RealSurf Surfers' Forum

This is a great thread. I bought a Liddel at a yard sale two years ago for $7 Yes, seven dollars!
Nose was busted up, I repaired it in a reasonably workmanlike fashion; and the tail had been damaged and less well repaired.
I've ridden it a few times when the surf is small; it's about 6' 10" if I recall correctly, it's really thick, especially under the chest area, has the classic seventies outline.
I'm gonna do some more research on it.

ps. ninenorth78west, is that Columbia?

Offshore - well at one time it was Colombia, but since 1904 it's been Panama. excellent detective work. umm.... you shittin? you picked up a Liddle hull for $7.00? whatta find. do you see a number or somehting like that on the stringer? post a picture of it.

Wayback - i see you got a clark blank there. prolly the last one. Mine was made with a Walker blank -- found a few pukas in it - but no big deal. and greg mentioned i might find one or two (foam blank imperfections). Still no surf worth riding to give it a lash - but something's coming in in the next coupla days.

Munch - WTF are you?? you're not bitin'? ( ohhhh - you no fun, GI )

thought i'd post a pic of some of my boards next to my hull - compare difference in shapes for maximum appreciation of all.

Ninenorth78W wrote:Munch - WTF are you?? you're not bitin'? ( ohhhh - you no fun, GI )

Sorry I was away workin - nice fully sick black mat

p.s still think it needs a lightning bolt

OK Munch. You took it - and maintained and even keel. You pass den.

Ninenorth78W wrote:OK Munch. You took it - and maintained and even keel. You pass den.

You won’t get any peace 9N78W... nice trio by the way

ric_vidal wrote:

Ninenorth78W wrote:OK Munch. You took it - and maintained and even keel. You pass den.

You won’t get any peace 9N78W... nice trio by the way

I thought it was a nice quio ... And lightning bolts are SUPPOSED to be red

how does that hull go through turns, I'm asking because of the forward position of the fin, I'm guessin its more for down the line style trimming than top-turn-bottom-turn cutback combos??

Ninenorth78W, yeah maybe the Clark Blank will make it a collector's item. Actually, it's the sort of board you really do keep - a timeless design.

Wanderer, the point you make about the fin placement is spot on. Very small adjustments result in big changes in handling - which is why Greg even puts measuring notches on his fin boxes. I still haven't got the new Liddle wet yet, but I did ride a similar shape (not my own board) in the late sixties before fin boxes and there was endless agonising among the older crew about where to glass the fin on.

It's definitely a shape for wide turns and trimming, not very loose, as you'd gather from the fairly parallel and knifey rails. Designed for small(ish) point breaks and (I hope) beachies with fairly straight banks and longer, fast sections.

You'll probably get a handling report from ninenorth78W before me, as it's looking pretty quiet in my part of the world at the moment. Might get a nudge in the swell on Monday, but not counting on it.

Have a good weekend guys.

munch wrote:

ric_vidal wrote:

Ninenorth78W wrote:OK Munch. You took it - and maintained and even keel. You pass den.

You won’t get any peace 9N78W... nice trio by the way

I thought it was a nice quio ... And lightning bolts are SUPPOSED to be red

I had a mat years ago made of a red/blue canvas-ish type material, one of the internal compartment dividers blew out so it became two normal and one big mother it was no longer fun to ride

yea wanderer, it's like wayback said -- hulls not so much about the vertical -- more about banking high-g rail turns and projecting as much speed D-T-L as possible. Ideal in point breaks - which is pretty much what i ride. And the more forward fin placement tripped me out too -- knowing the worlds carviest surfer Tom Carrol, had his fins placed allway back. But from the more experienced, i've been told the forward placement of the fin combined with it's flex, and the roundbottom allows you to ride in forward trim and come up on a rail so much easier. The flex fin bowing and then releasing to give you some squirt d-t-l. Surprisingly i've seen pics/clips of these things (aka Disks) do some beautiful cutbacks.

there's a good article with about 8 clips here:

http://www.allaboutsurf.com/articles/sixfeet

The Mat: red bolt/blue bolt/ all black - it don't matta -- i catch more hell from my friends than i ever will here , BUT they acknowledge now that the mat's a real machine -- if you ever wanna feel like Superman flying through the air... get a mat.

back to hulls: sometime this week i should hook into sumpin with the Liddle.

ric_vidal wrote: I had a mat years ago made of a red/blue canvas-ish type material, one of the internal compartment dividers blew out so it became two normal and one big mother it was no longer fun to ride

done something very similar lilo'ing down the snowy first I popped when I left it plugged into the pump for too long and the other when I left it on the rocks and ran back to the car to get something which caused to heat expand

Wayback:

what wuz you ridin before you got interested in the hulls?

munch wrote:done something very similar lilo'ing down the snowy first I popped when I left it plugged into the pump for too long

youse was probably distracted by some ewes

Apologies to swayback, latitude&longitude, we (read me & mu[n]ch) get easily distracted

Wish we had some nice D-T-L point breaks around here. Crescent would be good. Fongy might have to get one

Let us know how you go boyz, they look interesting to say the least.

P.S. Hope you guys have been sanding

Ric Vee-dahl, mah-man! nothing to 'pologize about - nor Señor Munchkins -- makes things interesting -- need a chuckle now and den - cain't be too serious allatime -- i will keep you posted here first opportunity on how mah stick performs ( or how I don't perform )

greeting from the northern hemisphere!

What got me interested in hulls again, Ninenorth78W? A perfect little storm of circumstances.

I've been riding a 6'4" Southcoast Diamond Tail recently that's really smooth, but you have to ride it from further forward - especially through the turns - otherwise the combination of the single fin and very wide tail lead to spinouts through the turns. Great shape, though. It works well for the beachies I'm surfing at the moment. The banks here are pretty straight with fast sections and there's usually nobody else out, which means I tend to relax and trim and see how far I can get down the line rather than try and put as many moves in as I can on every wave. My mal works very well here, but without the crowds I prefer the 6'4" as the waves can get quite juicy, though I do miss the extra speed down the line. The board performance you described is what I'm after.

So, in this state of mind I read an interesting piece in a mag about Liddle and his hull disciples, which not only described the way I was trying to surf at the moment, but also took me back to my grommethood in the sixties when I did ride a similar board for a winter and all those memories came flooding back: flat belly, cute chicks, drunk on two cans and peering at empty right point lineups along the Southeast coast of Sarth Africa through a purple haze.

And with nobody around here to argue, that's I'm going to feel again when I get the Liddle out.

Took my Liddle out for it's first surf yesterday, but things didn't go as i'd hoped. There was supposed to be a small swell yesterday, so i'd planned to go check some reefs i know about - usually they can amplify a swell a bit - too small for the points around here. Well anyway, the reefs just weren't happening, so i went and hit a beachbrk --- gutless, short sections, chest-high faces.

First thing i notice was the board doesn't paddle well - i think the bottom contours make it draggy. (i've heard other peeps say their paddled like LBs) Catches waves well tho.

Then, the main thing i notice is that she don't come up on a plane fast like my other boards (TK fish, thruster).

Rails sink real easy into carving turns.

Main point here however is that I took here out in conditions that were ill suited to her. Other experienced hull riders i spoke to in CA say you want juice. They can and do perform in beachbks, but they want juice and longer sections. yesterday was weak, and man i coulda used more runway.

I did get a coupla sections - one backside, where they say these things are a bit difficult - where I came off the bottom real nice... long slicey turn up, and a slicey off the top b4 closeout. ( A pal who sat on the beach and watched, adn who know very little about hulls, did make a comment about how deep i was sinking the rails adn the spray coming off the board)

This friday/sats I should get conditions to produce OK surf on the reefs, and maybe some points. Will post if i get any kills