In surfiing the biggest slashing spray is HOT! It shows the most radical performance. Then I saw this in a kneeboarding forum. No one responded of course! So I thought “ask Swaylocks!” Yeah this “performance” sounds “pretty weird”! Whats the story???
“I see his friend, Kenny riding his mat at the ranch sometimes , going really FAST with no noise or even a wake-”
Actually, in surfing contests the biggest smear of spray is what impresses the judges and makes the best photo. But if ya think about it, it’s wasted energy.
The power it takes to push that water that far up and away is considerable - try it in a pool of water with maybe a snow shovel. If a board makes little or no spray, or no wake, or no sound - well now, all the available power is going into making the board…or kneeboard, or paipo, or mat…go fast.
There’s a lot of stuff in contests and for the media that’s artificial and really not functional, but it looks impressive . Just the nature of the beast.
hope that’s of use
doc…
Hey Parker,
the story is that George Greenough quit kneeboarding
and eventually stuck with surfmats. What most people
dont know is that surfmats are very fast surfriding vehicles
that can negotiate turns very well and even surpass the speed of a hard board…yes! definitevely surpass!
…and I do know of what I am talking about,
have had one of these black boogers for the last year.
Although best suited to longish point break type of waves,
I’ve also found that they excel in beach break longboard
conditions that wouldn’t even normally push a short board
very far. These things ride with the lowest resistance of
any surf vehicle. Turning even beautiful but weak peaks with 'theoretical
rides’ into fun reality.
The mats can be used in most wave conditions to even pick
up waves as easily as longboarders and ,in many cases,
much sooner. For my local conditions, the mat takes mushy
or afternoon blown peaks that I wouldnt otherwise bother with and turns them into full on rides all the way to the inside, and at the point
breaks you’ll be making impossible sections and going faster than anything else out in the water.
But they are not limited to just these conditions.
Check out a friend of mine backdooring the peak at the wedge:
http://groups.msn.com/InflateAbleDreamSpeed/shoebox.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=101
I wouldnt highly recommend anyone doing the Wedge on a mat though.
http://groups.msn.com/InflateAbleDreamSpeed
The man on this forum who makes them Dale Solomonson
is also the mat maker for George Greenough
and is at www.surfmat.com
I think there are only two choices at this point of surfcraft evolution.
Dale’s mats
Paipo
Gone Surfin’, Rich
A fin maker giving the nod to fin-less craft? ? Gadz. Only in Swaylocks. What next???
skimboarding
O.K. Parker… here`s Kenny (Hughes):
http://photothru.com/photo_filedb1/A5/E7/E4/A5E7E4/viewable/A5E7E4_131CB4D2EEA_4.jpg
When the kneedude “john”? said- “I see his friend, Kenny riding his mat at the ranch sometimes , going really FAST with no noise or even a wake-”
Its easy to see surfboards throwing heaps of spray! Contests or not! Thats HOT and everybody tries to throw buckets! Even knee boards and sponges shoot water all over the place! But those could be too much sucking drag causing that? There has got to be big hydrodnamic differences going on between surfboards and “kneeboards-sponges”!
Ill ask again: whats up with that “NO spray or noise” thing?
with the keel fin
Look, y’all, at the simple physics of the matter.
If yer gonna turn, you have to accelerat a mass of water at such a velocity to produce the force that will change your pre-existing velocity. Force equals mass times velocity. It’s Newton’s LAW of motion, with LAW in caps because you cannot, I cannot, George Greenough, or GWB can’t break it. Even to try simply produces another example of the LAW in action.
Thus, every turn will produce a splash (water redirection) proportional to the speed and radius of the turn, with the mass of the rider plus board factored in.
Wake produces drag, and that wake-producing energy that doesn’t contribute to the motion of the watercraft, whether supertanker or surfboard. Bow wakes waste energy, and that’s why large ships have bulbs amounting to something like five percent of the submerged body volume if my memory of my naval architecture class is good. Bulbs, however, aren’t useful for planing craft like surfboards. I know of no useful control of stern wakes.
Mats (which I haven’t seen or ridden since I was a kid) tend not to make noise because they don’t resonate - same way most solid body electric guitars don’t resonate.
I think the answer to the original question - how to go fast without noise or wake - is clearly the hydrofoil craft such as Laird and a few kiteboarders are using. Take it from there.
Hi Honolulu,
Since late 1982, surf mats have radically changed in materials, construction and design… quite different from that which you saw and rode as a kid.
I asked Kenny Hughes to comment on this thread, since hes the mat surfer ("no noise or even a wake") to whom Parkers original post made reference:
"Like a dolphin’s skin, which always flexes to keep the flow laminar (in plain English, laminar means smooth) the mat seeks its optimum foil, with a minimum of disturbance to the water surface. So you zip along at top speed without having to do much except hang on for the ride.
I usually cheat a bit and stick a leg/fin in now and then to help hold an edge or maybe slow down a bit. The true speed addicts like George keep the legs out of the water and let er rip!
I rode a kneeboard for many years and one of my old college buddies, also an avid kneeboarder to this day, and who has since gone into the ministry, always said that kneeboarding was a “humbler” form of surfing. Less circus act and more go with the flow.
Mat surfing takes the humble aspect a notch further-- you’re definitely not the flashiest thing in the water, but you’re sure going the fastest.
If you’re looking to impress the lokes with your rad aerials, or give the guy paddling out a shower from your cutback/off the lip, I wouldn’t recommend taking up the surf mat.
If you’re looking for the “Innermost Limits of Pure Fun”, well, perhaps you ought to give it a try."
