wash a lot more speed off through turns. Modern rails, tail planshapes and rocker are designed to cause drag when you use back foot pressure to dig into the wave and turn. Drag is not the intended principle in these boards, glide is what I'm guessing they're trying to get at, and then to regain the ability to turn they use twin feels set very far back..

Once again, for gutless waves I would have far more fun on a Mini Simmons shaped for my height and weight compared with a typical HPS bloated out to provide the float required, or a mal.

Always playing the fun police dino, you seem to have it set out in your head that there are only very few types of boards that people "should" ride, and what constitutes a "good" board. Very unagreeable you are sir.
Davros wrote:Ego saved - surfing experience rubbish.

User avatar
otway1949
barnacle
Posts: 2254
Joined: Tue Dec 23, 2008 8:51 pm
Location: Austrian river waves

Re: Mini Simmons

Post by otway1949 » Tue Jul 06, 2010 5:07 pm

I 've been surfing since 1958 (positively ancient) gone from Balsa pig boards, through the stock standard 9'6" mal through Vee and saw off as much as you can ,foley boards, Simmons hulls, McTavish San Juaners, Jack Knight Dimple channels, Chinese chop shop shit so many are now retro to me.
I accept that some at the time were state of the art, some were worth revisiting with modern tweaks,.
Mostly I wonder why people go back to designs that were superceded as not doing their job.
We all forget that the genius of the great riders is used to sell boards to those who wish they could.
Few succeed.
I'm all for the cashed up older novice buying and then failing on their own merits as quickly as possible.
I love the line I hear from my land bound contemporaries " Yeah I tried it when I was young just couldn't get into it " or "OH I stopped got too old for it'. WTF sad but true and crowd lessening!
I enjoy surfing with my contemporaries who can surf:lol:
Jaffa, I'm opinionated, and I'm sometimes right. So?

JET01
barnacle
Posts: 1048
Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2007 4:04 pm

Re: Mini Simmons

Post by JET01 » Tue Jul 06, 2010 8:41 pm

I'd rather be a cashed up older novice than a broke cranky old fart.
Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.

Beanpole
That's Not Believable
Posts: 68247
Joined: Mon Apr 25, 2005 8:21 am
Location: Button Factory

Re: Mini Simmons

Post by Beanpole » Wed Jul 07, 2010 10:17 am

Can't quite see the difference between those and a retro fish myself except its a squaretail. The guys got a nice smooth style. Makes it look good. A typical bandy legged little shortarse wave jockey.

Reminds me of a Balinese guy I saw riding the full fish model at Medewi a couple of tears ago. Driving from way behind the white water on his turns and effortlessly cruising out on the face to do it again.
Put your big boy pants on
I mean, tastebuds? WGAF?

User avatar
Cpt.Caveman
barnacle
Posts: 1594
Joined: Sun Nov 21, 2004 9:13 am
Location: Sydney - Everywhere and nowhere.

Re: Mini Simmons

Post by Cpt.Caveman » Wed Jul 07, 2010 10:44 am

Looks like in the right hands it can be pretty capable - http://thetylerwarrenexperiments.blogsp ... oting.html
Davros wrote:Ego saved - surfing experience rubbish.

collnarra
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 2327
Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2004 8:57 am

Re: Mini Simmons

Post by collnarra » Wed Jul 07, 2010 10:46 am

yeah, the yanks are all over this one. I often read the surfer mag design forums, and there's stuff there about the "mini-sim". Doesn't appeal to me, but it takes all types.
the tools of the trade are the head and the heart - mission of burma

User avatar
steve shearer
BUTTONMEISTER
Posts: 44831
Joined: Mon Oct 13, 2008 8:20 pm

Re: Mini Simmons

Post by steve shearer » Wed Jul 07, 2010 11:45 am

Dino is right about the conditions required but has his sub-species conflated : this isn't a craft for the cashed up novice. This is the craft du jour for the hipster longboarder, with style and body english to burn who wants to take wave-riding hipsterism to a whole new level. And I say that with absolutely no malice or cynicism whatsoever.

yes the Yanks are all over this : they're perfect for SoCal points and Baja missions.
But the avant-garde of this design and perhaps a new tangent for HPS is Dan Thomson from sleepy ol Lennox Head.
Dan or Tomo as he prefers to be known in professional circles, has taken modern shortboard principles and Simmon's planing hull planshapes and shrunk them down into tiny micro planing hulls that he is absolutely ripping the bag on.

Kidman is another one experimenting down this road, in his case blending Australian shortboard circa '72 principles (particularly MP's boards) with channel bottoms and wide tail single fins. ( i expect a full exposition in his latest film which he is editing).
I've ridden his boards and they are fast as fcuk and require a very precise approach as far as edge control goes.
It's a very different ride, I could see how it could become addictive.

These things are a world away from chinese made boats for Mac Bank execs......and it needs to be said here that both Luke Short and Simon Anderson have jumped on that bandwagon.
Good luck to them, I hope they make some coin out of it.
It's a free country.
I want Nightclub Dwight dead in his grave I want the nice-nice up in blazes

User avatar
Cpt.Caveman
barnacle
Posts: 1594
Joined: Sun Nov 21, 2004 9:13 am
Location: Sydney - Everywhere and nowhere.

Re: Mini Simmons

Post by Cpt.Caveman » Wed Jul 07, 2010 12:01 pm

Some reviews from the Surfermag forum. It sounds like people are starting to blend the Mini Simmons with modern design principles, and with quite a few happy customers. The question is, are they stoked to be "alternative" and "different" (as seems to be popular in the US), or is it actually the functional board that they claim?

http://forum.surfermag.com/forum/showfl ... n=0&page=8


Some pretty wild and out-there looking things at Dan Thomo's website, sounds like hes going a pretty unique direction - http://www.dantomo.com/
Last edited by Cpt.Caveman on Wed Jul 07, 2010 1:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Davros wrote:Ego saved - surfing experience rubbish.

Longygrom
barnacle
Posts: 1471
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2004 12:35 pm

Re: Mini Simmons

Post by Longygrom » Wed Jul 07, 2010 12:25 pm

http://surf-knot.blogspot.com/

I had no real care or desire to ride these boards until recently. I was in Japan and we all had no logs with us- only option were Tyler's Mini Simmonds quiver. Keep in mind these were highly tuned planks of foam- refined in the right places.

They went well, given we did have 2 feet slopey yet fast waves..not hollow- just rolling.

Dino, i know where ya coming from totally- they miss alot of good sections that you can harness on a more pulled in tail fish- then again you can GET to alot more sections by sheer speed of the board...its got a purpose as do Discplacement Hulls. I think these are more versatile for Sydney though.

User avatar
steve shearer
BUTTONMEISTER
Posts: 44831
Joined: Mon Oct 13, 2008 8:20 pm

Re: Mini Simmons

Post by steve shearer » Wed Jul 07, 2010 1:04 pm

what: the mini-sims or the hulls?
I want Nightclub Dwight dead in his grave I want the nice-nice up in blazes

Beanpole
That's Not Believable
Posts: 68247
Joined: Mon Apr 25, 2005 8:21 am
Location: Button Factory

Re: Mini Simmons

Post by Beanpole » Wed Jul 07, 2010 2:05 pm

No offense to Dan in particular but I really feel my age when I read how a lot of people describe themselves and what they do these days. I would probably have done the same thing myself at 20 but someone would have told me to pull my head in. I'm not saying its good or bad just totally different. Obviously you also couldn't publicise what you thought quite so easily.
Put your big boy pants on
I mean, tastebuds? WGAF?

User avatar
Cpt.Caveman
barnacle
Posts: 1594
Joined: Sun Nov 21, 2004 9:13 am
Location: Sydney - Everywhere and nowhere.

Re: Mini Simmons

Post by Cpt.Caveman » Thu Jul 08, 2010 9:40 am

Dan Thomo has some pretty wild theories that he explains here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_27ldD8zd8E

Isn't he just taking a horribly long winded way to explain the fact that when you increase the surface area of the tail in a surfboard (e.g. by going wider), the board floats better under your feet (i.e. generates lift?).

Anyone here versed in hydrodynamics enough to comment on his theories?
Davros wrote:Ego saved - surfing experience rubbish.

Longygrom
barnacle
Posts: 1471
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2004 12:35 pm

Re: Mini Simmons

Post by Longygrom » Thu Jul 08, 2010 10:16 pm

I was staying with his father, Mark while overseas. I think that is where Daniel would get his theories from, clearly they are onto something. Whether or not people accept them, they are hell bent on their ideas which i dont think is a bad thing.

His fathers surf mat is pretty insane. Super fast, super technical...all the theory into it makes me sick to think about.

http://www.kryptsurf.com/SURFMAT.htm

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 35 guests