For all you who already knew this and have sat quietly throught the decades while the snake oil salemen tried to wind us up.
747 wings (and most others) flex so as to bleed energy and prevent it reaching the fuselage - simple!
MF
hello Midget !
I would be very interested to read your thoughts on the stringerless shorter boards you made in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
they were beautiful looking boards.
If you preferred , you could private message me here at swaylocks
cheers
ben
Some/few are interested in the return to influenced shape and nurturing energy from the “rebound” Dead Science most respected mate?
In my humble opinion, flex, if done right helps to increase rocker. If done wrong, it turns a board into a wet noodle.
Flex in the nose can help prevent going over the handle bars.
Flex in the mid/to front half can help a front foot surfer carve a little better. While not loosing paddle speed by plowing water because of too much rocker.
Flex under the back foot makes you go slower, because it gives you less to push off against.
Flex in the fin area gives you a lot less speed and control because that is where you really want the board to be stiff to give you something to push against.
Flex behind the fins, in the last 6 inches might help tight turning.
Can’t agree more with Midget.
I see it as a consequence of when boards started getting so thin they began to flex.
I can hear the surf shop sales guy telling a customer…
" nah bud , that’s not a fault, its a design feature ! It’s all about flex now dude."
And ever since then all they’ve done is try to stiffen them up again.
No flex at all is a bad thing too. Surftechs ride six inches longer than the same board in a standard construction, just because they are stiff.
Right time right place problem is getting both tail flex is good with a wave that goes from fat to sucky…
Flexy resin takes the chatter out of eps boards.
well a better question is why do parko fanning kelly and the list goes on still use a stringered pu blank as there prefered tool of trade
and i hope some on here do not say they flex?
cheers huie
depends what kind of waves you are surfing and how you like to surf
the wings on a plane do absorb some of the ‘chop’ in the air. a surfboard can do the same thing in the water (stringerless bamboo deck is good for this)…
also in really steep/tight waves the board bending will allow you to get in a more critical part of the wave. that is a reward in itself. also you can gain more speed coming out than if you had taken a less radical line (perimeter stringered boards are really good at this)
gutless or flat or extremely powerful waves less flex is better
or if you like more glide in your surfing, flex is not good and weight is better
Yes, the wings on an airplane flex (and they do, a LOT, I saw probably 10 foot vertical flex in a 50 foot wing once during a thunderstorm when the plane hit a pocket and dropped altitude), but primarily length-wise and to some degree chord-wise. In my experience I have found that the right amount of flex in a surfboard is much less, in relation to the length that is flexing…certainly not 20 percent. The result of limited flex (again in my experience only) is a great thing in glassy surf, but hard to control on choppy days. So - kind of different from just absorbing turbulence, I think. The flex helps with turns, which makes it more akin to ailerons (twist) in a plane wing.
that’s my 2 cents worth…
I had a 9’6 Greg Noll Hawaiian Nollrider that had tons of flex. When I’d pop up to sit on the board you could feel it flex / bounce as if it were a diving board. Great board. Guess Noll was the original innovator. ;^}
IMO I think some people confuse the way a board feels with flex , the materials used and how they are used make a board feel a certain way , its the dampening effect . I have felt some stiff boards such as surftech chatter on a choppy wave while a stiff pu board will most pobably not , the same applys to wood boards , some boards feel soooo smooth its the construction and the materials that matter . I believe there was a disscusion on sways some years ago about flex fins , yes they flex yes you can feel it but is it an advantage ? You can make a board that flexes but is it an advantage is it measuable or is it just a feeling ? I guess if it feels good to you go for it .
I don’t know. But definatly 75%. And certainly Hype. Yeah stringers would have been gone long ago otherwise. Over on the “Incide” thread someone commented that those blanks would be something for the “Pros”. But I doubt it. We are going to hear talk of them slowly subcide until we don’t hear about them at all. How many Pros are riding Perimeter stringer blanks?? Flex is definatly Hype.
— it’s never “dampening”, it’s damping when in this discussion. ----
i know shapes, materials, environment and function are different, but flex in skis and snowboards is intentional. like those that said flex could help increase rocker, couldn’t a properly flexed board tighten the radius of a turn and allow for springing out of turn, just like skis or a snowboard? in theory? is it really that much hype?
just playing devil’s advocate against all the die-hard “it’s hype” guys.
I don’t think its hype. I do think there is a place for specific flex patterns in surfboards. I don’t think average surfers like most of us would be able to gain from it but you can bet that the tour pros and elite ams could use it to their advantage at some point. We aren’t there yet though. At some point the ability to load and unload the flex of a board to generate speed off the bottom and to power through turns will be perfected.
A flexing surfboard snaps out of a turn, as much as a flagpole snaps back when the flag stops waiving. (hint: it doesn’t)
I would think there are too many variables involved to make flex work with any consistency.
Density of foam, foil, and where board is being surfed from (tail, mid point, etc.)
Is flex a function of length and thickness?
Does a leaf-spring vehicle suspension snap back after hitting a bump?
Years ago, I drove a Ford F-250 with a heavy-duty, 4-wheel drive suspension on a 2-wheel drive truck, for work. The previous director did not have a clue what he was doing when he ordered it. That truck would literally change lanes going over a rough patch of highway. Stored energy recoil?
Would 3G-4G impart stored energy into a leaf spring?
EDIT: BTW the heavy-duty suspension did not provide a smooth ride in the cab.
…
hint: maybe YOUR flexing surfboard doesn’t snap out of a turn.
its a distinct possibility that others do.
Maybe it’s not flex, but when I hit a really fast compressed turn on my josh dowlings, I’m rewarded with a crazy burst of speed. Maybe it’s something else?. It feels so good I don’t want to surf anything else