small surf my fault

Post by **bombora** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 6:38 pm

Yep cause I got a new shortboard on the weekend. Naturally this means no decent waves for some time (Missed Sunday and this morn through work).
ANyway point of the post is the board's a Maurice Cole 6'4" x 19" x 2.5" (me 44-y-o two weeks ago, tall and skinny). Been scanning the shop for this board for months wanting to replace my best shortie ever _ a 6'4" x 18 7/8th x 2.5 which is just on two years old and put off replacing it while it slowly fell apart cause it's a magic board!!!!. Both almost identical rounded square outline, both single concs (love the single concave) but when I got it home and put the old beside the new some subtle differences were apparent; deeper concave, hard edge on rails extends further forward and most obvious of all, flatter (or is it hidden?) rocker. Particularly, the entry rocker (?) looks signicantly flatter.
So what and why the subtle shortboard design tweeks _ i presume like Maurice has done _ which have been going on in shorties in the time between my boards and while most of the whole surfin world (me included) has been obsessed with fish/restros/quads etc etc etc
Cheers
By the by instead of surfing mags moaning and whining about older fellas dominating line ups on mals why not do a design special on boards for older blokes who don;t wanna ride logs except in baby stuff. I know my mates have gone through heaps of boards lately trying to decide what to ride as they age disgracefully _ longer for some, wider for others, thicker for others. They are a mix of big guys, fat fellas and fit ones too. One has even gone the "performance mid range board" option. ugh! Save him.

Post by **Nick Carroll** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 8:36 pm

I have a near new MC, extremely deep concave, the lowered entry compensating for the exaggerated rail rocker (wanto, extra concave permits more rocker curve, and thus affects the designer's choices in this area). It's 5'10.5" x 18.75" x 2.12" so for sure a bit more extreme than yours bombora... but MC has been heavily influenced of late by his design work with Ross Clarke-Jones on towboards, radical deep concaves and straight entries.

This board causes me to surf in different lines, very fast off the mark and it won't drift and slide at all in turns, so everything has to be placed just right. It draws a longish line off the front rail thanks to the lowered entry, but turns viciously short and fast off the concave rim and curve near the forward fins. Acceleration and hold is pronounced, errors aren't tolerated in this board.

I think your comment about the retro distractions is most amusing and telling, fun as they may be, there is no advancement in the retro arena. Right now four-fins are testing a lot of good designers and challenging them to come up with hi performance curves and fin placements to fit the quad's potential.

Post by **newjackstudio** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 9:21 pm

Nick, you have mentioned your age before and your surfing history needs no revisiting however, just out of interests sake, How heavy are you? Those board dimensions you posted have me begging the question, Just how smalll can I go and still have a practical surfboard?

fong · Post by **fong** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 12:17 am

yeah....interesting

i'm debating going 5'10 or 6'10 in wat is essentially the same desisgn

pro's and cons
it can do u head in

Post by **swift** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 9:11 am

Bombora I thought it was because of me?

I picked up my new board late on Sunday and haven't had a chance to surf it as yet either!!!

Chilli 6'3 x 18.1/4 x 2.1/4

I can't bring myself to try it out in 1ft!!!

fong · Post by **fong** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 9:54 am

indeed pepper

scored a point yesterday at about the same size

tide was high and wind ended up suss.......but no new board blues for us

Post by **Nick Carroll** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 11:37 am

newjackstudio wrote:Nick, you have mentioned your age before and your surfing history needs no revisiting however, just out of interests sake, How heavy are you? Those board dimensions you posted have me begging the question, Just how smalll can I go and still have a practical surfboard?

74 kilos, but I'm a very strong paddler and don't mind sacrificing flotation for performance.

This board's definitely pushing that envelope.

wanto pretty much agreeing, just getting it a bit clearer. I think concave does a lot from the stringer to the rail and that's where the important stuff happens - lift etc. The concave curve is the real deal. Deep concave exaggerates the curve and increases potential lift, but bloody hell, the designer has to be on the money with every other aspect of the board.

Post by **bombora** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 12:15 pm

Thanks for replies guys. Nick my mate has a 6 month old Maurice hybrid fishy thing; 6ft long swallow and it has the radical concave you are talking about. The concave is literally full rail to rail and nose to tail and is so so DEEP. At least an inch at the centre, maybe more. You can see the tow board influence for sure. Loves it, but it's not a small wave creature. Actually goes best at head high and over.
Will be interesting on my new one. judging by the stringer markings, and the outline (allowing for the 1/8th extra width) tail width and fin placement it is the same model as the old one, but the almost two years old Maurice has the exagerated tail rocker you mention, but the new one doesn't. Yep I was aware of rocker and concave relationship but the new one has a deeper concave yet at the same time a straighter all over rocker and the reduced nose rocker. That's what's got me a tad confused as I am a very light footed and front footed surfer. The new one has less rocker and more conc! The old board just suited me to a T. Will just have to get wet and find out I suppose
Interesting watching the quad growth. Guy bought one when I was getting mine: he got a yankee design (guy called Stretch?) in Tuflight or similar. Saw an MR semi fish quad at the shop with five FCS fin plugs which was V interesting. Does this best of everything stuff work? I was thinking of oredring one as a fun summer board to play around with fin combos. But is the five plug a comromise in the end. Can the whole package of fin placement, rails rocker etc etc come together and work in all fin combos or is it a worst of all dogs breakfast thing?
cheers

Post by **mad** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 1:40 pm

Nice little 2-4 ft swell last coupla days if you can get out of the wind (and Sydernee

).

Couldn't agree more with you fellas on concaves and board sizes for older blokes, and have gone down a similar path. Missus is hoping that the board size is the only thing that decreases with age

getting my boards 20" wide now, a bit more girth is a good thing. Extra paddle power is great, more room for concave (single into double), and I don't reckon it's compromised the boards performance at all.
One thing that I have noticed with the extra concave is that the board doesn't respond as well to stalling as i'd like at times. However the extra accellaration can get you outta the shit and into some sweet spots on the wave. Bit of rob Peter to pay Paul sort of thing.

Post by **swift** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 2:26 pm

Wanto,

What's with the deck channels around the rail on those Stretch boards?

I saw a couple of Christian Fletchers Lost boards in Mexico a few years(read 6) back that had a similar type thing but right to the rail?

Any ideas?

Post by **Da Duke** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 2:37 pm

I'm currently onto my second MC this year. The first one was similiar to the boards described by NC and wanto and was a result of me wanting something that was going to catch more waves and draw more speed out of gutless summer waves. This it did perfectly but then as NC mentioned there was very little room for error and it got frustrating as hell when it felt like it went different from wave to wave and section to section.

Did any of the others MC's mentioned here have the Sqwat tail. I had originally asked for a swallow tail but was told that "Maurice doesn't swallow!" - fair enough. Apparently Kelly Slater got the same response so I didn't feel to bad!! The sqwat tail looks like a square tail with a semi-circle punched out of the midde. Also this thing had bevelled rails which MC does alot on his boards. I think it is supposed to release the rails abit easier as the deepness of the concave can give the rails extra bite. I'm sure theres more to it but I've forgotten what exactly.

Latest MC is a more traditional mid-range board. 6'5" x 19" and 2?". Best board I've had in years.

Post by **swift** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 2:53 pm

Interesting,

I didn't know he shaped for Fletcher.

It was just a thing that had stuck in my mind from all that time ago.

Obviously Fletcher has had a little influence on him.

Post by **bombora** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 3:53 pm

Hiya Wanto, thanks for the info digger! Hiya Da Duke yep my mate's fishy hybrid has the same tail; quite narrow with a sort of semi-circle bite out of it where a normal swallow would have a V-shaped bite if that makes sense. does yours have little squared off points to the swallow too, if that also makes sense?
Any opinions on quad/five plug set up on a fish/hybrid Wanto?

Post by **Da Duke** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 4:02 pm

bombora wrote:... does yours have little squared off points to the swallow too, if that also makes sense?

it did have bombie! b4 the tail snapped-off anyway.

...hence the newie.

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