I love that old Monty Python routine where the guy walks up to a vending machine which dispenses arguments. He puts his nickel in and asks for the argument, but the machine argues that it shouldn’t have to argue. An argument ensues. Hilarious.
Roy, I’ve been trying to keep an open mind but you just need to lighten up. There is plenty of room for your ideas, just not the combative attitude. Peace and waves to ya.
Don’t tell me what to do Mr Tate. I enjoy a lively discussion and get my share of laughter from the whole thing. If you need to ‘lighten up’ yourself, then try the ‘changing the lightbulb’ thread. Geometry in surfing is a fairly intellectual subject, and I like to delve deeply into these ideas. What interesting input have you made into this topic? You are entering the discussion solely to make a spurious personality judgement. Isn’t that a form of trolling?
Notice the Occupation line from Mr. Roy profile:
<span style="font-size:6px"><span style="font-weight:bold">Occupation:</span></span> <span style="font-size:6px">Designer/Manufacturer/Teacher</span>
it doesnt include student.
Mr. Roy you very impetuous an arrogant man.
Mister, I have taken the liberty of analysing your list of posts, and notice that presently exactly 2/3 of your posts are solely devoted to personal attacks on myself. Do you have anything to offer on the subject of geometry in surfing?
No, I just like talking about geometry! I notice that often people start to get personal when they are unable to maintain the level of concentration which is required in an academic discussion. This is equivalent to kicking the chess board over during a game. I just think that everything is interesting, and like off beat discussions, even if they make my brain sweat! This was an interesting discussion until the trolls showed up.
cognitive dissonance…
It is all very well making vague accusations of illogical behavoiur, but to make it stick you really have to come up with some evidence. Front up or shut up!
Do you have anything interesting to contribute regarding geometry in surfing?
Accusation? Nah. I was simply responding to OregonPeter and wanted to share my new enlightenment.
Sorry man but debate and argument is not my sport - my core competency is problem solving…Im the guy in the trenches fixing the sh_t the argumentative whiners create.
IF I were to assign a disorder for you it would be delusional megalomania…and there’s plenty of evidence for that.
I would suggest you seek help but…well you know…DM can severely blind one’s judgement of one’s self.
Well, now you’ve upped the ante to delusional megalomania, but still offer no evidence! Megalomania is a ‘lust for power’. I think that you have the wrong idea, I am actually just a person with a philosophical bent who enjoys designing surfboards. Any idea who invented the circle? Perhaps it was a trial and error process . . . you know, a universe full of randomly mutating planets, some cubes, dodecahedrons and irregular shaped figures. Of course, only the spherical ones survived. Then there were the planets with square or hexagonal orbits . . . they gradually died out and only those which accidentally adopted elliptical orbits survived. Wave motion still exhibits ‘square’ behaviour sometimes. It’s a good thing that the Darwinian evolutionary process has already weeded out all those triangular wave faces. Amazing really, particularly as the whole box of tricks was just one big fluke anyway! It certainly doesn’t make you wonder!
Geometrically yours, Roy the Bowser Stewart ;))
PS Get back in your trench and dig a bit deeper.
PPS The Darwinian ‘struggle for survival’ goes better with Coca Cola!
Hi,
I also have a geometry project in class. I was wondering if you could tell me some example of actual templates, preferably three examples. But also how they are used. Thanks!
Hello ajeffrey,
Here are two different pintail planshapes, both of which are drawn with the same formula. The nose curves of both planshapes are ellipses, and the tail curves are circular arcs. Both of these curves are defined (assuming an elliptical nose and a circular tail curve) completely by the length, width, and position of the wide point. If you can draw curves with string or on your computer you can produce a vast range of planshapes simply by altering the three variables of length, width, and widepoint position. I use wide point positions from 30% back from the nose to 50% back, but the system obviously allows other possibilities. The third picture shows a board drawn with the same formula except that the tail section is also an ellipse. These elliptical planshapes can be changed in the same way.
I am not exactly sure what you mean by ‘how they are used’. Perhaps you could be more specific.
I plan to print the attached templates using an oversize printer. Will then cut out and transfer the better half to a piece of masonite and make adjustments where necessary. Cut out, sand forever. A good template is worth its weight in gold. Once I’m ready to use the template I mark a surfboard blank 12" from the nose, at the wide point, and 12" from the tail, then make pencil marks on the blank to match the numbers of the template. I’ll draw the first half of the surfboard, since my template only has half a board, then reflect the template to the other side of the stringer and draw the mirror image of the template. The stringer acts as a mirrior line for the reflection. Good luck with your project.
Hey Malaroo,
It’s good that you’re keeping at it, game to give it another go.
I didn’t re-read the whole thread, but saw entries by Spence and 4est,
definitely worth a read. Spencer Kellogg would definitely have some good
things to say about this aspect of design. Just have to wade through and winnow out the internecine conflict parts.
I think that the geometric apporoach is a natural, as smart as nature. This book was reprinted in 2005, great inspiration (there’s a "check out inside the book feature"on the website link.
Also available for purchase here: http://www.powells.com/biblio/61-9781590302590-0
Hello, Is there anybody out there?
Anybody interested in geometry of surfboards?
Last post was 8 years ago, feel like I’m talking to myself.
OK me, I will tell me what I have to say.
Firstly when I was 18 I designed and made a board that liiks very much like the pintail diagrams above.
Terrible to ride and a social disaster, wouldn’t recommend the excercise.
Funny thing is I went to a surf shop with my board told the guy behind the counter I designed this board with geometry and he said, you’d have to be Einstein to do that! Well guess what … everywhere I go people come up to me and laugh and say you look like einstein … Well FMD Iam Einstein.
So the story gets better, sorry if its boring you so far. I’l try to get to the point.
Next design, 10 years later, look there were another 4 or 5 stupid variations of the above, terribly embarassing.
1982 I got a big piece of paper, put a centre line on it, grabbed a pencil, crouched down and in a surfig stance and drew a shape as I pivoted my body to draw an outline from front to rear. This meant a fat tail and pointy nose, very short board, 5’2" looked like a McCoy Nugget but they came 2 years later, they weren’t around when I made this thing. Bottom was flat at front foot increasing Vee to tail, very rounded rails in the front. It worked for me, I’m no great surfer, most of you would laugh at me. I rode that for 17 years.
Now for the good bit. I became a designer using an engineering 3D CAD/CAM for CNC machines, and become very good at it.
18 years later, I realized how to turn the dimensions of a board, into 3D shapes and intersect the shapes to get a lines and, turn those lines into planes and intersect the planes with shapes, use those lines to create surfboards of any design. You probably think I’m full of shit. Well I have to say everything I have ever come across to do with geometry and surfboards really frustrates me, seems so far off the mark … I just write it off and don’t want to know. So if you dont hear me out, I understand. Ofcourse I made a board and it ripped. So fast, so smooth. Got a lot of attention. Looks like a normal board, sort of. As time went on I ended up creating a range of boards, Mals, mini mals short boards, guys won competitions on them. One of my Mals won lots of local comps and eventually the state title. I sold 207 boards, some of my first ones weren’t that good, they had fat rails, poor deck shapes, but later on, once that was sorted, they were good. And then I went broke and lost everything.
So here I sit taliking to myself wondering if anyone is interested in what I have to offer. Hello! Hello! its 2012, is there anyone there?
Ha, I love it when these old threads resurface! That was quite a story there malaroo, in just a few paragraphs. First post, or first post under new name? What are you up to these days, still making boards? Do you hand-shape, or let the cnc cut the blank? Got any pic of your boards? Sounds like an interesting direction, I'm always intrigued by innovative and unusual designs.
I feel like I’m outer space on a deserted planet for those that have an interest in the geometry of surfboards and then in the sand one momrning I read this message OMG!
I’m a long way a way in Australia, great to hear from you.
First post, or first post under new name?
First post.
What are you up to these days, still making boards?
Lost everything to a bank, sitting in a room at a friends house 200 ks from the coast with all my computers and files set up ready for the world.
Do you hand-shape, or let the cnc cut the blank?
I would only use CNC after all that. I will have to convert my programs to the AKU shaper files.
Got any pic of your boards?
See inserted pics. Some boards never photographed.
Sounds like an interesting direction, I’m always intrigued by innovative and unusual designs.
I developed my boards with local shapers, guys that owned surf shops shops and local surfers. Did all this to make sure I had a propduct that was acceptable to the surf industry.
I dont know how to size the pics, this will have to do. This design, the length of the board is turned into the circumfrence of the circle. diameter of the circle equals the width of the board. The rocker and 3d points of the rails and the thickness of the board are based on a quarter of the width from the centre line to the plan shape.
This board is 5’7" long. 5’7" equals 67", 67 divided by 3.14 (pie to get the diameter) =21 and 1/3 of and inch at the widest point. divide that by 2 to get width from centre line and then divide by 4 and the thickness of this board is 2"plus 2/3" of an inch.
I will continue this post soon, but I have someone nagging me to get off the computer right now.
’ ‘I rode that for 17 years.’'
Dang, what did you make it out of?!!
haaaaaaa’’ your wasting your time roys been banned long ago.
** cheers huie
**
wow deja vous
I woke up the other night with a start and
it was all about the pathagorean theorum and I have been trying to recall
it acurately for days trying to wRAP MY HEAD ARROUND Building a
bow to hang in a corner filled with acoustic dampening properties for a
music studio… If I only passed geometry I could have
calculated thr measurements in advance on paper.
I am just gonna construct the box and cut it in half.
applied geometry is everywhere…
…ambrose…
layout geometry for
tiling a floor > 1-2-3
thats the way jesse montgomery told it to me…
that makes a right triangle…
sthe square of the hypotenuse is equal
to the sum of the square of the other two sides…
I forgive you mrs fernandez,
You guys think geometry is that shit we learn’t at school.
What do you call slicing a cylider or two different shapes linked by curves, like a cylinder and then getting the curve of the slice …? Chopping?
I design surfboards with chopping!
Check out my vid of a chopping a surfboard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnqJr1EenQs&feature=youtu.be
I’ll be back.
Well, at the end it was the most wrecked board on the beach, it was full of car body filler and became an embarrassment. I’m used to embarrassment with my weird ideas.