Surf art 'Beyond the blowhole' by Daryn McBride

Mount Maunganui's Blowhole on a big cyclone swell, seen from jump rock. Daryn's painting captures the feeling as a set sweeps in perfectly.

Skip Frye interview with John Mollusk: the shaper's tree myth

Here's the full transcripted interview from part one of 'Skip School: Life lesssons with Mr Frye:

http://mollusksurfshop.com/2010/02/skip-school-life-lessons-with-mr-frye/


" That board's got lift in the nose most of these are Simmonses this is a twin fin Simmons and this is a singlefin, this is Dave Sweet and ah Buzzy Trent, malibu, ( John Mollusk: that's Buzzy Trent ? ) yeah, ( John Mollusk: That's great ! ) yeah, young Buzzy Trent, teenage Buzzy Trent, you know I dunno how old he was but, I just really like that shot, the board's just slicing across the wave, afternoon at Malibu look how glassy it is, the sun's on the back. I stopped there for a second.
You know I was influenced, influenced probably by Edwards as much as anybody, Hynson, you know Hynson I grew up with Hynson, I think Phil Edwards had probably as much influence in a lot of ways you know, just his kind of philosophy, of you know surfing you know. And it all came from the guys that mentored him, you know, Joe Quigg, Kivlin, Simmons. And I never really thought about it when I was young but as I got older, and just my, love of surfing, I wanted to ah expand my knowledge of who was in front of me you know, like the board design, and you know ah like I said Edwards was really an influence, and then who influenced him and right up the tree you know "



This mindless name dropping ramble of Frye's does not qualify as a 'life lesson'. It's just an affirmation of the Californian old boy buddy network which has had a stranglehold on the surfing for the past 60 years. In the video Frye appears to struggle to remember the obligatory list of names in his area of the surftech 'shaper's tree', but eventually manages to recall a few of them. Calling this moronic ramble a 'life lesson' is an insult to surfers, and publishing it as such is typical of the arrogance and complacency of the surf industry cartel. Of course the majority of the gullible surfing public accept this sort of dribble without complaint, as they have all sold their minds and souls for places, however lowly and ingominious they are, as the bottom feeding consumers of the toxic surf industry hierarchy.

The surftech shaper's tree was invented in order to propagate the myth that all surfboard shaping knowledge has been passed down from mentor to student, and to establish a list of all supposedly legitimate shapers which is controlled by the Californian old boy network.

It's a fascist regime which allows no dissent or discord, with a carefully sanitised corporate facade designed to keep the consumer unaware that the 'variety' in their menu is all just the same potato served different ways.


As part 2 of this series will show, there's really nothing intelligent behind the mask. In reality there's an abysmal lack of intelligence and hydrodynamic knowledge, married to a tired and worn out decree of what surfing is supposed to be and how one is supposed to feel about it.

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Surf art from Rich Burfoot

Watercolour with 24 carat gold by Rich Burfoot, from the olosurfer collection

A quick Rant about fin drag, Skip Frye, industry icons with clay feet, and clay for brains !

Since the rediscovery of the alaia board it has been assumed throughout the surfing world that finless boards are faster than finned boards and that less fin equals more speed. This assumption has arrived without evidence or even a theoretical basis.

Recently Skip Frye supposedly 'proved' his point that less fin is faster in an interview by stating that he heard that Richard Kenvin had been " going faster and making sections that no one elese could make" on a finless board at Oceanside. This is typical of the custard for brains moronic bilgewater that comes out of the mouths of surf industry 'legends'. Looking at this video it's full of half formed and badly formed ideas, conclusions which don't follow from the premises, or which have no premise, and the usual endless name dropping which is a surf industry subsitute for logical thought. It's like a smorgasbord of stupidity:

http://mollusksurfshop.com/2010/02/skip-school-life-lessons-with-mr-frye-2/

I have to give credit where it's due though, and admit that our 12 foot Future Primitive design was influenced by Skip Frye. . . . . we spoke to Paul Joske back in 1995 about a 12 footer which he produced from Skip Frye specifications, Paul said that the board was too flat, wouldn't turn, spun out when in the curl, and that the tail was too wide. He was right of course and we took the information into account when making the first FP 12

Here's the FP 12 with it's massive fin and healthy rocker. .. . it's safe to say that no one in the surfing world apart from ourselves understands how this design works !




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Setting the fins on the 12 foot Baron paulownia wood surfboard

The Baron fins are ultra thin. In particular the long tip of the boomerang fin has a chord ratio of 1.6% when the usual chord ratio range used for underwater foils is from 9% to 16%.



The principle behind the long thin fin tip on the boomerang fin is that it has extreme flexibility which allows it to conform to the water flow, thus exerting a low amount of lift along with very low drag.

In the case of the annular wing tunnel fin, a chord ratio of 6% is used ( The tunnel is the same thickness as the boomerang fin but has a shorter fore and aft length and thus a higher chord ratio ) although this is thin it is nowhere near as thin proportionally as the boomerang fin tip. Tunnel fins are able to handle low chord ratios better than planar fins do anyway, due to the fact that they are low pressure fins, and in fact 6% is a standard chord ratio for our tunnel fins.

The ultra thin boomerang fin tip is a development of the bulb tipped flex fin used on the previous Baron board ( the prototype known as the D 11-9 )and the bulb tipped fin used on the original 'Resolute Salmon' 12 footer. The bulb tipped fin moved from side to side as the fin upstand flexed , using the same motion as a swimming fish abd giving a very sinuous feeling to the ride. The bulb itself however did not flex, as it was made thick enough to keep the chord ratio within the conventional range. Hopefully the new thin tip will be an improvement. The flex is so soft that the tip at the trailing edge can be moved from side to side at least four or five inches with gentle finger pressure, the fin takes on a substantial curve at the same time.

Altogether this well proven kind of fin combination produces a large amount of lift using the principle of low pressurefins moving large water volumes. . .. a characteristic which keeps the drag down. It also has brilliant handling qualities and is completely vice free in it's behaviour.

Given the current trend for less and less fin area in a search for low drag, fin systems of this general type ( which we have been riding for at least 8 years ) are heretical, but they are wickedly efficient and give a delightful advantage to the rider .

Resin coating the Baron 12 foot paulownia wood surfboard

Resin coats #1 and #2 on the deck of the Baron surfboard.


Although the Baron's maximum thickness is only 2.5 inches, the board has 152 litres of volume, and approximately 132 litres of reserve buoyancy


A round tail and a round rail. .. . . or to be precise an elliptical tail and a half round rail of continuous section .. .. the round tail rail never catches, it's soft, smooth and organic.

A remarkably similar look to the 12 foot Resolute Salmon, the main difference is the width, the Baron is 3 inches wider at 27 inches.

The Baron 12 foot paulownia wood surfboard project: Fairing the bottom

The fifth day of shaping the Baron, 4 or 5 hours have been spent fairing the bottom, which has a single concave.

Ridiculous surfing inventions: The Firewire 'Deviant' fin

The fact that Firewire, who are constantly blowing their horn about their supposed technological expertise in the realm of surfboards actually promote this rubbish without dying of embarrassment and shame proves that they are really dunces. It seems that their intelligence level plummeted when Bert Burger left.

Anyway here's the fin, with the performance claim " The DEVIANT automatically adjusts 7 degrees of cant in either direction (14 degrees total range of movement) and noticeably increases speed and responsiveness by reducing rear fin drag, loosening the tail, and shortening the turn radius of a thruster fin set up: your board will feel more maneuverable."


As can be seen from the photo the fin has a huge drag inducing unfoiled barrel shaped blob at the base, the effect of which will be rather like towing a small bucket. . . not exactly a way of reducing drag. The manufacturers make a vain attempt to assure us that the fact the the structure at the fin base houses a hinge mechanism which allows the fin to flop from side to side will create such a reduction in drag that it will easily overcome the drag from the blob itself. Now we know that the surf industry could sell used car engines as useful surfboards to their gullible and endlessly loyal surfing victims, so no doubt this one will be accepted via the usual 'Emperors New Clothes' syndrome demanded by the parrotmasters, but they will be going more slowly as a result.

Hinges on surfboards are a Victorian concept at best, but if one is going to use them, at least have the hydrodynamic decency to hide them inside the board out of the water flow, rather than leavingthem right smack in the way simply because the fin has to fit standard industry fin tabs !

This sort of Bullshit invention simply could not occur in a corporation which had more than a single brain cell to share amongst the product development staff, particularly when one realises how much money and time has been invested to get it to the mass production stage. Amazingly, no one pointed out the fatal bucket at the fin base. Of course the Firewire marketing department has plenty of brain power, no doubt employing teams of psychologists who simultaneously induce the necessary feelings of inadequacy . . . .. and the amazing yet un-amazing cure.

For us it is reassuring to realise that Firewire are just as stupid as we thought they were.

By the way the most efficient fin to surfboard junction is a fillet of 2mm to 5mm diameter, not a toy train.

As for the fin flopping from side to side. . . go for it boys, but the movement is in the wrong plane in our opinion.

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PS Perhaps the fin's artwork is an allusion to an attempt to find the elusive North West passage, or possibly it is a nautical version of a Ptolemaic armillary sphere segment salvaged from a sunken wreck . . . either way it's the icing on the dung cake.

PPS Regarding the speed claim, Firewire should just wind the speed up on the videos the way they always do, except add about 20% more than usual, that should make up for the speed loss due to the fin drag. Perhaps also some talk of a mysterious 'Sixth gear' with a tiny gearstick on the fin tip ? . . . but what do I know about marketing? I'm just a truth fetishist.

Roy Stewart's Baron 12 foot paulownia surfboard project: The soft 50/50 rail . . .

. . . . not just a soft 50/50 rail, but a round 50/50 rail of constant section ! Here's the tail pod of the 12 foot Baron, a two and a half inch thick half round section on an elliptical round tail.


Heretical yet marvelously simple

Checking the bottom concave before completing the bottom to rail transition.

Shaping the Baron 12 foot paulownia wood surfboard

The Baron project: shaping miles of rail facets on the curiously continuous and remarkably efficient 50/50 round rail

Tunnelfish

The Tunnelfish: Don't try to wrap your head around it !

Pervasive surfboard myths: Alan Byrne and Ray Finlay feeding the fire

Here are two myths of 'Humdinger' proportions, the fact that they are still around tells us a lot about the average ( or below average ! ) intelligence levels of surfers.


"The greatest thing about the six channels is that there is no top end speed. "

Alan Byrne

"The curves and concaves are there to direct and feed the channels with water. the water speeds up as it is forced into a tighter space within the channel and is squirted out the end at speed generating increase thrust and propulsion "

Ray Finlay
Shaper
Byrning Spears
Raglan


If Alan Byrne knew as much about aero and hydrodynamics as he says he does then he would know that unlimited speed is impossible for any surfboard. As surfboard speed increases drag increases by the square, and the motive power cannot also increase by the square.

Also we see that Ray Finlay is parroting the old venturi bottom myth. .. in reality compressing water under a surfboard in order to 'speed the water' up increases drag and slows the board down, again it is simple hydrodynamics. All that happens when flow is constricted is that water gets dragged along with the surfboard. . . . this speeds the water up but in the opposite direction to that which is imagined and hoped for by the noobs. Yes Alan and Ray are noobs at hydrodynamics, I do respect their surfing ability however.

Channel bottoms work by increasing the virtual fin area and by ( if done correctly ) increasing the effective span of the planing bottom ( as concaves do ) Although most surfers wouldn't have clue about whether or not the technical descriptions of how a surfboard behaves are correct or mumbo jumbo, some of us do and reading the sort of myths posted here ( and here )is like fingernails being scraped on a blackboard ! I had a 6 channel Byrning Spear thruster in 1986 and disliked it intensely, it was a very slow board

Here's a Ray Finlay channel bottom. It looks reasonably efficient here without fins as the channels are parallel but the toe in from the side fins ( once fins are added ) will conflict with the direction of the channels, thus creating unnecessary drag.

Resonance in wooden surfboards: Balsa vs Paulownia and the delights of the parallel profile

Paulownia has far better resonance than balsa, which is why paulownia is used in musical instruments.

Balsa dampens resonance and behaves more like foam in that respect We call it 'organic foam' partly for that reason and partly because it sucks water so readily. Paulownia transmits resonance so that the board becomes like a drum or sound box. . . . . that's what we are after, as it transmits energy and information from ythe surfboard hull to the feet of the rider.

Parallel profile torsion box construction is also far superior in this respect as it has a low riding position, the rider's feet are close to the bottom, with the deck being an exact replica of the bottom, . . . . this gives extraordinary sensitivity in the feedback from the board to the rider. . . the board literally feels as if it is alive, much like a musical instrument.

Over 40 years of surfing in waves up to 25 feet, nearly half of that time on flexible wooden boards with excellent resonance, has given me a very good grasp of what's going on.

Here's a video showing complex harmonics in one of our longboards, unfortunately the low resolution doesn't show it that well but there are at least two frequencies occurring. We have a higher resolution video which we can upload later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJxf1VuGvYw

Here's a Power Surfboard owner describing the feeling rather well:

"Just being on that board is a different sort of experience. There’s an energy in that wood, a richness and luxury I don’t feel surfing anything else. The sounds the board makes as its hull moves through the water, the smooth feel of the rails, the way it just slides right into the pocket and speeds you down the line. There is joy in that olo"