After riding the difficult builds of the early versions of the Simmons in many conditions I decided to look for a more refined design that was easier to build

I started cutting polyurethane blanks without stringers and glassing in the traditional polyester coating. The urethane blanks are more unstable without a stringer, they tend to curl back once the skin is cut away from the blank. After adjusting to compensate I came up with a complexly contoured smaller design that started to work well in smallish running waves. I messed around with the fins and positioning using FCS products, which made the build a lot simpler and drove well.

To explain a little of the concept Bob Simmons was working with, he called this design a planing hull, his meaning was that there is no tail rocker from the middle of the board to the tail, dead flat! I have incorporated a double concave leading into the edged rail toward the tail for more leverage when on rail.

The Simmons is a great fun shape that has unlimited possibilities, although the unusual look can be off putting for some there is something so completely different to experience in riding and getting to know what the Simmons is about

The front of the board has a moderate even curve to the nose tip with roll out to the rails to free the bottom as you glide over the highs and lows of the wave. The majority of volume is very much concentrated between the feet, there is a lot of surface area forward of your lever foot but this is very scooped out which adds sensitivity in turning high and sharp. The rails are much alined with short board rail shapes, soft in the nose and very sharp at the tail, the middle of the board has low-ish rails that aid leverage when leaning into hard bottom turns. This design has opened my understanding of how we surf the way we do, I owe a great deal of my current understanding in board design to my experiences with Simmons surfing.

The current Simmons design we are producing has far more performance than the early efforts, the classic style and construction is still available for the purists.
We can build the Simmons from urethane or polystyrene, these shapes are without stringers for a lighter springy ride. The fins are FCS keels which simplifies the build quite a lot with the performance unaffected.