Channels

[Johnno]

Anyone still riding a board will channels as they where all the go a few years back but don't seem to see them around any more then again don't often see to many people around here.

But when a few terrorists turned up over Xmas I noticed everyone seems to be riding flat or shallow concave bottom boards and I find that my old board with channels still seems to drive a lot harder through turns.

[BigMog]

i remember the north_shore.doc dvd that came with ASL a (fair) few months back. there was a short movie talking to a shaper. he was talking about riding channels at pipe, and how they were almost a necessity. however, recently read an article in an old issue of 'australian surfing world' called parko to parko. darryl parkinson was talking about channels, and how they were useless in sizey waves as air gets under them and the board begins to 'hover'. im confused! what DO channels do?

[FishStick]

Yeah I heard that it's like what Squid said, it concentrates the water through the channels which gives you more drive -> speed but it can suck you to the face and make you track taking you where the wave wants. It's the same reason for single concaves being replaced with double or single to double, as single only could make you track.

My sister has this old board lying around with huge channels cut in, I find it the wobbliest unstable board ever but I don't think the channels have anything to do with it,....I think.

[Johnno]

It might be that with refinement they started to soften the channels to much and have not gone back to deeper channels which did work.

[collnarra]

Deep channels create drive and speed, but they also tend to track. They work much better in hollow, clean waves than in beachy junk; in bad conditions they get air under them.

Concaves, reverse vee and bonzer style bottoms have pretty much taken over from channels because a) they're fashionable; b) they're more forgiving and, most importantly (from a manufacturing perspective) channels are hard to make, hard to glass and hard to finish.

Here's the definition from Surfline:
Bottom shape dating back to 1970, credited to Jim Pollard of Australia, in which grooves are cut lengthwise along the surfboard, usually through the tail half. Many different types of channels have a variety of effects on performance; generally they add drive and direction to turns, especially in the most common modern variation, the six-channel "clinker" bottom.

Col.

[Nick Carroll]

"Channels", hey, the word covers a broad variety of bottom design, some of it super functional, some of it totally wacky. The most successful, and the design that seems to have survived best over the past 20 years or so: six deep channels cut "clinker" style from around two thirds of the way back right out through the tail, with the flat hard channel faces angled in toward the stringer. Done right this is a peak moment in surfboard design. Those hard inside channel faces really exert themselves against the water, driving the board like extra fin area might do, yet without the drag.

I think channels have a slightly dicey rep simply because it's damn hard to shape them successfully -- putting the rocker curves in is no easy task. Channels are also hated by the poor bastards who have to sand 'em, and once finished tend to crack along their exit points, driving any ding repairer crazy. But personally I think a well made six channel concave bottom is a magical thing, faster than any other board in the water, and the riding sensation -- feeling all that water movement down the channels through runs and big hacking carves -- is unique. I've had a six channel quiver ranging from 6'1" to 8'1" for the past two decades, most of 'em pintails, all shaped by Al Byrne in Qld, and though I only seem to pull 'em out on the flawless days or at Sunset Beach in Hawaii (anyone recall Elko absolutely destroying Sunset on his six channels in the late 80s?) I can't imagine not having 'em around.

To put it in grom-language, they're sii--i--ick!!

[BigMog]

Interesting, it seems it boils down to this:
Hard to make, great to surf.

Is there only the one variety of channel?

I remember reading an interview with Matt Hoy - apparently he loves em!

[BA]

I remember ordering a six channel custom as a grom and the look on the shapers face was priceless. I think they hated shaping those things.

[Johnno]

Thanks for your the comments on this topic as it also seems strange that the majority of people now surfing professionally ( male/female) aren't using them either when the circuits are so much more competitive these days, and with a good 6 channel set up it may help some gain that edge over a competitor.

They really do add a......WOW..... factor to your surfing when your riding one and make maneuvers feel a lot more explosive from the thrust you can get out of them.

[whitey]

The board I am riding the moment is really loose, But you need to push it to get any speed out of it. I was thinking of getting for my next board something similar in shape but adding some channels and maybe a small swallow for speed and control in the pocket...
.Whitey.

[Clif]

i used to have one of those "jet-bottoms" (lines of chanenels going all over the shop) murray bourton of pipedream used to shape. went bloody great at d'bah, burleigh and the like.

don't think anyone does those anymore, not even pipedream.

channels in syd. slop, hardly useful. move to burleigh or lennox if ya want them to work.

[collnarra]

Can you imagine how much of a nightmare that jet bottom must have been to glass?

I also recall the Willis brothers in Hawaii making dimple bottom boards. The idea (if I recall) to break up the boundary layer of water flowing along the bottom of the board, and therefore give an increase in speed. I guess they figured it worked for golf balls and so it would work for boards.

Nick Carroll's written an interesting piece in Surfing Magazine's 2005 Design issue on concaves. I suspect that the reason that jet bottoms, dimple bottoms (sounds like a baby's bottom!), and channels have largely gone away is because the concave has replaced them.

Hey Nick, have you got the copy sitting around anywhere? Any chance of posting it to the forum?

Col, the soon to retire surf reporter.

[Troy_Cisco_Kid]

Nick , absolutely great read the 200 edition when you made the "everything" board, every design known to shaper and rider yet.

Is the board still getting around ?

Troy

"Channels", hey, the word covers a broad variety of bottom design, some of it super functional, some of it totally wacky. The most successful, and the design that seems to have survived best over the past 20 years or so: six deep channels cut "clinker" style from around two thirds of the way back right out through the tail, with the flat hard channel faces angled in toward the stringer. Done right this is a peak moment in surfboard design. Those hard inside channel faces really exert themselves against the water, driving the board like extra fin area might do, yet without the drag.

I think channels have a slightly dicey rep simply because it's damn hard to shape them successfully -- putting the rocker curves in is no easy task. Channels are also hated by the poor bastards who have to sand 'em, and once finished tend to crack along their exit points, driving any ding repairer crazy. But personally I think a well made six channel concave bottom is a magical thing, faster than any other board in the water, and the riding sensation -- feeling all that water movement down the channels through runs and big hacking carves -- is unique. I've had a six channel quiver ranging from 6'1" to 8'1" for the past two decades, most of 'em pintails, all shaped by Al Byrne in Qld, and though I only seem to pull 'em out on the flawless days or at Sunset Beach in Hawaii (anyone recall Elko absolutely destroying Sunset on his six channels in the late 80s?) I can't imagine not having 'em around.

To put it in grom-language, they're sii--i--ick!!

[Troy_Cisco_Kid]

Page 32 of the ASL 200 Edition " The Disturbing Board"

Nick Carroll's written an interesting piece in Surfing Magazine's 2005 Design issue on concaves. I suspect that the reason that jet bottoms, dimple bottoms (sounds like a baby's bottom!), and channels have largely gone away is because the concave has replaced them.

Hey Nick, have you got the copy sitting around anywhere? Any chance of posting it to the forum?

Col, the soon to retire surf reporter.