Hi all, just thought I’d share this with you. It’s a Mike Davis Design from 1982, 6’4" x 20.5", double flyers, quad channels. Note the removable centre fin. What are the advantages/disadvantages of this.
cheers
Hicksy
Versatility
Sorry, not too specific today. I meant the channels and flyers, I don’t see them too often and wonder if it was a design that was dropped/forgotten or it is a concept that didn’t work. I find the board to be very quick and sooooo loose with the centre fin out.
Hicksy
Quote:
Sorry, not too specific today. I meant the channels and flyers, I don’t see them too often and wonder if it was a design that was dropped/forgotten or it is a concept that didn’t work. I find the board to be very quick and sooooo loose with the centre fin out.
Hicksy
Probably because a break or acceleration in the outline serves much the same function as a wing/flyer (also easier to glass) The Curren and Occy outlines of the early 80s really started this trend and thus the demise of the wing/flyer for a more subtle outline
no wonder mike was such a highly regarded shaper ,thats a sweet outline for 82 , wanna sell it???
id say that board predates occy or curren as well …
also i feel in 99% of cases a pro surfer would never initiate a new design concept…
most of the time a shaper comes up with the concepts and the pro surfer gives the design credibility and helps to gain public accceptance of a new idea…most pros i know have got no idea how there boards work…
then finnally when they get there boards worked out there ready for retirement…
…
back to flyers , they help you to pull the tail area down to a managable width ,still keeping clean curve through the middle of the board…also they give a more pivoty feel when you get your board on the rail ,helps you go more vertical earlier …so you get a squarer turn ,so you can approach the lip more face on…
the channels are a hoax…they just add to bottom turbulence , making your fins work harder to cut through the dirty water…
regards
BERT
I tend to agree with Bert on channels. They’re supposed to add drive and can in certain very clean and powerful conditions, but concaves do essentially the same thing more effectivly without the turbulence issues. More drive and manueverability are always the path to the future. Channels offer one but not the other.
Wings can be quite effective but seem to have fallen from popularity in favor of cleaner lines. They are still used on many fish boards though.
I’d love to sell it Bert but my 6 yo daughter would kill me. I’ll let you touch it though… only joking. If you want I can show you sometime when you’re in Perth, it really is a work of art.
I get lots of comments in the car park with this one and the thruster fin moves back and forward. It’s a top little board…
Hicksy
Wings…I’ve made about 20 of, never really saw the need or embraced the concept, as a curved template right there does just about the same thing, and you tend to pivot more off your fins than your outline glitch of ONE inch. However, one of my best medium size wave boards had concaved wings, but that was only one small design factor of the board.
Channels, a glassers/sanders nightmare, a good design exercise, a good idea, but almost replicable in feel with other design features, such as wider outlines, curvier, and adjusted multi fins. Never worked up here, as we have currents, rips, onshore winds, and usually morning sickness bump in our waves.
But yeah, go for it, it looks really cool!
Bert,
I think there is a reason why people like(d) the feel of channels, it has nothing to do with hydrodynamics. Channels must stiffen the laminate in the last 3 rd of the board. Just like the corrogations in cardboard add stiffness. You used to hear that channels didn’t work in choppy conditions. What was going on there I think, was the stiffness was making the board bounce around a bit. A normal board has a bit of flex which soaks up the bumps.
Cheers,
ps Do you know anything about the Montebello islands?
I had a board shaped with channels just like that in 1990, it was 6’4" and worked awesome. It was my best board, sold it once and bought it back because it just was to good even though it was well used. When I started shapeing I templated that board and took a whole page of notes so I can copy it in the future.
pinhead!!!
your reply has serious merit…maybe not on those early eighties boards , coz most were pretty chunky, but the whole stiffness thing throws alot of shapers…
when preshapes came out and i was still doing polyester boards , i found if you had 5 identical boards , there was variation on performance not only from different weight glass jobs, but also from something as small as different size laps on your glass job and same thickness stringers using different timbers…
montebellos…
got a friend up near there , hes mentioned a few times to get me out there…
i just havent given him a straight answer yet…
hes showed me some awsome footage…
makes g land look short and soft in comparison…
only one boat legally allowed to run charters , as its a protected area , so crowds will never be an issue…
has there been media on the islands??? how did you hear???
regards
BERT
Found this http://www.wavehunters.com/montebello/montebello.asp while looking for somwhere to go for a holiday. Booked solid and a bit pricey, now I know why!