I wonder …
… [on the board on OUR right ] with a cutaway base for the back fin to overhang the box, and the two side fins waaay back in the boxes …
Did Ben ever do that , anyone know ??
photo used without permission
[the “gouges” were in the photo’s [magazine page’s] paper , not the balsa , by the way]
chip, you may be able to answer this question… since those are wooden boards and thats circa 1977…was there vaccuum bagging back then? or did they just lay them up regularly?
Aloha Scott
Yes there was vacuum bagging waaaayyyy “BACK THEN”!
There was also electricity, telephones and internal combustion engines! Ha!
just checking…im working on a wood board myself (my first woodie) and dont have the vac bag equipment…i guess ill have to find a way…maybe hook up a couple seal-a-meal’s and put it in a ziploc bag…was just wondering if wood boards could be made without bagging them without sounding like a dumbass.
and there is NO way i would ever try using my lungs… i dont wanna die young…lol
"there is nothing new under the sun " , eh ?
why , I even bet they had EPOXY and EPS back then, too…eh ?
and people who jumped up and down on those boards in the carpark back then , too…
[yawn…what’s the big deal ]
…just beating around the bush of asking if vac bagging is absolutely neccessary for hollow wood construction. If I could avoid paying big bucks for something that I dont need, that would be awesome.
I wonder ....… [on the board on OUR right ] with a cutaway base for the back fin to overhang the box, and the two side fins waaay back in the boxes …
Did Ben ever do that , anyone know ??
SNIP]
Aloha Ben
I don’t know if Aipa ever did what you were suggesting. I but I imagine he did.
At that time I was making a lot of twin fins and trying to get them to work in larger more powerful waves. I was installing all kinds of trailing fins and experimenting with what was essentially “tri” fin set ups for Bobby Owens, Buzzy Kerbox, etc and other riders at the time.
Check the planshape on this Midge Farrelly circa 1969:
Pic is from Surf research http://www.surfresearch.com.au/00000046.html
Aloha Ben
I spent a little time with Ben Aipa today. I brought up your question. He remembered the boards. As I suspected he had installed those boxes for exactly the reasons I mentioned.
He called the rear fins stabilizers. By the way… those weren’t balsa boards. They were Falsa!
Maybe he will show up on Swaylocks. He asked for the URL!
BB
Aloha Scott
Vacuum bagging is the preferred method but there are others I have used.
Just to mention a couple. There is a sheet film glue that is heat activated. It looks like clear cellophane.
Another is a powder that is mixed with water into a cream that is painted on then heat activated with an iron.
Both worked pretty good and straight forward. Easier then bagging. But not ideal for sandwich skins.
great stuff Bill !
…that would be unreal if Ben Aipa posted here !!
I wonder if he or island style , or maybe Bolster , Wilkings, or Divine [“the big three”] ever got any shots of the back stabiliser fin setup ?
…I’d be really keen to see THAT ! [Perhaps it was in an old mag I haven’t got ??]
cheers !
ben
Aloha Ben
I understand your point about photos. But let me fill you in on the realities.
I am gonnna stick my neck out here so I gotta qualify it first. Surf photographers are great guys. That are exceptional artists. Most of them are good friends so I mean them no ill will.
But… They do what they do for money. Therefore they shoot primarily photos that will sell easily. They are not investigative reporters! They go where the feeding frenzy already is.
The magazines publish photos that are in sync with the direction that the magazine feels the “scene” is going in. The “scene” is very much a concocted reality based on what gets published. It is often times not even close to the reality that is actually taking place. Finding that one takes too much effort!
Because of the issues above, much of what happens doesn’t get reported or documented. For example, when twin fins were hot in the late 70s and Mark Richards was ripping it up on them… the scene was entirely focused on that and it also had a presumption of the existing “scene” and where they expected it to go. Few photographers were snooping around my shop or Ben’s looking for some advancements in Twin Fin designs that would upset this presumption. Until the current scene is miked to death there is little incentive to dig deaper or struggle to find fresh material.
The twin was hot and the scene around it was all in agreement. In that case one follows the scene, as it is most profitable to bolster and support the momentum and direction the scene is heading in. One doesn’t look for things that are contrary to that currently accepted flow or direction. Especiallly if you are a writer or photographer, working several months out from publication. Designers will always be tinkering with something different than the “scene” is endorsing. That is the paridigm of being a designer. But those wrapped deeply into the current scene have a hard time recognizing it or even being interested till it bowls them over and gets their attention some how.
It takes a big celebrity or radical design change or an agreement among the accepted “cool guys” to finally catch the attention of the media. This media attention then seems to validate the new thing. But the reality is… that it is no more a validation than any previous acknowledgement was or will be. But as long as all readers think it is then it is! And honestly it may well be as sometimes the magazines get it right.
Surfers are addicted to the surf media. If it is in the magazines… it is real and good. If a top pro rides it… it is real and good. If it is the word on the streets (beach)… it is real and good. There is no other choice for them. There simply is no creative, aggressive, investigative journalism and no format where it can be published. At least none that I am aware of. The face of politics in America has been changed by alternative media. Sadly we don’t have any kind of similar alternative movement in the surf media world. I am not saying this is terribly bad or evil. It is just what it is. So don’t expect the established surf media or members, to accurately represent stuff. Or get around to taking the photos you were asking about.
Swaylocks is probablly the only significant place were an unknown, or different thing can be easily stated or displayed. And honestly, the significance here is pretty insignificant to the masses. What we need in addition to Swaylocks as we know it is a Magazine version which sifts out the best stuff and prepares and exposes it for broad public consumption.