Haha obviously not very often.
Honolulu flex good/bad depends on many things there are lots of threads argueing that
In some ways, the step deck was akin to the way modern thrusters get marketed. Think about the elf shoe trend of a few years back. Then there’s the fluctuation between what’s fashionable in the way of length and thickness. All stem from marketing to an extent. It’s a way to get folks to buy a new board, even if they don’t think they need one, at first. Tell them you’ve found a major design improvement, then convince them their current board is obsolete.
With the step decks of the mid 60s, it was a similar deal. The standard longboard off the rack allowed for only so many variations. Design had become a bit stagnant. Shapers jumped on the stepdeck bandwagon with varied success. Some were well thought out, others were just esthetic. There were a few who got carried away and put a step at the nose and the tail.
Back in the sixties I saw some boards that had a step deck and a step tail. They looked great. Not sure who made them perhaps Greek? or a company called Windansea Surfboards. Maxed out with foam tband and tial block.
I love Sdecks. They enhance the bottom and rails I put on hulls and eggs. When Jim Phillips took me under his wing he had a machine that put S in to the decks of blanks. It was a router that ran on two rails.
I cut the s in decks by cross planing. A guy in Florida uses a grinder but thats pretty scary.
I have seen some unreal Sdeck shapes by Andreni and Liddle. Hulls are very tricky to get right.
Tom Morey and The Morey Pope Camel were prime exsamples of the Step deck. Tom did feel that you needed more volume under the surfer for Paddling. We Have learned a lot since those days in the late 1960s Then again The disagreements on volume still go on.
Here is a video of Marc Andreini shaping a hull with an s- deck.
6'10 Vaquero from Mollusk Surf Shop on Vimeo.
That’s a good shaping video. Rare find these days. (See “what’s wrong with the Internet” thread)
We use a lot of deck profile changes at Coil. We are not trying to build the stiffest board possible. All boards flex, so saying that flex is good on somebody else’s board leaves you out of the water.
for me its all about paddle balance, i found boards with to much volume on the nose don´t catch waves really good. the scooped out nose let me put the nose down easier in order to trim/balance the board paddeling into the wave. so not a gimmik for me …quite usefull. just don´t over do it…been there done it…
salu2
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Now, that’s a smug comment.
I can remember a few s-decks I had years back , that were great boards… around the time when they started taking the roll out of the back half , and keeping the rolled entry…big domed deck under the feet…they were’nt around that long before shapers began lowering the COG…which eventually made s-decks a thing of the past…Its good to see a few shapers still using those principals that worked so well back then , and refining them a bit more.
And concave decks are so the crushed deck footwells don’t show!
Glad you said it Mike!
I have found the opposite to be the case. For instance, my 8’ noserider has a lot of volume up front. More than I wanted, in fact. The nose is an inch wider and a good half inch thicker than I asked for. Sort of throws the balance of the shape off, IMO.
All that aside, it catches waves effortlessly. If I have to take more than two strokes to get in, I feel like I’m wasting my time. One stroke takeoffs are the norm, and I can usually do a no stroke takeoff if the wave is steep enough and I time it right.
So, anyway …
does anyone have any PHOTOS of their single fin s-decks from that period , please ?
I’d be interested to see how they compare to the [ Australian ] ones , that my brother has here . I have only ever ridden a 6’9 single fin s deck, with a hull bottom, and VERY knifey rails [my brother’s ones are much shorter, although he DOES have an 8’one in his collection , too…badly dinged , unfortunately.]
And also , to read what you guys who have them [ ? and** still surf **them ?!] feel is the actual benefit[s] of the design
Certainly , Wayne Lynch’s surfing of them , as documented in the movies " sea of joy ", and "evolution ", was waaaay ahead of what others were doing in those movies [and he reputedly** hated **the boards of that time] …
… but … not many people surfed as well as Wayne Lynch did then [and still DOES !]
Ben have you seen uncharted waters? Some interesting footage probably a lot seen elsewhere before but still.
…I use kind of S decks in all the modern fish.
In my opinion, having flex in the tail area in some designs is a very good thing; possible having too much flex in a longboard is not so good. Having extremelly flex like the soft boards is a no no; however, what I see in most designs is that to have a super stiff board is a no no too for most aspects except going down the line with longer boards. You see the boards “jumping” on the chops not adapting to the wave.
What s your opinion about those boards rode by P Curren in those 50s clips? Looks like it “fighting” with the wave; too stiff?
Said it before. 2 most important things that SELL surfboards are outlines and colors. Which of those 2 are the most important in how they ride…Colors. “I like the blue board” and off they go.
As a shaper , Pat Curren was best known for his balsa big wave guns , which were stiffer than the foam equivalent , but renowned for handling choppy conditions better than foam…maybe it was the designs of the day , and not due to less overall flexability.
Most of Pat’s Balsa Guns had multiple Redwood stringers. Stiff? You bet. Fighting the wave? Hardly! Those boards moved through the water like a hot knife through butter. I’m not guessing, I was in the water with him on a regular basis. A correctly designed gun, moves through the water with an effortless silky glide. Flex is not a part of that equation.
Deadshaper, what’s that board with the Bing fin? I like the looks of it. It has all the appearance of a mid 60s stepdeck but the leash loop through the deck says otherwise.