experimental surfboard design
Did it turn out how you expected, Evo? I'm not being a smartarse, but is that how you pictured the thing looking before you started shaving the foam, cos, you know, it does look very different.
Yes it did Stu,
Steve, I've had a chance to try it out both prone and standing up, would I change the dimensions? Yes sure would, it just too wide at the tail.It was borne from the question on the forums of how small can you go?
Here it is in comparision to my 5'3 Al Merrick Biscuit....
I was wanting something I could lie on due to my dodgy knee but also something I could stand on, something that would be a different type of feel on the wave.I could stand on a boogey board without problems (im 65 kg) but I was hoping fibreglass wouldnt flex so bad and stop it bogging down.
Lying down it is easy to get the sweet spot and it is fast. It took a while to get used to surfing without fins, but I figured my body would provide the necessary drag for control. I've had a couple of great waves at burleigh lying prone, but it is a bit 'boring' once I got used to slipping/sliding around.
Standing up is a mixed experience- have to have fins -it will take a twin setup. Once you get used to not pushing too hard to stand up, it needs a lot of weight transfer to bottom turn, with my dodgy knee it is a bit tough as I'm still hesitant to weight bear. Pump it and it just changed speed and started screaming. At cooly I had the fins humming on a 2ft wave, making the inside section near the sands hotel that no-one was. Mushy waves its cool, in decent 3-4ft its terrible.I just can't sink the rail enough to turn it quick enough and it goes down the facetoo fast .
Im already planning the next one, with less width in the tail. There is no way you'd pay someone to shape an experiment, but I reckon everyone should give it a go. Its a great feeling surfing something you shaped.
Cheers!
been realy enjoyin this set-up lately, its my spin on the Twinzer, plus a Nubbin tail fin for a little MORE hold and drive...
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/MORE-surfboard-Alaia-finless-small-wave-fun-/...
selling somethin pretty different...
1963-malibu wrote:BUT, ten years ago no one gave a shit. Everyone was happy with the standard Kelly Slater style thruster.
Not everyone.
There have been people making unusual designs for as long as we've been surfing.
What's changed is that the industry has decided to allow carefully managed diversity, but they are as 'closed shop' as ever to that which they don't approve of or which doesn't arrive through the proper channels.
The question is ,what if you could only afford one board would you go for a 5' potato chip with options of 5/7 fin placements or a 6'2'' all rounder thruster
Neither, I'm with Laird I'd have a 12 footer.
It's funny how 'experimental' these days just means 'Mini Sim', mainly.
Does anyone else find it funny that all of a sudden surfers are fascinated with experimental surfboard design?
it is a good thing that there is so much happening.
BUT, ten years ago no one gave a shit. Everyone was happy with the standard Kelly Slater style thruster. If you walked down the beach with an old quad fin or a fish under your arm everyone would laugh at you and call you a kook, even if you surfed it good.
What changed that mentality?
Today you could walk down the beach and paddle out on a shopping trolley and no-one would say anything i rekon.
Can we thank the internet for this change and new open mindedness?
Or is it because someone cool like Alex Knost or Rasta did it first?
Or is it because the magazines are starting to televise it?