I am a little confused about the bottom contours from both of these designs. On the CI website, the Al Merrick Black Beauty which is a “reverse vee” board was Tom Curren’s title winning board in 1985, yet Maurice Cole invented the reverse vee in 1990. What is the difference between the vee in the bottom of either of these boards?
Also, why isn’t this bottom contour used much anymore it seems like having vee in the bottom would create a much more connected board to wave and excel in heavy offshore winds as wind couldn’t get underneath the board and hold it up as much like a concave bottom.
My very first board was a 7’10" Morey-Pope ‘Deese Original’ by Richard Deese. It had a deep forward vee. The year would have been 1970 +/- a year or two.
It did catch waves fairly easily for it’s size. You are correct about convex vs concave bottoms in offshore winds but planing efficiency is affected.
Don’t really have anything to answer your question, but for me the most remarkable aspect of the black beauty are the rails, they’re really hard right up until the nose. always wanted to ride a 6’6 when moroccan point breaks get big.
I haven’t held a Cole. The Black Beauties are V from the nose to tail. I’ve posted here several times over the years that the best HP shortboards in my life have been V’bottoms. I still have my all time favorite and have made a couple copies of it a few years back that I still ride when the conditions are right (getting old).
Here is the magic board next to one of my copies.
And a shot of a fat old guy riding the copy.
Here are some shote to give you an idea of how much V is in that old Natural Art:
I surprised. I had a board out at Backyards a number of years ago with nose to tail vee and kept getting caught behind. I put it down to over veed over rockered. maybe it was just over rockered.
For unpleasant bumpy conditions I pull out a flat bottom rather than a concave because the flat bottom behaves better in chop. Maybe I should be looking at vee again.
It’s my understanding that forward vee has been making a comeback in recent years (the hypto krypto is one model that utilizes it) for the reasons outlined. A little vee in the front third or so helps cut through chop and wind.
