1970's pipeliner Bolt questions ( build thread)

Aloha Lee

Sorry I missed out on your thread and board building.  My laptop needed a new motherboard so I was out touch when at home.  Now It is back and working fine again.  

It looks like you have done a nice job.  Classic colors of course!  I couldn’t tell in your photos but the tail thickness in your drawing would be too thick and the tail rocker a bit slim unless it was an early 70s model and then you are pretty close.  The nose rocker is about right though many had less in the early 70s.

As for bottom designs, mine were flat in the front 3rd.  Slight Vee in Center, increasing toward tail, with maximum Vee being well in front of the fin (reverse Vee???) fading to pretty much flat in the Tail.  I would often do concave Vee panels.

I am not sure what you “classic bevels” comment is.  It it is that super flat deck with a corner in it then angling off with a flatish rail down to the radius and tucked edge.  Then I know what you are talking about… BUT… this was NOT a Pipeliner rail.  This was common among a bunch of shapers that were following Brewers look and rails. 

Gerry Lopez’s shapes (and surfing) pretty much defined the 70s Pipeliner and my further evolution of that design led a very small amount of shapers that specialized in boards for Pipeline.  The rails on these boards rarely had that angular rail common on boards used at Sunset Beach.

The tails on our boards might have looked thick because they had a boxy rail that carried around through the tail.  And the tail had a small steep beak. Similar to what short boards are today.  But the actual thickness of these tails wasn’t exceptionally thick.  They needed to be reasonably thin along with the narrow pintail to penetrate the wave face very early on when the surfer is not able to exert much downforce on the tail.  But rather has to drive the board downward as quickly as possible to escape from the extreme jacking and pitching lip.  This is particularly unique to Pipeline.  Other waves do this, but Pipe is the best!  Now with contemporary thin Tri Fins, the side fin and way further back tail fin, allows grip even though tails are wider.  Additionally, boards are surfed much shorter then boards from those “old days” so the rider is now further back on the board and can more easily sink the tail.

None of this is to say that “other” boards didn’t work well at Pipeline.  That would just be a different discussion.

Aloha brothers,

crisp, thanks for the thumbs up  :)

 

Honolulu- thank you for the pinline advise , I will try to implement it on my next board.  suse I'm not gonna use the lightning bolt

as a comerssial logo unless I get the permision from whoever holds the rights ... but every one knows that a yellow board with a red bolt rides good so I had to put it on my board too  :)  BTW - what would Chuck Norris say about that ??   :)   old sways joke...

 

Bill- I'm so stoked you chimed in .. it a big honor for me.

       I wonder how it happend that I didn't meet you in person on my 2.5 months in Oahu.  I lived just by Aligators rock on Kam Hwy ..

        hopefully next time .

      going back to the board-talk-  bottom first 3rd is flat  then vee towards the tail .   rails are done acording to Mike Tuten's

      instructions ( which always lead me to good results)  + few modifications to get the retro look.

the rails look modern and functional but when blended with the flat deck they get the oldschool feel .

I wish you came earlier to tell me about the rocker and foil , but what you saw on the Aku PDF was just the starting point

and off course I took some material off leaving a thinner tail and added some tail rocker.

I hope the board will ride good , it'll be a fun and educational ride for sure . anyway,  it makes a real nice wall hanger if it fails as a surfboard.

Aloha

Lee

Aloha Lee

We will meet next time you are in Hawaii.  I am most always accessible around my shop and visitors are always welcome.  

Spotted this the other day: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Sports/Surfing/Surfboards/Shortboards/auction-268412006.htm

may help.