Golden

General Discussion
1

Had my giant surfboard out – it was a smallish day. (Wish I had any number of other boards to choose from, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon.) I did have some fun though; I was able to get into a little trouble prowling about the nose. Afterwards in the parking lot, a fellow approached me.

“Hey, what kind of board is that?”

I don’t actually have a names for my boards other than “Eh?.. I guess I’ll take that one today” My choices are somewhat limited, as mentioned above, but I do have more than one board… most of the time. Anyway, back to my parking lot friend.

“I don’t know,… big?”

But it soon became clear that this guy really wasn’t interested in my board, but more about my impression of his board, which was obviously new. So pointing at his board, I asked,

“… new board?”

“Just got it. I love it.” as he held it out, deck up. Then turning it over, “It’s got quads. They’re unreal.”

I understand the high the comes with a new board, so I played along.

“That’s a lot of rocker, and its got some serious concave.”

He then went on about how it all fits together, starting at the tip right on back to the quads, and right out to a little swallow tail – apparently I was in the presence of the ultimate longboard.

“Did you order it custom?.. or off the rack?”

“Off the rack, but it was what I was looking for.”

“Nice board… have fun with it.”

“Catch you later.”, he replied as he walked off… apparently to be stopped by a couple of other surfers a few cars down.

… this is crazy

As he walked away, for some reason, I started to think about making 3 point shots in basketball. I’m serious. The idea that I could somehow process the required information to make such a shot, let alone pull it off, is amazing to me. No calculators, no formulas, just some sort of quick assessment and ‘oops, there is goes’. Okay, I miss far more than I make, but the fact that I can come close or even bounce it off the rim (occasionally) is still pretty impressive, at least to me. What is it about a surfboard in a shop, all high and dry and spanking new that speaks so strongly and convincingly to an individual, so that the final outcome is that somebody is going to be $850 maybe $900 USD lighter as a result?

Really, this becomes more of a mystery to me with each passing year.

…. the golden ratio

There’s this ratio that appears to have some sort of general aesthetic appeal to humans, its called the Golden Ratio. It’s really wild stuff. If you show people a bunch of rectangles and just ask them which rectangles they like the most, they’re very likely to pick those rectangles whose sides are in this ratio. Not everyone will select the Golden Ratio rectangles, but most will – it appears to be something in us that says, ‘oh yeah, I like that.’

The Golden Ratio has quite a history (check it out on Wiki for an quick introduction). Its appearance in Nature is close to ubiquitous - it’s not just about human aesthetics. Why it appears in Nature seems to be much clearer than why we (as humans) should somehow find it aesthetically more pleasing than some other ratio. Then again, maybe that’s part of the answer – we are not the objective rational beasts we like to think we are. Our reasoning is tempered by our evolutionary past – information contained in our genes. But when purchasing surfboards? Really?

I have no idea if that guy with the new board could make it work (whatever that means), or if he would ever be able to make it work. I do know that I wouldn’t have bought it. Mind you, I wouldn’t push it aside in the line-up if somebody offered me a test drive, but slap down the better part of a grand to try,…ehh, no. It did speak to me, but apparently with a different message then it did to him.

My ‘giant board’ speaks to me too, as I to it. It seems to be forever expressing disappointment in me, and me in it – divorce is likely in our future, but for now the our worlds remain one. (I guess the ‘surf sex’ is just too convenient; just sufficient enough to take the edge off having to put up with this 25 plus pound boat… “turn you cow… damn it, turn!”… the reply is always the same…”Oh yeah? Maybe you should learn how to surf”. “One day Alice, … bang zoom… to the moon… to the f$%king moon.”).

The nose right down to the tail shape, it all somehow has to come together… an emergence of sorts (to coin a popular term, look that up on Wiki too) – but what is coming together. Who or what is speaking to these people in the surf shops? What ‘golden ratio’ is operating in their minds eye that says “that’s just beautiful… that’s it…I want that.”

You can talk until you’re blue in the face to people of what they need for the local conditions, what seems to work, what doesn’t. And sure, sometimes it seems to make difference, but most of the time – no, they want what they want… and what’s worse is that most of the time they seem to be able to make it work, or at least seem happy enough with it. So part of the problem is that, maybe I really don’t know shit to begin with, but then again, maybe that’s not all there is to it.

kc

… mmmm, I wonder if there's a golden ratio effect when it comes to surfboards...?

[img_assist|nid=1042591|title=Golden|desc=|link=none|align=center|width=426|height=535]

… aaah crap I'm not seeing it........ ......oh, wait a minute.....

2

golden ratio?

I know many who would buy one just because they covet gold.

dint look it up on wikipidia the gold eees enough for me

always wanted a gold front tooth too.

…ambrose…

rat io…

3

Funny you should mention this… Whenever I peruse my local “half price books” I usually find myself looking at things I’d never consider in a “normal” bookstore. A couple of months ago I picked up a book on Phi (the golden ratio). It is exceptionally interesting in a way that maybe one of my friends would understand. Immediately my thoughts went to the aesthetic pleasure derived from looking at a particularly nice surfboard outline, and how I could use the golden ratio to make more eye-pleasing shapes.

I’m still working on it. No luck so far though. Very interesting exercise, but at this point I feel like if I do manage to incorporate it to make a nice outline it will be in so subtle a way as to effectively remove the initial visual impact of an easily identifiable Phi ratio. Either that or the answer is so obvious I’m missing it entirely.

4

Old saying (older than all of us) in boat design:

"What looks good, goes good’’

Fair, clean lines and good proportions appeal to the eye and water flow.

There’s no reason to have an ugly boat (or surfboard).

5

Marketing and merchandising are two specialties that have been taken to the level of high science. We might buy ‘THAT’ board for any number of reasons, some of which we don’t even realize. The way the shop is laid out, the way the boards are displayed, the way the salesgirl giggles, winks and pushes out her chest…

One tactic is to have on display a single super expensive high end model that you dismiss in favor of something you are better able to afford.

Color and graphics are huge for many. We ALL know that red boards are faster but didn’t Gerry Lopez make a name for himself riding bright yellow guns at Pipeline?

I actually bought and read the book listed in the link below. Believe me, there are experts who likely know exactly why you buy or don’t buy. The author has a global business that employs hidden cameras, stop watches and an extensive data base to help clients make that sale.

http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Buy-Shopping-Updated-Internet/dp/1416595244

From a review…

The first four parts of this book are absolutely fascinating. It’s an in depth look at the psychology of shopping and it is exactly what the title promises. Underhill’s company gets paid to spy on people in stores and see what they’re doing wrong and right. The gems in this book are the anecdotes and the specific revelations about how any obstacle you put in the way of a shopper drops your sales figures. Any way you can make life easier raises your sales. This all seems sort of obvious, but most people running the businesses don’t think it through.

One example is the entry zone at the front of the store - you’d think that’s a prime location for signage, deals, brochures, etc. But when you’re headed through the door into the store you see almost nothing and stop for almost nothing, and then (in America) you tend to drift to the right and then you’re ‘in’ the store. If you put a store directory just inside the door, nobody uses it. Move it back a bit so you can find it once you’re into the store and suddenly it’s heavily utilized. He has hard observational data for all these, so they’re compelling in addition to being fascinating.

And of course all the bad examples are great fun to read (seniors crawling along floors trying to read labels on badly shelved medicine), as are the descriptions of how different groups shop (male vs female, old vs young, parents vs. single, etc.) The whole book is pretty much a commercial for Underhill’s company, but it’s still informative and fun reading.

6

I think that you are definitely on to something.

There is a great book from Shambhala Press titled The Power of Limits : Proportional Harmony in Nature, Art and Architecture. (I don’t know, though, if it’s still in print).

It explores and illustrates how golden means, fibonacci series and harmonic patterns are reflected in plant growth forms, shells, and in structural systems from skeletons, crab shells and japanese architecture. Interestingly, many physical forms reflect musical harmonics.

The harmonics can be manifested in any number of ways and interrelationships between the parts of any given form.

I would imagine that the boards you are describing would have those properties, the book would be a starting point in looking at them.

Seems that if done right, a board incorporating them might work really well - look at the fin designs Greenough based on the tuna. Check out the fish shapes in the book.

7

John-----------------Sounds similar to the book “Location. Location, Location”. I’ll be checking it out. I see something in the “crystal ball” that tells me I might benefit from such observations. Lowel

8

If you want to play around with the golden ratio, but don’t want to mess with the math, then I suggest checking out the Fibonacci Gauge. Check out the video on this page for more details.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xgw84Kwrh8

Here is another page with more info…

http://lumberjocks.com/David/blog/1639

I recently made one of these myself using a few paint stir sticks.

9

kevin: i did this board a couple of years ago with this in mind:

http://www.hoharlabs.com/math.htm

not very sophisticated but the outline came out good and it goes quite well. every ‘major’ measurement was a fibbonacci segment of the overall length (183 m) my height. It was quite remarkable how those line segments that formed the boards measurements corresponded to my “biometrics”–foot size, shoulder width and height, that sort of thing… kind of cool.

10

That’s crazy… I love it!

Just the one? Which is wild enough, and I’m humbled by the fact that you’ve made at least a 100% more phi boards then I’ve have… but I’m curious?

Starting with your height as a departure point is also kind of neat. I tried to get something going once by starting with a fibonacci spiral (I was far more abitrary about my parameters than you) but it wasn’t coming together, or seem to make that much of difference compared to the curves I was using, so I just dropped it… I remember thinking “sure maybe I could do this, but” I couldn’t really justify doing it, and money was tight…same for fins… jeez, how cowardly is that.

… wow.

… great link too. (I’m nothing to the industry, but I do miss Clark blanks… almost teared up there for a moment.)

thanks,

kc

11

Okay, this is one gizmo I’ve got to build. … if for no other reason other than I’ll be able to run around and drive people nuts but gauging their work and saying “…mmm, nope its nice, , but it ain’t Golden.”

Nice tip.

thanks,

kc