Hi guys,
Got this brilliant idea over the weekend to flex tail one of my more beat up fish’s for shits and giggles. The lack of swell this winter in San Diego must be making me a little crazy. The board is a 5’5 Christenson monarch. Looks just like this guy:
Has any one tried this? If figured if it sucks I can always grind it off.
Just a few questions on how to go about this:
*How many layers of glass would you use for this 5’5 fish? Looks like in the pic on the second tail the guy used volan because of the tinge and I can count 5 laps in the glass.
*What oz cloth would you use?
*How far past the tail should I take the glass?
Looks like they just lay glass on the bottom side of the tail, no glass on the top, maybe just one sheet to hold it all together. will need to make some kind of backing on the edge of the tail to temporarily hold the wet glass in alignment. Do I have the right idea? thanks
To me, these tails looks like all hype. How much flex do you think occurs and for how long? That would be one long, drawn out, POWERFUL turn to have any effect on ride. Emperor’s new clothes. I think you would do better exploring fins and fin set up.
I have ridden and understand flex tails but these are not examples of one. The fiberglass sections are what, three inches wide or less. That is a pretty stiff panel of resin and glass. A proper flex tail has much more surface area and foiling. Pendarvis is one maker as are Tim Bowler of Shapes and Hulls, Greenough, Bruce Fowler/Deadshaper. I don’t see the boards in the photos doing much flexing even if the foam is quite thin. The fish tail allows water release instead of employing it to push against for any flexing in turns. Do you think you would feel the small tips on the fish at all? I’d be surprised if so. I may be wrong and it wouldn’t be the first or last time.
As pictured, I would agree. Also the added glass layers over the existing tail foam would stiffen the tail in front of flex panels. Even with thinner panels, flex effect would likely be limited for the panel lengths shown.
I have no idea what the correct extension-panel length, thickness or amount of desirable flex would be.
More length with the right thickness gradient could have effect – flex panels longer at tips dropping to nothing at the crack.
As add-ons to existing tips, board length would be increased. Distance from trailing edge of fin to tail tip is increased. The increased board length would likely change performance as much as or more than any actual flex.
There was a thread several years ago where the OP removed foam from the tail top to create the flex panel. He left a curved foam edge in front of the flex panel – good way to minimize straight-line hinge fracture. I believe he was satisfied with the experiment.
Thinning tail foam could be a way to increase flex without increasing length. Any noticeable change in performance would more likely be due to flex then.
And there is the shape of the actual flex panel section(s)…
…hello; in my opinion, the first thing is to avoid those big tracked fins and use those divided in 2 (4 fins total) or a normal quad set up.
Also, you can go to “the modern fish thread” to see more about it.
-by the way, DS does not do any fish with a flex tail as I know.
(possibly under " winterstick inspired fish " ?? )
…you should find some VERY LONG flexi fish tails.
An Andrew Kidman movie called "lost in the ether " shows them being ridden , and gives quite a detailed description of what they feel like, as well as the footage showing very NOTICEABLE flex…
I think it looks bitchen and you should do it. Maybe it will be the best short board ever for whatever reason. Flex, stiff, cuz you made it yourself. Whatever. Do it. I like it. Mike
In the end, it is your experiment mgcorrei. The fun is in finding out.
Make some test panels varying the number, weight, arrangement and shape of cloth layers. See how they flex.
Build what you think looks right…
Here is what I came up with. 6 layers of some 4oz I had laying around. Kinda hard to get the wet glass to hang off the tail and lay flat like that, I held it up with a roll of wax paper and laid the board on a table fins up. Wasted a bunch of resin and cloth when I cut the mid section out.
I rode it today on a punchy low tide waist to chest high clean day here in Cardiff. The verdict…meh. Looks cool, got plenty of questions about it, and it does surf different… not in a good way however. Not enough glass hanging off the tail, doesn’t push back hard enough on bottom turns and cut backs. Feels like a tennis racket with loose strings now, on what was before a board I could before come off the bottom very hard and fast has now lost that sensation. Has too much flex now which means I lose speed out of turns and experience hesitation in the board mid turn.
Don’t know if I want to keep plugging away at it, stacking more glass on it to stiffen it out, wasting more time/money potentially… or just grind it off. I am restoring a skip frye pendoflex I posted about in another thread which is more deserving of my precious resin and cloth. Asked Pendo what he thought about those this summer and his response was like stone burners. I do have a Pendoflex, that thing is amazing. Yeah flex is all about the torsion between the fin and the rail, Steve’s got it all figured out. I’ve ridden future flex boards too, but can’t ever feel any flex unless I’m pumping my ass off on a walled up freight train of a wave, otherwise they don’t do jack. Always a blast messing with boards and screwing up my surfing … stay weird, thanks for the comments!
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