Area reduction from a wide point allows you to change your angle of attack .
It also is a big factor in release for control .
Wide point way forward with incut - missing surface - then tips as the next contact spot eliminates the possibility of angle change and release in the template .
Rough description of this , god help me 
Perverted template :-)
Yes , it’s the penis board alright…minus the ball-bag…Inspiration can come from the strangest places.
Greg,
I fully agree with you and I appreciate the interest. Maybe it’s a bit of wishful thinking going on, but I’m hoping by thinning the “wings” or rear widepoints in combination with a short rail line and kick tail, will help with the angle of attack and release issues. A traditional wide point to narrowing tail will undoubtably produce the best carving board. I’m guesing this one will have a skatier feel since it is the opposite. This definitely isn’t a “one board quiver” by any means, just a different sensation. I have a self-made quiver of 25 weird boards ranging from 4’ to 6’ and I figured, why not make a 26th? I have found that if I stick with a proven rocker and foil that works on the waves I surf, a standard tucked under edge rail, and if I play it safe with the fin placement, they all “work”.
I had a guy in my shop that kiteboards and he mentioned that the younger kiters are buying up the lightest boards they can so they can flip them and spin them. And that really was the thing that made me decide to build this. I felt the narrower outline would benefit this type of riding. They are basically doing skateboard style moves now, so I wanted to make a true skate influenced board. I don’t kite myself because I don’t have time in my life for a hobby that you can do everyday, but I live in one of the best places in the world for it, so I get to watch them all the time. I see how they move up wind and place most of their pressure on their rear foot and I figured this outline would be a good platform to make a prototype from. The other motivating factor is that kiters will drop $1000 on a board without hesitation and the stuff they’re buying is total crap. One friend payed $950 for this painted up tuff-lite China board, he got to ride it 3 times before he started noticing buckling and stress fractures in several places on the board. This made me sick because with the proper construction and materials, I could have built the guy something he could drive his truck over for way less money. The mark to beat in that industry isn’t too high from what I’ve gathered, and since most of the surfers I deal with are broke or “label whores”, I want to get into building a few kiteboards. I made this one thicker and longer than I would for a kiteboard because I wanted to gather my own ride reports to be able to discuss them better with potential customers. But I am aware of the reality that it could end up being a total turd and just serve as a wall-hanger and conversation piece in the shop. I’ve got a stack of those constantly growing that I refer to as my “$300 mistakes”.
On another note, I’m a huge fan or your fin set-ups and getting a set from you is on my todo list in the near future.
Looks like somebody put Sigmond’s cigar in the pencil sharpener again.
With the first twins which had super wide tails and fins on the rail the feeling in riding was much flatter and was well noticed over the normal single fins of the time . 2 years later the Tri Fin was born , narrower tails with smaler fins on the rail - easier to lay over - still fast - less extreme .
This Firewire rides on this disk on the tail only , with fins closer to the rail than any , both elements resisting laying the board over or releasing thru the turn .
Why not paddle a longer board in that both turns and fits better , insted of a very tiny one with a template that makes it run further . :-)
…is like GGriffin is saying.
You see in the video how the board performs substandard and what we see is an edited video…
You see how the guy slides and loose speed and momentum before the bottom turn in several waves.
Is like riding with 2 boards; the upper area is not bitting the wave.
The guy s depending in that last 1/3 rocker but seems that did not had enough fin area.
-also what with these penis boards? gay friendly?
I remember a board that I tried a million years ago with a similar outline. It was a dog, that back hump was constantly dragging every time you laid it over a little, and the front hump in the outline was constantly catching as you went down the line. I watched the video and I have to say the performance of that board was very similar to what I experienced. It even looks like the firewire boys thinned out the tail area along the rail line in an attempt to solve the exact problem I describe. Methinks it looks like one of those paipos everyone was fired up a few years ago about. Similar to a snowboard… but it seems that some people oft forget that both paipos and snowboards seem to slide their tails around the front foot, not piviot around the back foot as modern surfboards appear to do… at least from my experience.
Carl
In the video, the board looks like it drops anchor everytime it is rolled over into a bottom turn.
Herr Hofner,
As an ex-English teacher I often have to curb my “grammar nazi” impulses on these online forums, but the Urban Dictionary is dickin’ you around with this one- it’s spelled** “eunuch”**.
Sorry- carry on…
The future of board sports! Drill some holes for skate trucks or snowboard boots & you could surf it, skate it & snowboard it!!
I made this one about a year and a half ago to get less fin but still have hold. I was surprized that it worked more like a shortboard than an alaia. It was fun, but I had too many other things going on to develop it.
If I made another one, I’d maybe put the bump more between the feet, draw it out a bit. It turned like a little skimboard with the outline in the back and really only needed 4 bonzers to hold (I used a full bonzer set, not just the two in the pic.).
Obviously having the more dramatic bump in this one is a whole lot different thing than the Firewire. I have a feeling something with less sidecut would work better than what I made. There’s no denying that adding the width in the back will help it generate lift, but all that nose makes for a weird feeling and if you stand forward it kinda gets sticky and makes for awkward turns. At least the big companies are trying something different. My two cents.
Warthawg,
Thanks for the correction. Both my parents were english majors, so I’ve been getting it my entire life. I wasn’t sure of the spelling so I googled it, and that’s what came up. If we can’t trust the inter-web, then who can we trust?
lalabrooklyn,
I’m a huge fan of your stuff. I was going to tag you in some pics of this board on Instagram when I finally finish it. The build has come to a hault, because I took on some sidework for a week and had to focus on paying some bills rather than making myself new toys. In that time, I did contact some weavers of a basalt/Innegra hybrid cloth that I’m hopefully getting enough of to wrap this thing in. I first saw the material in a video, used on a 33 pound canoe, that was thrown off a 7 story building and suffered only minor scratches. So the original plan for carbon is up in the air at this point. By the way, how did that board do?
Not sure if it was metioned already; but it looks like an Alaia template to me. I haven’t ridden one before but there’s a few guys around my current surf spots here on Hawaii Island that has been ridding them. They paddle and compete for any waves in the lineup without having the assistance of volume, foam, and fins. Very classic style. Here’s a link and pic of a Donald Takayama model:
http://www.surfride.com/getproduct.asp?p=9808&s=55&b=44
Hey Hofnar, thanks for the compliment. I would just make the board and don’t worry about crazy materials. I dremel my experiemental boards and reshape them until they start to work. I wouldn’t count on it being like you want it to be off the bat.
The cork board in the pic worked well but you really have to surf it more off the tail. It turned like a shortboard with the pivot happening around the front of the rear bump. Plenty of stick with just bonzers. It was super fast, but that was mostly because of the rocker (from one of my finless) and also having just bonzers for fins. It would just fly over flat sections. It barely felt like it was in water, more like it was hovering in the flats but with lots of hold on the face. Rocker was about 1 1/4 T, 2? N. My big complaint was that the rail at the nose got sticky and it wouldn’t turn if you set the whole rail.
The concept was really about a bicambered design for propeller blades or wind turbines. Wind (or water) hits the first bump in the outline, starts to cavitate and then sticks again as it hits the second bump. The water does stick to the rail on this one, but you really need it to slide out to some ext if you want it to turn. That balance is really the conundrum with surfboards isn’t it? Basically the lesson from this one is: wherever the rail sticks out, it sticks. Wherever the rail pulls away, it slides. fins in the back of a surfboard are balancing the tendency of the back of the board to pull away from the water. I really think there’s potential here, but not if you’re trying to make another hpsb. Theres something magical about a finless that you can’t get from a board with fins in the back. On a finless it breaks free where the fins are on a shortboard and that allows that big nose to come around.
Anyway, I think my “bicambered foiler” would work better with a little straiter outline overall, same rocker, no fins and a hard edge on the rail-just keep it in the finless category to balance all that hold in the back part of the rail. Maybe add little side fins between the feet? …or make the back wider and keep the bigger fins like the firewire.
Here’s something about bicambered foils-shows less drag and more laminar flow when you add the second bump!
http://iet-journals.org/archive/2013/may_vol_3_no_5/474261364422934.pdf
The penis board looked to go better than he FW. can’t believe they’re putting that thing in shops.
Here’s someone really nailing the concept. The surfing is real easy on the eyes for such an ugly shape!
