I’ve never ridden one. I’ve never had the opportunity to grope one up.
And I don’t understand…
If the board is put on a rail and the tail weighted, the tail will flex. This increases the tail rocker of the board and is supposed to shorten the radius of the turn as the board flows through a rail rocker-curved path through the water - the more curve to the tail, the smaller and tighter the path through the water.
But as the tail flexes it deflects less water, and energy spills off the tail through the turn. The tail starts to shed water, rather than use it to push against. And this happens, for the most part, behind the rail fins, so the water flows through the fins pretty much as it would normally.
So what does this do? Tighten your turning radius as it slows you down?
It seems like it would be like riding in powder… really mushyslowbouncy…if you can relate to that???
With a normal tail, the harder you push, the harder the water pushes back, with no limit (unless you count failure as the limit). A flextail, it seems, would have a limit as to how much force you can apply. Once you exceed that limit, all the rest of the energy spills out the back.
The “rebound” of the tail flex (when it springs back) only happens in response to a decrease in force, so I don’t believe you get any thrust out of that.
Hey guy’s, dunno if you’ve ever heard of a guy called Mitchell Rae(aussie).He’s bin makin flextails for donkey’s(ages)Try tellin him they’re slow!!F@#$^n rocket ships!!!Check em out at,www.outerisland .com
in basic terms, i think the advantage to a flextail is that it conforms to a wave, thereby reducing drag. when you turn, the flextail conforms and allows a smoother turn with less drag - like giving you more tail rocker only when you need it – and as you come out of the turn, the tail should snaps back giving you like a push. ( like a spring). That’s why greenough was doing figure-8s in the 60s … his flexspoons were all about it. The hull guys are real tuned into flex.
With a normal tail, the harder you push, the harder the water pushes back, with no limit (unless you count failure as the limit). A flextail, it seems, would have a limit as to how much force you can apply. Once you exceed that limit, all the rest of the energy spills out the back.
The “rebound” of the tail flex (when it springs back) only happens in response to a decrease in force, so I don’t believe you get any thrust out of that.
The rebound of the flex happens because of the characteristics of the materials of the board not because of how the board is reacting to the wave.
I can feel the thrust, or fling coming out of turns.
IMHO, the rebound, and how it rebounds, is more influential in effecting the ride, than the initial change in shape.
What about stored energy? Doesn’t a flextail store potential energy in the flex characteristics of the board, and release that energy when coming out of the turn, thus providing that ‘spring’ you mention?
I think that as you initiate a hard turn on a flextail, the tail conforms to the shape of the wave better, creating a new rocker line and storing energy in the board…when you come out of that turn and the rocker line returns to normal, you get the release of that stored energy resulting in a pronounced ‘spring’. I have a tapered stringer speed-dialer that I shaped and have experienced this ‘spring’ on many occasions…
This is why there are so many discussions and ideas on new materials providing flex, as different materials flex differently, and return to their original shape differently. Some materials store the potential energy of this flex in their molecular structure better, thus returning this energy better…like flexing a piece of PU foam, then flexing a piece of bamboo, then flexing a piece of carbon fiber.
That’s right,FLEX!! Important in every aspect of design,from fins to blank,stringer etc… Boards too stiff feel dead,lifeless even.Greenough got it right,flex is good!!Thats probly why construction with certain composites feel lively?
There’s more to riding waves than simply planing and skimming. Mat riders, boogie boarders, body surfers and dolphins might disagree about the speed-dampening aspect of flex.
All boards flex to some degree, and one of the reasons I think some people tend to like thinner and very lightly glassed boards is that they intuit that the board will flex more than a thicker, heavily glassed board. Especially in pumping and riding hollow sections: the board will alter its rocker longitudinally and torsionally, twisting and bending more rocker behind the back foot, and actually forming more camber between the feet. But generally they’re shearing themselves apart in the process.
A well-built flextail will allow the board to have those characteristics, while retaining structural integrity. I find that the flextails that I’m playing with are very friendly and do a lot of the detail work- micro-adjustments, and so on- and tend to find their own ideal form for the situation.
he probably has the most advance flex composite idea going as a total package
I have one a 6’9" used one and it’s a really eye opening ride…
So smooth it’s like you’re on some kind of super shock absorbers…
for some people like me who like to feel the vibrations as your moving along it can be confusing…
on the other hand my homemade 1.75" thick BertBurger inspired fish provides me too much feedback as it flexes along doing the exact opposite thing… feels like it’ll snap in two sometimes
As I dropping down late the tail curves into the face as I jam down har on my rear foot making the entry a nice smooth flow instead of the normal hairy air drop you’d expect. Same on the cut backs if you aren’t too jerky then they just flow through instead of jamming and then stalling after the fins give out the board seem to come around quicker and with much more flow to assist your rythmn if you can time it. I get a similar feeling on my Firewire but a more positive and dynamic response on my 5 fin griffin or Gemini quad where the burst our of the turn is much more explosive and accelerating.
The hard part is that if too soft the board will flex as you are paddling in causing it to stall on entry making those air drop scenerios more frequent. You have to figure out the timing not to flex it at the worng time…