The fastest in my experience is my 4GF surfmat's nylon bottom... variable shape and minimum friction/drag... the air and momuntum helps keep the rider's bodyweight off the bottom of the mat, pretty interesting stuff, if you ever get run over by a mat skimming at high speed all you will feel on your back is like a towel passed over you with no weight on it at all, a little difficult to visualize but true. I guess that's why Greenough calls them "magic towels"...
other than flat and channels on a pure glassy face its this thing, believe me its f’n fast…
You can take a heavy duty trash bag, swim out and then fill it up with enough air to ride and surf. I’ve done that.
The beauty of mats is the variable bottom contour.
Back in 2004 I PM-ed Bert Burger about incorporating roll and vee in a funboard I was building. His answer seems relevant to this topic...
Bob,
roll and v will pull your board down , slowing it down , it wont have squirt and drive...roll and v are used to slow down a big wave board and give some control and help it hug the face where your feeling over powered,,, but will suck to much speed if there’s not enough power in the waves....i dont consider roll and v till its at least double over head waves , and then its still real subtle....
regards
BERT
Okay now, what is it about a mat that confers an advantage, and what is the advantage? I don't accept (yet?) that a flexible bottom confers speed.
A mat reduces bottom area which reduces skin friction. Drag is also induced by not having too many fins sticking into the water.
The flexy nature of a mat damps chop, leading to better control and less loss to skipping around on the surface.
Holding on with two hands allows taking off late with no loss of control.
Mat flotation aids catching waves.
The skin roughness may be close to that which was recently banned from competitive swimiming.
Food for thought...?
Charlie, try one, wait for a head high glassy day on your favorite point break or long smooth reef wave (not gnarly but smooth and hollow). If you ever decide to try one PM me your email and I will send you the “users manual and tips” document Paul Gross sent me. It can be a bit frustrating at first but after 2 or 3 go outs you will start to get a feel for the mat. It’s very different to surf than a paipo, where as a paipo you “man handle” more in turns, etc… and a mat is more about letting it flow and using subtle body movements and positioning. It’s like bodysurfing with the aid of a big bubble of air, the mat is just the container… Mat surfing is bad for regular surfing because the speed becomes addictive and then one starts to use it as your go to surf equipment therefore neglecting the other vehicles in your quiver. Once you start and get the hang of it, there is no turning back…
Charlie I agree with you on all points about mats. I’ve also found that having the ability to mess with the bottom contour allows the mat to move across the waves better than a solid bottom. The same holds true for boogie boards, but you can really mess with the mat in ways you can’t with any other board. Maybe it’s decreasing the wetted area or reducing drag but there’s something going on. That’s all with a good portion of your lower legs and fins dragging in the wave.