The Hawaiian print is by Hoffman
Post Modern wooden surfboards
Sunday, 27 June 2010
A 1999 Balsa pintail with Hawaiian print
A chambered balsa pintail, built for Hayden Kerr by Roy Stewart in 1999 and one of a pair.
The Hawaiian print is by Hoffman
The Hawaiian print is by Hoffman
Not for sale: The original 13'9" Dragon Board
The original redwood Dragon Board built in the year of the Dragon 2000.
In original museum condition, an iconic surfboard, one of a kind collectors item, and a living part of New Zealand's rich surfing history. This Dragon Board has been featured in Slide Magazine, Australian Amateur Boatbuilder magazine, Pacific Longboarder magazine, and New Zealand's Swell TV when ridden at the 2002 New Zealand nationals at Raglan.
Since 2003 the board has been stored in a temperature controlled surfing museum.
The design is a development of the highly successful Future Primitive 12 footer, and is a return to the displacement tailed pintails of antiquity and more recently Tom Blake's hollow wooden boards of the 1930's. The 13'9" length as chosen as a tribute to Tom Blake's legendary 13-9 'Lifeguard' model
" Roy Stewart's colossal artistic personality, design genius and unflinching commitment to universal hydrodynamic principles are applied relentlessly in his quest for Pure Surfing.
It is nourishing to see his true dynamic, three dimensional understanding of the elements involved in wave riding
Being one with the wave is the essence of surfing, it is radical, it goes to the root, and it is heir to Duke Kahanamoku's spirit. Roy Stewart's boards are unsettling, but the spirit behind them, their source, what he is saying through them that surfing should be, is even more so. His boards caused a stir in Hawaii by expressing surfing's lost vital essence, the one which the great Duke valued more highly than his olympic gold medals. "
With thanks to Pablo Diaz for his writing
In original museum condition, an iconic surfboard, one of a kind collectors item, and a living part of New Zealand's rich surfing history. This Dragon Board has been featured in Slide Magazine, Australian Amateur Boatbuilder magazine, Pacific Longboarder magazine, and New Zealand's Swell TV when ridden at the 2002 New Zealand nationals at Raglan.
Since 2003 the board has been stored in a temperature controlled surfing museum.
The design is a development of the highly successful Future Primitive 12 footer, and is a return to the displacement tailed pintails of antiquity and more recently Tom Blake's hollow wooden boards of the 1930's. The 13'9" length as chosen as a tribute to Tom Blake's legendary 13-9 'Lifeguard' model
" Roy Stewart's colossal artistic personality, design genius and unflinching commitment to universal hydrodynamic principles are applied relentlessly in his quest for Pure Surfing.
He has the courage to question and distill the spirit of surfing and understand it as the source of his work. "What is essential to surfing?" is a question he asks himself constantly. Flight, maximum speed, an aspiration to perfect efficiency, and unity with the energy of the wave is what his work pursues.
Roy's boards are beautiful because they are true organic works whose purpose, apearance, structure, material, method of construction, performance and even symbolic potential are tightly woven into a cohesive but infinitely flexible whole, conceived after great analytical and synthetic effort of the imagination in an attempt to create as nature does.
Elegance defines Roy Stewart surfboards : the use of foil sections for templates; having considerable area with significant rocker forward, creating an optimum configuration to get up and planing as soon as possible; a narrow tail for maximum control and rail to rail ease which works mostly in displacement, supplemented by the efficiently generated lift from the fins in a brilliant balance of the best of many worlds.
Being one with the wave is the essence of surfing, it is radical, it goes to the root, and it is heir to Duke Kahanamoku's spirit. Roy Stewart's boards are unsettling, but the spirit behind them, their source, what he is saying through them that surfing should be, is even more so. His boards caused a stir in Hawaii by expressing surfing's lost vital essence, the one which the great Duke valued more highly than his olympic gold medals. "
With thanks to Pablo Diaz for his writing
Friday, 25 June 2010
A surfboard rocker analysis
A question on rocker from GDaddy on surfermag.com:
"I don't understand the reasoning for using so much rocker on a board that gets used in small waves. I know I prefer less rocker on the boards I use in small waves because I feel like they're faster and smoother. On all the heavily rockered boards I've ever surfed, they seemed slower to me than the flatter rockers that I normally prefer for those conditions.
Input?"
Hello Gdaddy.
You will probably be surprised to learn how the rates of curvature ( as measured by the radius of the curve at any point or the average radius over a given distance ) used on Roy's boards compare with other boards.
All is not what it seems regarding the rocker on Roy's boards.
There are also many different rockers used on his boards.
For example Roy has a favourite 9'1" design which has only an inch and a half of rocker overall.
We could start the discussion with one of the boards which might seem extreme in their rocker to you, for example the FP12, FP13 or 17 foot olo designs.
For the discussion to be productive we need to agree that it is the rate of curvature rather than the overall rocker measurement at nose or tail which is most relevant when comparing boards of different length.
To that end I suggest that you visualise a simple circle.If we take segments of this circle of different lengths we get all sorts of different overall rocker numbers, even though the curve is the same in all cases. Thus it can be seen that in a simple case where a rocker curve is extrapolated to a longer surfboard, the overall rocker measurement ( and the rocker visually when seen from nose or tail ) is misleading as a guide to the actual rate of curvature of the rocker.
It might also be helpful to quote the nose and tail rocker measurements and length for one of the flatter boards which you have. Of course this will ignore subtelties of rocker but it if I am correct it is overall rocker rather than the subtleties which you are talking about, and in any case we need a place to start for comparison.
"I don't understand the reasoning for using so much rocker on a board that gets used in small waves. I know I prefer less rocker on the boards I use in small waves because I feel like they're faster and smoother. On all the heavily rockered boards I've ever surfed, they seemed slower to me than the flatter rockers that I normally prefer for those conditions.
Input?"
Hello Gdaddy.
You will probably be surprised to learn how the rates of curvature ( as measured by the radius of the curve at any point or the average radius over a given distance ) used on Roy's boards compare with other boards.
All is not what it seems regarding the rocker on Roy's boards.
There are also many different rockers used on his boards.
For example Roy has a favourite 9'1" design which has only an inch and a half of rocker overall.
We could start the discussion with one of the boards which might seem extreme in their rocker to you, for example the FP12, FP13 or 17 foot olo designs.
For the discussion to be productive we need to agree that it is the rate of curvature rather than the overall rocker measurement at nose or tail which is most relevant when comparing boards of different length.
To that end I suggest that you visualise a simple circle.If we take segments of this circle of different lengths we get all sorts of different overall rocker numbers, even though the curve is the same in all cases. Thus it can be seen that in a simple case where a rocker curve is extrapolated to a longer surfboard, the overall rocker measurement ( and the rocker visually when seen from nose or tail ) is misleading as a guide to the actual rate of curvature of the rocker.
It might also be helpful to quote the nose and tail rocker measurements and length for one of the flatter boards which you have. Of course this will ignore subtelties of rocker but it if I am correct it is overall rocker rather than the subtleties which you are talking about, and in any case we need a place to start for comparison.
Monday, 21 June 2010
Surfing physics: Mass and Power
A comment from ObProud on the Surfermagazine design forum :
" In surfing the wave and the rider are the motor. Mass is just mass. And more mass means it takes more work from the wave and the rider to move. 
"
Greater mass ( all else being equal ) gives greater acceleration and a higher top speed as well as more momentum.
Clue: When the wave lifts board and rider it imparts more energy to those with greater mass. There's much more power in even a very small wave than is ever used by the surfer, that's why small waves can lift supertankers.
The power exerted by the wave lifting the rider is in the range of 3 to 10 horsepower depending upon the mass of board and rider and the speed with which the wave lifts.
In contrast the power exerted by the rider is only about a fifth to a third of a horsepower.
Adding 20 to 30 pounds of weight to the board and rider will increase the power of board and rider when lifted by at least as much as muscular energy available from the rider. It's not quite as simple as that because an increase in mass also gives an increase in inertia, but there's an improvement in the thrust to drag ratio with the increase in mass.
Of course the foam board industry don't want you to know this, and it's why so many foam board riders find themselves confused when roasted by riders on big heavy boards.
Big heavy boards also lower the centre of effort and the centre of gravity, which is why we rider of big heavy wooden boards can drink cups of tea in situations where foam board riders are playing 'parachute', 'pearl diver', 'TOAD', 'gosh I'm being left behind', 'surf's sh*t so I'm hanging in the carpark', 'we don't care that we only went 10 feet while you went 500 yards', 'stinkeye', 'weep into my beer at the sad boys club' or other foam board rider games.
" In surfing the wave and the rider are the motor. Mass is just mass. And more mass means it takes more work from the wave and the rider to move. " Greater mass ( all else being equal ) gives greater acceleration and a higher top speed as well as more momentum.
Clue: When the wave lifts board and rider it imparts more energy to those with greater mass. There's much more power in even a very small wave than is ever used by the surfer, that's why small waves can lift supertankers.
The power exerted by the wave lifting the rider is in the range of 3 to 10 horsepower depending upon the mass of board and rider and the speed with which the wave lifts.
In contrast the power exerted by the rider is only about a fifth to a third of a horsepower.
Adding 20 to 30 pounds of weight to the board and rider will increase the power of board and rider when lifted by at least as much as muscular energy available from the rider. It's not quite as simple as that because an increase in mass also gives an increase in inertia, but there's an improvement in the thrust to drag ratio with the increase in mass.
Of course the foam board industry don't want you to know this, and it's why so many foam board riders find themselves confused when roasted by riders on big heavy boards.
Big heavy boards also lower the centre of effort and the centre of gravity, which is why we rider of big heavy wooden boards can drink cups of tea in situations where foam board riders are playing 'parachute', 'pearl diver', 'TOAD', 'gosh I'm being left behind', 'surf's sh*t so I'm hanging in the carpark', 'we don't care that we only went 10 feet while you went 500 yards', 'stinkeye', 'weep into my beer at the sad boys club' or other foam board rider games.
Sunday, 20 June 2010
Experiencing the Olo: More 17 footer sliding
The 17 foot Olo at Shark Alley Mount Maunganui, with Motuotau Island, Motiti Island and Maketu point in the background.
Technically it's effortless linear projection. A zone without words.
Beachward with the shorebreak. A journey from way out the back
Amplified sectional reality via a big stick.
Coming in to land, Shark Alley summertime.
Technically it's effortless linear projection. A zone without words.
Beachward with the shorebreak. A journey from way out the back
Amplified sectional reality via a big stick.
Coming in to land, Shark Alley summertime.
Up close with the 'Star board' 17 foot Roy Stewart Olo surfboard
Here's the blank for the 17 foot Star board Olo being lifted from the rocker jig back in 2004 at Welcome Bay.
Dimensions are:
Length 17 feet
Width 26 inches
Thickness 2.5 inches
Construction: Parallel profile 5 layer redwood
A test ride: the verdict is that the board has 'long legs', a sense of enormous power, and a smooth turning response. The sensation on a 70 pound 17 footer is hard to describe. It's another surfing world when the board weighs 40% as much as the rider. The centre of effort is low, the acceleration is relentless, and the momentum is irresistible. Even on a small wave there's a sense of awe as the seemingly omniscient, omnipotent beast awakes and taps into the wave energy. Horsepower !
High tide shorebreak peelers at Papamoa.
Here's the Star board in the midst of a 500 metre ride at Shark Alley lefts, Mount Maunganui. The 'Malibu' longboards were managing only 100 metres at best, but the long legged 17 footer with her high sustained speed and momentum was able to take advantage of the slight bend put into the swell as it wrapped around Motuotau Island, making it all the way through to the wedge at Banks Avenue.
Riding an olo is a timeless and sacred task: one with richness, spirit, meaning and purpose.
Dimensions are:
Length 17 feet
Width 26 inches
Thickness 2.5 inches
Construction: Parallel profile 5 layer redwood
High tide shorebreak peelers at Papamoa.
Here's the Star board in the midst of a 500 metre ride at Shark Alley lefts, Mount Maunganui. The 'Malibu' longboards were managing only 100 metres at best, but the long legged 17 footer with her high sustained speed and momentum was able to take advantage of the slight bend put into the swell as it wrapped around Motuotau Island, making it all the way through to the wedge at Banks Avenue.
Riding an olo is a timeless and sacred task: one with richness, spirit, meaning and purpose.
Wednesday, 9 June 2010
More on wavy sword blades and whale bump technology
Long wide blades which are swung fast inevitably experience times when they stall during quick redirections, this can be felt and it definitely slows the blade down and reduces control. The ability of a blade to handle an increase in the angle of attack of 30% is a big advantage as the blade will turn much more quickly. It will also help to reduce the speed inefficiency caused by misalignment during a cut.
This won't be felt anywhere near as much with narrow more thrust orientated blades, nor will it be noticed as much in dealing with a single opponent, when compared with the more continuous circular movements required for control of a 360 degree area.
Wide thin cutting blades are just like wings with very low chord ratios in that they only accept a narrow range of angles of attack. Wide cutting blades have very low chord ratios around 6 percent, making high speed maneuverabilty a definite issue.
In broad terms the undulations can increase overall efficiency by up to 20 percent, that's a huge increase and would not only be felt in increased speed and maneuverability but also as less of an energy drain on the wielder of the sword, which could be significant during long battles.
The fact that the sword undulations have rounded sine curve like tips rather than pointed serrations also points to aerodynamic efficiency as the goal rather than the 'bread knife' cutting effect sometimes put forward as their reason for being.
By the way it's also the case that blades with spatulate tips generate much less tip drag than pointed blades. Tip vorteces contribute a large proportion of the overall drag produced by a wing.
So, in addition to giving the sword a longer cutting reach, the spatulate tip reduces drag and thus increases blade speed. This is even more the case because the tip is the part of the blade which is travelling the fastest and thus produces proportionally the most aerodynamic drag.
As has been noted countless times by RMA practictioners and ARMA scholars, sword makers were far more knowledgable than
has been commonly supposed in recent times, and in my opinion the undulating blades are another example of their enlightened creativity and practicality.
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
Undulating 'Flame blades' and whale tubercule technology
There has been much discussion in sword collecting circles about the possible function of the undulating flame like blades found on some swords. The theories suggested usually concentrate on possible advantages in cutting via a 'bread knife' effect due to the serrations, but practical cutting tests have not shown that there is any such advantage.
Now that we are aware of the properties of leading edge tubercules, it is clear that a sword blade with such a shape will have aerodynamic advantages. When swung a sword behaves as a wing and produces lift ( and drag ) whenever it is not aligned at a zero angle of attack using 'perfect edge alignment'. During typical sword actions any relatively flat wide bladed cutting blade is prone to stalling at the high angles of attack experienced when the sword redirects before and after cuts. When the sword stalls it produces a lot of drag and it also tends to flex a lot more, none of which is conducive to speed, control, and efficiency.
As has been proven conclusively, leading edge tubercules reduce drag by around 5%. This will make swords with tuberculed blades faster and easier to accelerate. More importantly the tubercules enable the wing to handle greater angles of attack by 30 percent or more. This means in sword terms that imperfect technique is not punished as severely, and the blade will spend far less time stalled during tight maneuvers. The turns executed by a sword are, in terms of angles of attack, equivalent to those of highly aerobatic aircraft. The result of an increased angle of attack capability is greater speed with less effort, and better maneuverability, which are excellent bonuses for any sword. The blades with the undulating flame pattern will spend less time 'flapping' when turning. They must also experience less drag if swung through cuts when misaligned, particularly as the lower drag advantage is increased at higher angles of attack.
This idea is supported by the fact that the undulating blades are most often found on the very largest of two handed wide bladed cutting swords. Such swords were designed to be used against multiple opponents, which means that they must have used in large sweeping circular motions and with many redirections. With the high tip speed these long blades achieve and their large surface area, they have the most to gain from improved angle of attack capabilities and lower drag. Narrower more thrust orientated blades used primarily against single opponents or in formation, and shorter blades, would have less to gain from the unulating leading edges.
http://olosurfer-woodensurfboardsatpipeline.blogspot.com/2010/05/new-zorb-fin-for-future-primitive-106.html
http://olosurfer-woodensurfboardsatpipeline.blogspot.com/2010/05/leading-edge-tubercules-for-7-8-jets.html
Flammard blades, Flambard swords , Flamberge, Flammenschwert,
Now that we are aware of the properties of leading edge tubercules, it is clear that a sword blade with such a shape will have aerodynamic advantages. When swung a sword behaves as a wing and produces lift ( and drag ) whenever it is not aligned at a zero angle of attack using 'perfect edge alignment'. During typical sword actions any relatively flat wide bladed cutting blade is prone to stalling at the high angles of attack experienced when the sword redirects before and after cuts. When the sword stalls it produces a lot of drag and it also tends to flex a lot more, none of which is conducive to speed, control, and efficiency.
As has been proven conclusively, leading edge tubercules reduce drag by around 5%. This will make swords with tuberculed blades faster and easier to accelerate. More importantly the tubercules enable the wing to handle greater angles of attack by 30 percent or more. This means in sword terms that imperfect technique is not punished as severely, and the blade will spend far less time stalled during tight maneuvers. The turns executed by a sword are, in terms of angles of attack, equivalent to those of highly aerobatic aircraft. The result of an increased angle of attack capability is greater speed with less effort, and better maneuverability, which are excellent bonuses for any sword. The blades with the undulating flame pattern will spend less time 'flapping' when turning. They must also experience less drag if swung through cuts when misaligned, particularly as the lower drag advantage is increased at higher angles of attack.
This idea is supported by the fact that the undulating blades are most often found on the very largest of two handed wide bladed cutting swords. Such swords were designed to be used against multiple opponents, which means that they must have used in large sweeping circular motions and with many redirections. With the high tip speed these long blades achieve and their large surface area, they have the most to gain from improved angle of attack capabilities and lower drag. Narrower more thrust orientated blades used primarily against single opponents or in formation, and shorter blades, would have less to gain from the unulating leading edges.
http://olosurfer-woodensurfboardsatpipeline.blogspot.com/2010/05/new-zorb-fin-for-future-primitive-106.html
http://olosurfer-woodensurfboardsatpipeline.blogspot.com/2010/05/leading-edge-tubercules-for-7-8-jets.html
Flammard blades, Flambard swords , Flamberge, Flammenschwert,
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