Firewire Surfboards

[Nick Carroll]

Forget about Firewire, there is some very interesting reading and other developments on there that probably have a bigger impact on the industry at least.

...and you'll hunt for days on ol Swaylocks to find even ONE MENTION of the surfboard buyer.

Jeez I love boards and even I get put to sleep

[collnarra]

well, most of those people on sways are board geeks, so it kinda follows that yr eyes are gonna glaze .... what I don't get is the disproportionate obsession with bonzers and fish! what with that?

[ric_vidal]

well, most of those people on sways are board geeks, so it kinda follows that yr eyes are gonna glaze .... what I don't get is the disproportionate obsession with bonzers and fish! what with that?

Maybe just bored/board with thrusters or just a wider net has been cast so you get more of a concentration of likeminded devotees at Swaylocks? Sheer surfing population difference?

I’ve had a look a few times with links like yours col and find the way the peoples’ quotes end up it is hard to work out who is up who, if you get my drift.

[Nick Carroll]

well, most of those people on sways are board geeks, so it kinda follows that yr eyes are gonna glaze .... what I don't get is the disproportionate obsession with bonzers and fish! what with that?

They all want to show they've got Soul

[collnarra]

I also suspect that there's lots of marginal surfers out there looking for the answer to their surf inadequacies in a board... so they get a fish thinking it's gonna make them surf better, and then they point to footage of rasta getting air on one, but fail to realise that Rasta doing that is one thing... the rest of us are just gonna spend the entire time swapping ends.

[Hawkeye]

There's no doubt the surftech's are stronger - the amount of abuse I hand out to a board by nature of my many bony bits destroys poly boards rather quickly The couple of surftechs that i own have stood up very well despite constant (ab)use.

So it stands to reason that when they do eventually let go (no board is indestructible) they do so with a much bigger bang. They're also a lot stiffer (less flexy), I think by virtue of the thicker glass/PVC/glass skin.

Not sure if this greater rigidity is a good thing or not. Haven't ridden enough different baords to know. Plus, my surfing is pretty poor at the moment.

My thinking is this: the greater bouyancy and rigidity should at least have resulted in a change to the design of the rails, but it hasn't yet.

I think a quite a few of the tuflite shortboard shapes might suffer from rails designed for the less bouyant and more flexy PU/PE materials. Their rails carry too much volume for the greater bouyancy of the new materials, resulting in the "corky" feel many comment on. If EPS/epoxy sandwich skin ever got wide acceptance by custom shapers, I think you would see a thinning down of rails.

Even if this is sorted out, though, the question of whether EPS/Epoxy sandwich can be adapted to supply the amount of flex designers and pros want is still open.

[ric_vidal]

My thinking is this: the greater bouyancy and rigidity should at least have resulted in a change to the design of the rails, but it hasn't yet.

Yes, penetration is an interesting point. In the water or on top. I find I can go quite fine with my rails due the extra width, and relative to the younger folk, length that I use for myself.

Hawkeye, may also be an acceptance point-of-view where they don’t want to make the boards too different...

Even the 7s(?) fish (GSI out of Thailand?) has a chamfered top edge to it’s rails and I suspect for that very purpose.

[Beanpole]

I have certainly felt that primordial slime of our ancestors in my brain on some mornings......

.

Sounds nasty

[rae]

Ok... I just read all of this - huge thread and to my unknowledgeable surf brain half of it is mumble jumble but i've learnt a fair bit. I think. What I understand is a bunch of people have got together and come up with this new firewire board type thing using new technology. It's not hugely different but uses different materials and has a parabolic stringer (no idea what that means). The board will make a bit of a difference to performance but it's no revolution, and so to the average surfer it's really not going to do huge things. Some people are suggesting it will be more of a sheep thing - people looking for the newest coolest thing. If this is the case what's the market for it? It sounds like it's a lot more expensive and a lot of the sheep people are going to be younger, without a lot of money. Even if the pro's start using it aren't you going to be more influenced by "coolness" by the better surfers at the breaks you're surfing?? From what im understanding - it between the moments of what appears to be spanish - more established surfers are likely to stick to what they know and their local shapers. wouldnt this have a bit of a flow down affect... good surfer sticks to what he has, those that lookup to him follow him and so on. If you're a sheep you'll follow the pack so really the manufacturers would have to convice good surfers all over the place they need/want their boards. Also if it's a trend running on the coolness factor, trends change and so they'll disappear as fast as they come in. I could be completely off and have my facts/ideas wrong, i just thought i'd my few idea's anyway.

[Nick Carroll]

rae, don't listen to all this gibberish -- nobody here yet knows whether Firewire or anything else is a revolution in materials. You'd have read the same stuff if the Net had been around back in 1956 when polyurethane foam was first brought to surfboard makers. (Eventually -- by 1960 more or less -- it replaced balsa as the core board material.) I can't even imagine the nonsense you'd have read on a website in 1981, when the three fin Thruster first reared its head!

Here's my tip re new board ideas: Ride one when you get the chance and see what you reckon.

[ric_vidal]

rae, don't listen to all this gibberish...

It was quality gibberish though Rae.

Here's my tip re new board ideas: Ride one when you get the chance and see what you reckon.

And that is the best advice anyone will get.

[Hawkeye]

I agree with Non Compis and Recreational Vehicle - leave the pioneering to others. Let 'em spend their money sorting the kinks out.

The market is more open to technological change than it has been in the last 20 years, so if it's a real value-for-money improvement I'd expect it to survive and flourish.

Plain English: if it's any good, we'll find out soon enough.

[ric_vidal]

Looks like Surtech aren’t sitting on their hands waiting:

http://surftech.com/tl2.phtml

Not sure you want to do a google search on “Acrylite”

[Hawkeye]

Ricardo, what does the absence of a centre stringer do to those shaping by hand? I'd have thought it would make things more than a bit more difficult.

It will be a pest for a few of the board builders with CNC machines, as most of them clamp to the centre stringer at either end. Might have to clamp and glue their own wooden tongues into the blank.

[ric_vidal]

Ricardo, what does the absence of a centre stringer do to those shaping by hand? I'd have thought it would make things more than a bit more difficult.

Mate, no idea to be honest, never done a board with anything other than a single stringer. After the planshape has been cut out it almost just serves as a frame of reference though. I imagine those Surftechs are still machined and just hand finished. Might have been in the text.

It will be a pest for a few of the board builders with CNC machines, as most of them clamp to the centre stringer at either end. Might have to clamp and glue their own wooden tongues into the blank.

There are varying CNC machines, some just use a vacuum points to keep them in situ. Not sure about the APS3000 which seems to be one of the best.

[offshore1]

well, here's some news re. this so-called 'firewire'.
Looks set to take off, alright. :?

http://www.gcbulletin.com.au/article/20 ... _news.html

[ric_vidal]

well, here's some news re. this so-called 'firewire'.
Looks set to take off, alright. :?

Now if only Virgin Surf had thought of that, damn!

Bit of a no-brainer don’t you think off-1? Get the all time best on the board board

I’m trying to hold back my cynicism.

[Nick Carroll]

Uncle Nicky thinks you have many more things to fear more in the surfboard world than Firewire. Because among whatever else, it actually WORKS.