Mats

[otway1949]

The only surf craft that slices, dices, chops, peels and separates. It can Julienne Wilson give a second meaning to a cut back and comes complete with the old 1970s surfing motto "rip tear and Lacerate" add the steak knives and you've got a winner.

Note the amputated legs in the fore ground

I am seriously impressed with the experimentation you put in, just make sure you patent your work ,too much effort not to be rewarded.
I'dlike to be there for some of the test sessions

[MarcusMD]

Dowling Street...

Queensie Steps - need to catch up for coffee at Splat!

[SURFFOILS]

Marcus, I'll PM you.
Otway, the hydrofoiled bodyboards were lots of fun to build and ride, I made them for about 2 years and now I know a lot of interesting shite about hydrofoil shape, size and angles in the surf. I keep all of the boards and occaissionally ride the last foiled one I made. Because the foils are a complex shape when I wipe out they stop instantly and dont get washed in, never been cut or even hit by one. The first foils were clear polycarbonate and then aluminium, solid ply and finally vacced EPS with wood veneer and carbon fibre.
I reckon with more experimental time theres potential to make surfing foils that work in all waves but Ive got too many new things to try.

[SURFFOILS]

So the glues dry and Ive test inflated it...



Whip the tape off and trim the edges



Its into the surf tomorrow if I can get it away from the rugrat !!



Hairy little fella !

[MarcusMD]

Looks good - if the sun shines in the morning around 7 and I can see a few from the hill will do likewise!

Will expect a report - either on rugrat - who you could toss on a mat - or on blue baby

M

[UK Mat Surfers]

Hello there.

Just had to comment on this thread after Brett pointed me in it's direction.

I've got a couple of the original Surfaplane ones.
They're surprisingly heavy, but you can ride some waves that mals can't. There's a break I go to every now and then that has perfect form but is rarely over 1 foot and in very shallow water, and those things can turn a 20m ride into a 200m ride.

Surfoplanes are to modern mat what kook boxes are to modern mals. I'd say try a decent nylon mat as it certainly sounds like you've hit the stoke seam!

What do you do when you get caught inside? Obviously you can't duckdive them.

Maybe we need a new forum section - Surfmat riders only!

You can duckdive them just fine. Tips on the hows and whys here:

http://ukmatsurfers.org/html/riding_mats.html

A fully inflated mat is a bouncy toy one bounce away from crush and burst.

A fully inflated mat is a crime against mat surfing!

They're not the most hydrodynamic things,

Mats are absolutely the MOST hydrodynamic of things. How can close to zero resistance be anything other than hydrodynamic?!

scrunch grip the front corners and use your elbows the force the two outer pontoons to form a concave planing hull, release as needed and force your body to ramp up a turn to pull n get your concave going hard.

Excellent points in your post although I'd go the other way around. utterly flat, palms down, elbows in... Squeeze as needed.


Onto Brett's builds. We've communicated loads on this via email.

These are fascinating, highly inventive and potentially mindblowing surfcraft. They are not mats though. As soon as you include any solid structure into the design it ceases to be a mat. Ladies and gents I give you the birth of...

THE HOVER BOARD!!!!

Brett tells me his aim is to improve the mat but I'm gonna put the cat among the pigeons and say you can't to that by adding hard board characteristics. What Brett is doing here is improving the bodyboard/paipo!!!

Great work by a clever man.

G

PS Have a good look around my site (see my sig) for all the info you need.

PPS Here's my last build:

[steve shearer]

sik.

[UK Mat Surfers]

I know people say they ride their mats 1/2 inflated but the pics I find looked pumped up.....

Hey mate.

The shots you're showing feature Warren Pfeiffer and George Greenough (plus Harold Ward dropping in on GG I think). I can guarantee you that neither has his mat pumped up.

As has been said, good technique involves rolling onto your inside rail meaning that that part of the mat it a deflated, undulating surface. It's this which leads to the zippy skimming, not the amount of air. A harder mat for a slower.

As an illustration, I've attached a shot of myself. On that day my inflation was around a 135 degree bend at most so you can see what I mean on air transfer.

G

[SURFFOILS]

Ah yes G, I have consulted the oracles of mat building ( by reading the 'net)



and DS has said that .....

....photos are deceptive... although the outer rail line appears fully inflated, the inside rail is an active, thin, tapered foil......
My idea is to make the inside rail a permanently.." Active,thin, tapered foil " so that you can choose to ride a short
or fat
or fully inflated mat
but it will always have an inside rail that is an active, thin, tapered foil......

Why rely on low inflation to get the control you need when you can have it permanently built into every mat !

Ok its not a TRADITIONAL MAT but it is an inflatable surfcraft of some species... theyre nowhere near as solid as a bodyboard but theyre less than 100% air like a mat is ..
I like the Hover Board tag tho..

With the carbon fibre and epoxy resin its more of a "craft" Like an "Air filled Craft".

I reckon the Olde-World soft mats are the kook boxes compared to my new Air-Craft Mats !!

[UK Mat Surfers]

Why rely on low inflation to get the control you need when you can have it permanently built into every mat !

Because when you want a load of hold you can make the inside rail big, fat and round. Also the active, thin, tapered foil doesn't penetrate the wave face, it skims over it. The complete lack of structure and the ability to modify every inch of your craft second by second, inch by inch is what makes a mat a mat. That's why I don't personally consider Surfoplanes to be mats by the modern definition.

They are historically important but functionally redundant in my opinion.

A surf mat can be square tailed one second, round the next, have a radical rocker line, then be dead flat. It can have a solid structure with deep defined channels then instantly became a frictionless bag of air. Those characteristics are what makes a mat a mat. The introduction of any solid structure starts to remove those characteristics.

The thing with mats is that they're really hard to ride. Dale has suggested to me that mat surfing probably has the highest rate of attrition and I think he's probably right. As Greenough says, it takes ten years to truly get to grips with them.

I'm still learning....

On the development thing, there has been tons of development in surfmat design over the last decade. There is always room to improve any design, of course, but Redbacks and the like can't be used as an examples of what today's mats are. The only way to work out what needs to change is to get a decent nylon/PU mat and solidly ride it and nothing else for at least 10 sessions.

You might find that the answer to performance problems lies outhside the mat.

Back to the hoverboard... Gawd knows how this will go but I'm super excited to see! This will turn every head in the line-up for sure!



G

[SURFFOILS]

Because when you want a load of hold you can make the inside rail big, fat and round. Also the active, thin, tapered foil doesn't penetrate the wave face, it skims over it.

G

This is what really interests me...^^^
If, as you say, a big inside rail gives a load of hold, how? I think that a fat full round rail would give almost no hold because with mega bouyancy it couldnt penetrate the face...? Like an empty 2 L bottle of Coke on its side.
What does everyone else think about hold? Is it a thin or thick rail that gives hold ???

[MarcusMD]

Boy Oh Boy you two went to town last night!

The god news is there are a few good people out there playing with design and feel!

The mat v craft issue is for the purist along the same lines as the paipo boys when they saw a fin.

Sic looking mat tho - just about to head down to Manly and and li-lo!!

M

[SURFFOILS]

Hey Marc, good point about mat Vs craft discussion being one for the purists !
Same as different shapes of rails and what they do, fat Vs thin rails.
Its all good natured banter tho, theres no malice intended !
So I waxed the Inflatable Air Craft...



And headed down to Freshwater.. Its a washing machine with waves all over the place...



Brought the wrong camera (unwaterproof), so no action pics, not that i could take shots like you get with a goPro !!



It sits very high on the water like a mat. the hull has a convex of about 1/2 in so it sits on that and the rails are only just touching the water surface.



I caught a few waves here and later at Avalon and its better than the first prototype, it takes off like a cat with a red hot poker up its bum, I never got caught behind the whitewater.
Riding it like its a bodyboard its easy to turn with the front arm and off the hips ( just like a bodyboard)
Its a really predictable ride, it runs out on the shoulder better than a BB because of the mega bouyancy but it hooks into a turn better.

It still has that funky gurgling sound paddling out and I rode it with minimal extra inflation, just whats held inside and then 2 or 3 breaths added.

Its better than the first version because its better built and on the way home from Avalon I picked up some Ripstop waterproof nylon fabric at Clark Rubber in Brookvale ( $17.95 m ), its what some of the handmade mats are made of.



So do I rip the Blue material off the current Air Craft and put the new nylon on..?
or make a totally new frame to go with the new fabric ...?



Think I might do a whole new frame, try to make it with even less foam and glass...

Howd your surf go Marc ??

[MarcusMD]

Think you should make a 2nd one so I can have a run with one too!!!

Beautiful little left at Manly this morning and almost tempted to go home and blow up another one around 3ish!

M

[Beerfan]

Lots a stoke in this thread!!. Keep it up surffoils!.

[SURFFOILS]

Think you should make a 2nd one so I can have a run with one too!!!

Beautiful little left at Manly this morning and almost tempted to go home and blow up another one around 3ish!

M

I shoulda gone to Manly too, Fresh was a blow out and Av was copping it too. Tomorrow I'll take the Blue one down to Manly and find a nice peak to myself !
I dont think I'll cut up the Blue one, may as well ride it until I make a new one..
Im thinking about vaccing a few thin layers together onto a rocker table to give it some thickness once the fabric is put on...







This next one should be something rounded and organic looking with compound curves like a Cuttlefish shell or just unique.



Give me a week to come up with something....

[MarcusMD]

Will look for the blue board in the surf - will take a mat- prob down to Manly end!
M

[Animal_Chin]

Reading this thread is like listening to the girls in the office talk about stocking denier.

I'm sort of interested but have no idea how to contribute.