Hobie Deadly Flying Glove specs?

Hi Rachel,

As Sam and John have mentioned, these were transitional models, typically more like 7’4" or so long than 6’6"… how shall I put this, they were not great boards.

Round rails, mostly, a kinda odd rocker, they all had kind of a blob outline, long Greenough type fin to keep it from sideslipping out of a wave - and that was about it. As a thruster, the shape would be awful, as a singlefin with a lot of fin it’s marginal. We are basicly talking about a board where somebody took an old-school longboard rail and rocker and put it on a slightly newer outline shape and called it good enough. Hey, they didn’t know any better, y’know?

Similar boards would be the early G&S Magic, Weber Ski and the earlier Stratos, and yes, the Phillips Strawberry Shortcut, though they were a helluva sight more sophisticated than the DFG in terms of rails, rocker and bottom contours.

The later ‘just before the twin-fin’ era boards, similar to the old Weber Australia might be better for what you’re looking for, wider tailed and much more sophisticated rails and rocker and bottom shape. With an even newer rail and rocker, it might work with a thruster setup as well as working as a single.

Or the mid-'70s gunny shapes, typically around 7-and-change, mostly downrailed with mebbe a little concave to the bottom, though the Reno Abellira hyper-kick nose versions are something to steer clear of. Of all the '70s boards, I’d say those worked the best.

Of course, the question then arises: why try to make a 1970s shape work with a modern fin and rail setup when there’s lots of others done since then that work just fine.

Just a rant in general, but I really don’t get this retro thing - I was around for all that stuff, the whole range of boards that came out in the late '60s through early '80s, and the main reason for most of them was to come out with something new every year that the poor dumb surfers ‘had to have’ - it sold a lot of boards, but the fact is a lot of them were horrible.

hope that’s of some use

doc…

My frist good board was an Allison. Great shapes. Always had good airbrush too.

Hi Doc -

Apparently they’ve reissued the DFG in a modern form. Check pics on the Surfermag.com link above. Looks to me like a short version of what some might call a hybrid… wider than standard thrusters for sure.

I agree that the original DFG was a so-so rider. The one I rode several times was kind of a pulled tail/semi-gun outline with the rails, bottom and fin as you describe.

Walden Compact Disc…

My teenage daughter has one. 6’8" Great fun.

I’ve copied the out line and made two of my own. 6’11" and 6’5". Used a Clark foam 7’3".

Go with a two plus one set up. That way you can ride it as a single or a tri or ???

I’m looking at page 175 suffer mag right now… Never liked the term “fun board”. What good is a board if it’s not fun?

I like the board in the photo. Not easy to duck dive. Feel the glide…

I would recommend going a little thinner.

Back to your original question…

I don’t know what rocker they are using for that board.

Ray

Ah, thanks, John - thing looks like a Mike Tabeling shape I once saw , a brand which bore the same relationship to Weber that Hobie does to Stewart these days.

i have/ rode a g+s magic, 7’ 6" yea it good for being in trim with some bottom turns but not much more. the board is delamign so it is retired. I will see if i can get pictures up of me riding it a few years back.