I was looking at one of my shortboards today, examining the tripple wing swallow tail. It turns with ease, even though the tail is 15.5 inches wide (6,10 tri fin). I can feel the water give under the back of the rail when I turn hard.
So, I was thinking: What it there were wings, every four to six inches, from the nose ALL the way to the tail? What effect would that have on the board?
I think it would paddle the same.
I don’t know how well it would hold on a steep wall. I assume it would not, but might be great on small waves.
The rails could still be soft.
It seems like the whole board would be super loose and that the nose wouldn’t stick when trying to crank tight turns. So maybe a wider nose would work as well as a narrow nose (but wider is better for paddling).
Saw Rizal Tanjung in Bali few months back , he is using a 6’0" x 18.3/8" x 2.1/16" “YU” fish board . The board nose has double wing n single wing on the tail , bottom 4 deap/heavy concave into channels . He bout 1.78 tall , the board look damn easy to paddle n do quick turn on me .
years ago walden made what i think he called the shovel nose-had a single wing maybe two feet or so back from the nose.for some reason it reminded me of a hammerhead shark…
Maybe twenty years ago, I met a kneeboarder at Sunset Beach who had a wing, literally a three inch by four inch protrusion sticking straight out from the rail at about where the fins were. Looked deadly, but he seemed unimpressed as to it’s performance.