ok, what I’m thinking is, what if instead of sticking like a tail pad on the board, what if you glued like a peice of 2# eps or something (probally on an eps blank) and then shaped like a concaved out tail pad with ridges on the sides to get more pressure out of turns, a raised area in the middle, and then a kictail, and then under the front like a concave deck that doesen’t just like appear, just kinda fades in like two feet from the tail to two feet from teh nose?
Prolly not the greatest idea, anytime you increase your distance from the water level, you loose out on balance, and also on recovery from banked turns.
Unlike race snowboards, most surfer’s don’t have problems banking the board on the rails. The tail pad is more a locater for back foot placement when trying aerial moves.
That does sound like a logical idea. I think you ought to try it. Maybe in a way that you could easily remove it if it doesn’t work. Lee DD says it won’t work because of the height, but I’m thinking it would create LEVERAGE. Go for it, brah!
don’t be one of the white sheep be one of the black sheep , don’t always believe what some one tells you to be correct. the tail pad has a kicked up area to it for leverage not just as a place to remember foot placement. look at skateboards way do they have a kicked up tail? so the rider can have leverage for kick tricks.
Howzit Deathfrog, Boards like that are being shaped here on Kauai these days. Gary Motil has at least 3 of them and his shaper made one for A.I. just in the last month. Gary swears by them and uses Simon Anderson FCS fins on his. Basically the raised section starts just where the bottom lay up ends on the deck, the section is about 3/8 " high and about1 1/2 " from the tail. Aloha,Kokua
I was wondering if all of these ideas could be demonstrated in pictures or drawings. It will be more interesting to visualize these experiments. latelly, I’ve been observing some highperformance boards combining a very deep single concave through a very flat release area until the rear fin, and an accentuated curve in the end of the tail, starting at the rear edge of the back fin. I think it works like a kick tail, but the curve is not present in the deck.
Howzit jeff, I'm doing some computer graphic work for the shaper making those boards and will see if there are any at his house that I can take a picture of and post.Aloha,Kokua
Wisdom comes from knowledge. How can we combine different elements without knowing them deeply? I have just 23 years of shaping and, sometimes I fell there’s no ground under my feet. It’s a sort of tilt as I try to manage and equation so many variables. Sometimes, I suffer of a selfish attack, and all I can say after finishing a shape is that I messed it up. So, I have to reorganize my thoughts, clean my mind of all the fashionable effects of any sort of new trend (or retro one), and reborn to the next work. I think it’s to be a shaper, isn’t it?
that’s what I’m thinking. Like a dramatic increase in tail rocker in the last foot or so, and then a raised portion on the deck to get leverage off of to pull some ELVIS. Like a kicktail on a skateboard
Could you send a back view of this experiment, because I’m interested in how it blends with the rails. I’m very concerned with this features in deck grips cause they can create some dragging effect in deep turns. Some pros have put their grip decks up to the end of the tail (one or two fingers of the end) in order to create, I guess, the same effect you want to. My question is: Could this extra work in the shape provide the same comfort as a deck grip or it would be a dangerous feature that could hurt you if your foot slides off it?
the top one is the tail, kinda concaved out of the deck and then extra foam on the sides, the little pointy things are at a different part transitioning back to the kick. Then the front part is kinda like a concaved step deck, so as not to mess with the rails much.
but yeah, I’m looking for the same effect it has on a skateboard.
Howzit Carl, No His name is Mark Sausen aka Papa Sau surfboards, who I used to glass most of his boards a couple of years back. He’s a North Shore Kauai shaper who specializes in longboards but also does shorties.Aloha,Kokua
