Muzza's Trippin' - THE MINI MINI
The Purpose of The Mini Mini
This is aimed at a few niche markets from
young girls to guys who want an alternative to a fish design
or bigger guys who just want short.
 Board
Specifications
DIMENSIONS:
6'4 x 16' ½ x 21 x 15' 1/8 x 2 ¼, Round Tail
IDEAL WEIGHT:
Due to the width and forward flatness this could be ridden
by a 90 kilo guy and also due to the 2 ¼ thinness it
could also be managed by somebody around 65 kilos.
DESIGN EMPHASIS:
The Mini Mini has a very flat nose entry combined
with a very wide nose 16 ½ inches in fact
but the real secret to this risky flatness is the hull under
the nose shown in the slice diagram. Add to this 2 ¾
tail rocker to lever that nose around I reckon this board
could be thrown around in small waves. The tail area is narrower
than the nose area so one can bury the tail and swing that
nose. The thinness of the whole board is to veto the 21 inches
of width.
Muzza's
Ramblings
I saw a mini
mal down the beach a while ago as I was getting out of the
water and the angle at which I saw it made it look quite small.
I flashed ( not a flash back ) as I walked past realizing
it was not that small after all; but what a good idea any
way. So I chose a length and a width and designed it with
a very flat nose where one could hang five without pushing
water and also to be able to paddle in with ease. I kept the
thickness down so it could be buried easy even though it was
21 inches wide. The brazen design feature is the cathedral
hull under the nose which I think will allow one to stand
on the nose longer than normal if you were so inclined. The
board has some tail rocker controlled by a vee in the tail
designed to lever the central concave from rail to rail. The
planshape would entice I think even the most anti Mal proponents
to climb aboard and do some nose riding and big drop knee
turns and get an instant response simply because it is so
short.
Prediction
This board will glide no matter where you stand on it and
if your game you should be able to hang your heels over the
nose.
 Results
Have only made one and flogged it to a friend . Two months
later this is what he said:
Wednesday, 24 May 2006
Hi Muzza,
Welcome back to the real world! I hope you scored good waves
in Indo. I thought I better get back to you with some feed
back on “The Mini Mini” as promised. I surfed
on it today at Snapper in two foot fun waves and loved it.
Firstly I found it very easy to paddle even though at 2¼,
it’s thinner than I normally would have ordered, so
a beefed up version would be a great design for beginners.
“The Mini Mini” is a great board for small surf,
it has good acceleration and glide compliments of it’s
width, though you need to pick up a little speed before you
can chuck it on it’s rail. It’s very smooth and
easy to turn, the width makes it very easy to do floaters
( yes Muzza I can still do them at my age) and found it easy
to glide over fat sections. I even managed to hang 5 without
nose diving, I think the hull at the front keeps the nose
up as you suggested. I’ve tried “The Mini Mini”
with various fin set ups and found the medium H2’s are
the go for small surf, they made the board feel more lively
than any other fins I tried. Because the round tail is fairly
neutral it may lack a little bite in bigger waves so I would
go for bigger fins in anything over 3 to 4 foot. I am definitely
going to keep this one, go” The Mini Mini” .
Cheers,
Glen M
P.S. I surfed The Retro as a quad today in clean 1 to 2 foot
surf at The Spit and was impressed with the set up. It feels
loose like a twinny but had more drive and no dead spot you
normally get with a twinny half way through your turns. Next
I will try it set up like this in bigger surf and get back
to you.
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