Anybody still using V bottoms on HP Shortboards?

kayu · October 27, 2014, 8:55am

Here ya go…http://www.swaylocks.com/forums/stoker-v-machine everything you wanna know about HP with a vee-bottom !

mako224 · October 27, 2014, 11:11am

Apples.

Oranges

Not that there is anything wrong with that.

artz · October 27, 2014, 1:53pm

What Bernie said about different boards for Sunset then Pipeline was true in the 1970’s can’t imagine that it would not be true today. In The 1970’s you were more concerned with getting the rocker that fit the wave best.

Clamsmasher · October 27, 2014, 2:17pm

Cool thread!

I look back on my Pre-Kelly thrusters with longing. Always flat to Vee, and then the Vee-double con started to come in. I thought that was an improvement, as the boards lit up a little quicker. I think Vee bottoms facilitated very strong rail to rail surfing and very hard burying of the tail. I liked them backhand especially.

I lived around Bells so there was never a shortage of wall or period, but the boards I rode were like walking in molasses in sub 3’ waves unless the waves were really good. Actually, surfing tiny or onshore waves wasn’t really a thing for us, so we never knew the difference. We just stayed out of the water til’ it was bigger and offshore.

Personally I don’t like single con shortboards, but I can’t deny they get up and going in weak and hollow waves alike. Just don’t like the way they turn…

finsOUT4theBOYS · October 31, 2014, 4:43am

I can’t believe the Vee master has not chimed in yet with pics of certain green board displaying vee
With vee knowledge paragraph.

haavard · October 31, 2014, 10:05am

$1:

Short answer, no. I don’t know of anybody doing substantial V on hpsb. But dead flat bottoms are used, which is a step away from the more common full concaves.

Those old boards had different rockers and thickness profiles, which worked with the V. There were lots of boards made in the 80s that had mild V with double con running through them. That was my go-to bottom all through the mid-late 80s

When boards first started to go very thin (late 80s here in Florida), the bottoms still had a little V. As the rockers started to increase a couple years later, the single-to-double con came on and helped “power” the lower-volume/higher rocker boards.

I’d suggest doing a version of your current favorite with a dead-flat bottom as only change, to test. If you want to try full V you’d probably want to flatten the centerline rocker and add some volume.

Hi Mike, so would V be a good idea for for a big guy board where you increase the length and volume a little?

artz · October 31, 2014, 5:31pm

Clamsmasher Seeing a few modernized early 80’s style thrusters out there now. Fuller noses flatter rockers
and some V.
I do miss seeing hard driven bottom turns that have the board fully on the rail. IMHO one of the reasons people don’t like to surf Fish in fast hollow waves in due to the lost art of useing the rail. You have to free that outside fin and drive the board with the rail.

spuddups · October 31, 2014, 8:00pm

^ I like your tag line artz.

reverb · November 1, 2014, 2:46am

…the OP first question is regarding HP shortboards…so, MD is right.

V works pretty good for boards and tails with lots of area and volume regarding HPSBs.

-Also, Mako224, first time that I see that a V bottom is the best for tubes…

BarrySnyder · November 1, 2014, 4:15am

5’10’ HPSB.

Vee last 8".

mako224 · November 1, 2014, 11:39am

.

mako224 · November 1, 2014, 11:41am

Where exactly did you “see” that? Some freaking people…

reverb · November 1, 2014, 3:06pm

your words: “They feel more in control in steep hollow waves.”

mako224 · November 1, 2014, 4:12pm

Its a giant leap and a giant error to take my words describing my experiences and turning them into any sort of difinitive claim of absolutes. I’m guessing you completely missed the highlighted parts of my full coment in context.

Just my observations: The V bottomed boards catch bigger hollower waves easier. They feel more in control in steep hollow waves. They surf top to bottom better where concave boards feel like they outrun sections. Again, just my observations.

I even reiterated a second time that it was just my observations. Never claimed anything was the BEST for anything. Just my observations based on the boards I’ve ridden over the past 32 years. Your experience may be completely different than mine. Whatever.

mako224 · November 11, 2014, 9:25pm

http://www.cisurfboards.com/surfboards/the-black-beauty-by-tom-curren/

While in California I stopped in the Rip Curl shop and was looking at a Channel Islands Black Beauty they had on the rack. First board I’ve seen in years on the racks with a full V. Not as heavy of a V as the board in my original post but still V from nose to tail. Really cool board.

Huck · November 12, 2014, 1:27am

Nice board - thanks for the link and description. Did it have more v out the tail, or did they flatten the v out the very back?

MikeDaniel · November 12, 2014, 1:49am

The black beauty is an 80s board meant for good waves, so those bottom contours make sense.

Nowadays, most shapers don’t use neutral bottom contours until you get one step past a step-up.

Huck · November 12, 2014, 2:27am

Mike - does the v bottom correlate more with the old school carving style and the concave bottom with the hacks and airs style?

MikeDaniel · November 12, 2014, 2:58am

I’m not sure I would make that correlation, bottom contours don’t really have a lot to do with airs - other than getting the velocity to do them.

Full concaves change the AOA of rail, which actually enhances carves. I think we’ve seen plenty of advanced carving turns in the modern era. Probably the best ones ever.

Careful or this will wnd up on Rusty’s blog next week lol.

marsh · November 12, 2014, 7:34am

Radical carving, kellys planning some for Hawaii: