Thanks for posting up those videos. Mike Croteau made one of my all time favorite Boards back in the 70s He was working with my friend Pat Flecky… Mike was a bit crazy but he had a very creative mind and know how to get the most out of a Blank. Both Pat and Mike are gone now.
It’s hard to find the nuggets of gold when you are knee deep in BS. What we need is something like Myth Busters for Surfers. Apply a little objective science to an otherwise very subjective subject. Surfing is a lot about how a Board “feels” Think back to the 190s A lot of Surfers had to have an ultra thin skinny over rocketed. High performance board. Never mind that it was the worse thing for the average and slightly above average Surfer Surfing average waves. Hats what they wanted. The only good thing about that style of Board was 5 or 6 Surfers could ride the same wave the first guy could not make it around the section,#2 got a tube but couldn’t make it out. 3 and 4 would pump their board to get any kind of momentum failing in the long run 5 hopped up riding the shoulder to glory. Oh the other good thing for the Board Builders was. Those Boards pretty much had a life of one season at most.
Slightly off topic but my point is the hype and Surf Hero worship has a lot to do with what Surfers will ride.
Question has anyone else noticed a dramatic price increase in the last couple of years? Short boards are pushing $800.00 some “name” shapers are asking a $1000.00 or more for a short board. At those prices those boards better be built to hold up for more then one season.
Flex let’s you have more than one rocker. Going down the line, without a lot of stress on the board, the rocker will flatten, which is what you want for speed.
Doing a hard turn, where you want more rocker so it turns faster, flexing the board bends in more rocker.
Too much flex, and the board doesn’t give you enough to push against. That’s an old board, or a foam Costco. That’s why old boards ride worse.
Stretch said that he uses cork as a dampener (under the glass; he called exposed cork a giant traction pad), and that it only works past a certain length. I didn’t ask him about the stiffening effect of rail channels.
As much as it pains me to align with Mr. Miller, I believe rocker flex can be a performance advantage (take-offs, bottom turns and return to down the line.) I first experienced flex on the 1980 model, 7-6 Morey Doyle – essentially a long boogie board with an internal fiberglass skeleton and a fin. Good snap back is needed to prevent plowing.
But I also think George Gall’s perspective about controlling torsional flex is on track.
I believe both objectives can be accomplished in the same board…
i have 2 of em just sitting in our rafters. Been there since like 2 weeks after they came out. that tech never went anywhere and since nobody knows about it making them into stock boards, id most likely not recoup the premium cost of the blank
Don’t let it get you down Stoney, it only means i agree with something you read somewhere
Oops, double post
Sorry to disappoint EverySmurfer.
I have done more than read about flex.
You would know that if you had worked with or met me.
But like DingRay and Marsh, you have not and never will.
I am sure that you would not post opinions in this thread.
Please, elaborate about your extensive personal experience and research designing and building boards with flex.
Gosh, you must have many build pictures to post of your innovative flex work. That sure would be priceless…
How a surfboard rides or feels is very subjective. Flex is also a very personal preference. I prefer a board that feels stiff because I want it to react to the pressure from my feet and weighting. I know there’s some flexing going on, but I don’t want to feel the board flexing. I don’t know if this makes sense to others. I want the reaction to my placing pressure instant, too much flex and the reaction is not going to be as strong, or it won’t push back at all.
I had the original Morey-Doyle softboard when it first came out. Mine was 7’ and it was fun, but it was a dog of a board. Soft rails and too thick. It was made for fun, for beginners. I ended up getting a deep fin slice on the bottom and it sucked up water like a sponge. At that time, I didn’t know how to repair it, so it was taped up, but it always leaked.
The current Wavestorm softboard is much better. I have an original Wavestorm, and it was fun, but it is way too flexy now. I didn’t notice it before, but when I last used it felt floppy.
I wasn’t saying that flex is BS just most of what the guy was saying always total rubbish. The board he is describing would have some unique flex zones.
I’ve been experimenting a bunch with boards mostly on the extreme ends to see what matters most
Shape
Toughness
Volume (Has a min limit)
Weight
Flex
Would be my personal order of priority if I have to make trade-offs the lower one on the totem pole gets traded.
Most times I can find creative work around to avoid trade offs but flex is the first thing I’ll give up
Flex is the first thing I try to avoid. Both in FINS, and in SURFBOARDS.
Here a good easy to understand but technically correct what happen : http://www.hydroflex-technology.com/lab/broken-surfboard.
When a surfboard overflex it buckle and break, so look what make surfboard flex.
I didn’t say that either.
I think the guy doing the reviews is a former pro level surfer, so he knows what he’s talking about. I don’t think it means much to an average surfer, or anyone with a lot of experience/knowledge. It would and could sway the kind of person that believes all the hype that gets out there. These guys probably get free boards, or get to ride the boards for a while for free for doing their reviews.
It would be great if you could go to a shop, say a CI shop and they let you use one of the boards before buying it. Surftech used to let customers rent a board and that rental cost would be taken off the price of the board they buy. I think that would be a great selling point for boards.
From Lemat’s link:
- This picture is a closer look at a surfboard while its being stressed. The black lines are the fiberglass coating, and the gray area is the foam in the inside of the board. When a surfboard is being bent by the forces around it, the side on the inside of the bend (the top side of the picture) is being compressed. “The outside of the bend is being stretched,” or pulled, and that is called tension. The foam inside the surfboard is also affected. The foam in the upper half of the surfboard is being squeezed, and so it is under compression. The foam in the bottom of the board is being pulled apart, and so it is under tension.
http://www.hydroflex-technology.com/lab/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/09-flex-surfboard-bending-n.jpg
Tom Wegener believes in flex. But he’s also not using the latest technology. http://www.tomwegenersurfboards.com/blog/shaping-classes-learn-make-corky
Sometimes i truly believe when people feel flex in thier board its just the deck squishing under thier feet…
I’ve had several boards that were noticeably flexy. I never liked the way they felt floppy when I rode them. I still have a 10-2 that I had buckled badly, then stripped and reglassed the deck. I added nose channels, but that board has always felt flexy, and it chatters. I only use it on small days. This is a before shot.
I’m curious to see a shot of the board with nose channels if you have one.
Sorry I meant deck rail channels. I can’t find a photo, but the channels look just like this. I used the same tool to make these.
