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jet bottom surfboards

Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 12:17 pm
by diggerdickson
has anyone ridden one, I know earl is a master but im absolutely gobsmaked how all those crazy flutes would go with the water flow over the board, it doesnt look like it channels the water through the board efficently. If anyone can comment on this or give any insight I would love to hear it. Whats the thought process behind this or was it just one hell of a acid trip and earl totally hated his glasser one day so came up with this design to say "here glass this you arsehole, and after you glass it make sure you do a good job on the sanding"

Re: jet bottom surfboards

Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2011 11:15 am
by diggerdickson
no takers on this one :shock: has no one ridden one of these boards to be able to comment on them.

Re: jet bottom surfboards

Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2011 12:48 pm
by dUg
afraid(?) not. I do remember seeing that one in tRACKS many years ago, and remember wondering how the thing might go.

Re: jet bottom surfboards

Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2011 3:41 pm
by diggerdickson
Hey roy or huei, Im sure you guys might have some thougths on this, because if anyone knows anything about waterflow underneath a board, you two guys do, probably more than anyone else, even if roy cops a pasting on this forum no one can argue his quality of work.

Re: jet bottom surfboards

Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 9:08 pm
by tiger
Hey Diggs, I used to run into Earl a bit down the Black Widow factory back in the day. He's a nice bloke, and very talented craftsman.

His description of how they worked were something like, riding a magic carpet on a layer of ball bearings. What I think he was getting at was that they created a lot of planing lift, and that slippery less wetted area feel. Like belly channels, or dare I say it dimples.

I was shaping lots of belly channels at the time, and was keen to shape a board, and get him to whack a set in it for me. But we never got around to it, and I regret it now.

Re: jet bottom surfboards

Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 9:31 pm
by diggerdickson
tiger wrote:Hey Diggs, I used to run into Earl a bit down the Black Widow factory back in the day. He's a nice bloke, and very talented craftsman.

His description of how they worked were something like, riding a magic carpet on a layer of ball bearings. What I think he was getting at was that they created a lot of planing lift, and that slippery less wetted area feel. Like belly channels, or dare I say it dimples.

I was shaping lots of belly channels at the time, and was keen to shape a board, and get him to whack a set in it for me. But we never got around to it, and I regret it now.

ahhh, i get it tiger, would be fun to ride one just to feel what it does, missed oportunity mate, wow. Thats sure got to be a bloody big one mate.

Re: jet bottom surfboards

Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 10:08 pm
by alakaboo
Spoke to a guy who rides them almost exclusively in barrels. Same deal as tiger's comments. Said they're the fastest thing around. Not sure about the classing, he snapped a heap of them.

Re: jet bottom surfboards

Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 3:38 pm
by Roy_Stewart
diggerdickson wrote:Hey roy or huei, Im sure you guys might have some thougths on this, because if anyone knows anything about waterflow underneath a board, you two guys do, probably more than anyone else, even if roy cops a pasting on this forum no one can argue his quality of work.
Hello Digger,

The ones I've seen look like they'd slow the board down a lot by channeling water all over the place.

Re: jet bottom surfboards

Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 9:49 pm
by seethesea75
There were quite a few of them around here under Murrays Bourtons PIPEDREAM label. I had one I bought second hand off a mate when I was 13. It went insane, as described a very frictionless feeling. This was a belly channel Jet bottom. Murray later told me that the feedback was unreal from everyone but like so many other real developments in surfboards held back by costing more to produce than people will pay.

A friend has a more modern one that Earle put vents through the deck that allowed air to suck through and under the board through the jets as well. That is one of the best ones I have seen. His full board ones look unreal, works of art. Head to Surfworld Museum at Currumbin to check a whole collection of them.

Earle is still shaping them too, he lives in Agnes.

Re: jet bottom surfboards

Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2011 12:45 pm
by Roy_Stewart
This sort of thing ?

Re: jet bottom surfboards

Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2011 1:15 pm
by diggerdickson
could you imagine glassing that roy, nightmares, your glasser would hate you, imagine sanding the bugger

Re: jet bottom surfboards

Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2011 12:41 pm
by ric_vidal
Got asked if I wanted to glass and sand this, declined.
DSC00153.jpeg
DSC00153.jpeg (23.48 KiB) Viewed 8097 times

Re: jet bottom surfboards

Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2011 12:52 pm
by daryl
It makes sense that it will break friction and turbulence, past that you're in another realm.

Re: jet bottom surfboards

Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2011 3:54 pm
by diggerdickson
ric_vidal wrote:Got asked if I wanted to glass and sand this, declined.
DSC00153.jpeg

jee, I wonder why ric :lol:

Re: jet bottom surfboards

Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 9:19 am
by ric_vidal
diggerdickson wrote:
ric_vidal wrote:Got asked if I wanted to glass and sand this, declined.

jee, I wonder why ric :lol:
clearly no ticker

Re: jet bottom surfboards

Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 7:35 pm
by Roy_Stewart
daryl wrote:It makes sense that it will break friction and turbulence, past that you're in another realm.
Maybe

Re: jet bottom surfboards

Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 7:20 am
by Simon Chipper
I've got a few jet bottoms, acquired over the years. Some old 70's ones including that one in Roy's photo.I have a couple of the Pipedream models and a Water Rider with the trippy fins.
I found that the main sensation is that of 'grip' onto the wave, if that makes sense. In their day a very different feel to conventional bottoms but not better or faster in my opinon. (I should qualify that to say - taking into account my limited surfing ability.) Certainly not the same initial speed out of the starting blocks as todays deep concaves.
I first met Erle in the mid 70's at Whale Beach in Sydney, through a previous aquaintance, a caifornian name of Jick Mebane.( Interestingly Jick has just re-surfaced on swaylocks with a thread about his version of a jet bottom, the JICK bottom!) Erle had just moved south from Cairns I think and said he had come up with the jb to make up for the lack of power in the miniscule surf up there. A converging/diverging nozzle effect in the channels that he said would accelerate the water flow.
Anyway, they certainly are a thing of beauty and a source of amazement to anyone who knows anything about surfboard production!
Erle is still making boards, these days in partnership with Glen "Cat" Collins at 1770, near Agnes Waters. They have a website, I think if you google 1770 surfboards you will find it and marvel at the amazing sculptures found thereon.

Re: jet bottom surfboards

Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 11:21 am
by steve shearer
used to live around the corner from Glen Cat at Sunshine beach.

Cool cat with some way out theories and designs.