Jick Bottoms

The Jick Bottom was a pattern that was shaped into the bottom of a surfboard that was either under construction or already glassed finished and being ridden.  The pattern was refined from observations made from natural phenomenom, i.e., cloud formations in earth’s upper atmosphere, wave shapes seen on the surface of the water and sand dune patterns on land and under the water.  All these shapes are created by motion–planetary motion and gravity.  When this pattern is shaped onto the bottom of any surfboard,sail board, body board etc. greater control and speed are possible.  Think of the tires on your car and how certain patterns can give the car greater control and speed on wet surfaces.  This is what the Jick Bottom can do for all watercraft.  Lots of surfers are doing aerials now more than ever before. With the JB pattern the board will not displace any water upon landing back in the water …in fact it goes even faster.  Choppy, windy, blown-out surf conditions only make this pattern perform even better.  No one could imagine such results could be possible…but I tell you this is the truth.

 This all reminds me of the Mythbusters golfball car. They got three more miles per gallon by covering a car with tennis ball sized dents. When there is a swirling vortex  between a moving object and a what it is moving through there is then created a buffer zone that lessens drag. The effect is found in the bed of pick up trucks too. A lifetime could be spent figuring out the perfect size dimples that maximize speed without ruining the manuverability of a surfboard. Off the top of my head, since a surfboard is roughly halfway between the size of a golfball and Mythbuster’s car then dimples halfway between the tennis ball sized dimples Mythbusters used and actual golfball dimples would likely be appropriate, that is to say covering a board with dimples the diameter of ping pong balls could raise it up the right amount on a buffer zone to increase speed while not raising it up so much as to loose control. What a freaky picture I’ve just drawn in your mind.

 

[quote="$1"]   ''...I'm not sure wavey cross hatches on the bottom of a board with 36 gritt wouldn't do the trick... ''  [/quote]

 

Perhaps a fine weave ''peel off'' or ''peel ply'' would be the answer.     Peel it off at the ''crumble'' stage of the resin cure, to get the most well defined edges to the weave pattern.

Huck - With no offense intended to Nutman, I think you could try it pretty easy.

When I first read about shark skin and the flow of water through and over their scales, one of the scientific explanation was along the lines:  We've known for a long time that water flows faster along the bottom of rocky creaks and rivers due to the rocks breaking up the flow and letting the water mover faster. 

There was something I saw recently where a guy was laming the bottom and leaving the glass weave to get the shark skin effect, and claimed it was working well.  The shark skin thing is microscopic, so I'm not sure wavey cross hatches on the bottom of a board with 36 gritt wouldn't do the trick...   If I go for it, I'll let you know.

As Nutman pointed out, if you do it to a board you are already familiar with, you'll know right away if it works or not.

[quote="$1"]

...All of the pictures left in the world are currently here on the swaylocs discussion of the Jick Bottoms.  These are all there is that I know of... [/quote]

Swaylocks no ka oe!

thanks Jick

The Jick Bottom works on any surface that depends on water for lift=short surfboards, long boards, SUP’s, jet ski’s, boats, wind surfboards, canoes, race boats.  The natural patterns I shaped will work on any surface that depends on water for lift.  

All of the pictures left in the world are currently here on the swaylocs discussion of the Jick Bottoms.  These are all there is that I know of.  Maybe my Australian friend who lives in South Avalon, NSW has the last board I made in 1999.  I haven’t heard from him for a long while.  Anybody out there know Peter Roberts?  

Yes I did follow pretty well, but any pics you have would help greatly.  I do know how to shape - well sort of, but good enough for my low-performance surfing anyway!

Thanks for the information, I would like to try a Jick Bottom someday - do they work good on longboards?

Got any more pics to put up?

No I don’t think you could be taught (how to shape a Jick Bottom) over the internet.  First you need to learn how to design, shape, glass and finish a smooth bottom surfboard, after that you could begin to shape channels into your finished foam shape.  What you’ll find is that it’s a lot easier to make non-channel boards than channeled ones.  Hey why even learn to shape?  Isn’t everything done by a computer shapeing machine now?  You would still have to shape the rails as a computer won’t do that part, yet.

When you have a board that you have been riding for awhile and you know what it does and how it works, you could use it to learn how to make channels in a board.  I did this 60 times or so…that is shape a Jick Bottom right into the glass and foam and then put the glass back on and then go surf!  Why waste your time making the whole board, when you can use one that’s made already!  This is probably the easiest way to learn something.  Of course you don’t want to use a board that costs a lot, until you get to be good at shapeing channels, then it won’t be a mistake.  You don’t want to tear all the glass off the bottom of the board.  You sand the bottom of the board where you want the channels to be and then draw (the channels) on the bottom.  Use a Makita Angle Drill.  This is by far the best tool to use to shape multiple channels on anything.  After shapeing you just fine sand the channels put some Q-Cell into any gaps or rough spots, tape-off the rails, then glass the bottom, lap the taped off rails and trim them once the resin has gelled.  Are you following this?  Lastly put a finish coat or sanding coat on the bottom, let it dry and you are ready to go and surf it…unless you did a lousy job glassing it.  In that case you need to sand the bottom…I always did it so well that I didn’t need to ever sand the channels.  Are you following this?  Use a surfboard that is already finished and been surfed on to learn to shape channels it’s easier than having to do the whole board.

 

If I lived near you I would have you teach me!  Can you teach by internet LOL?

To answer your question about if I have made anymore Jick Bottoms, the answer is no.  Ever since I broke my ribs and cracked a few as well I haven’t surfed.  There’s no sense making surfboards if you aren’t able to surf.  Besides they took longer to make than any other boards.  Also no one was able to copy or even re-produce a Jick Bottom.  Everybody wanted me to do all the work.  We started our own Macadamia nut farm and somebody (Me) had to spray herbicide, cut the grass, fertilize the trees and more.  There wasn’t any time left to go play or work on boards…so I just stopped doing it.

If anyone was to copy me I would have given them my blessings and just dropped out of sight!  Unfortunately though there were no takers.  Being able to make your own surfboards is a very rewarding feeling…especially if they work!!!  It also makes surfing more affordable.  The Jick Bottom was designed from observations I made about the nature of motion–wind blown clouds and wind blown waters have a very similar pattern in them and it was this prevailing pattern that I shaped into the bottoms of my boards.  My question is how come no one else ever thought of this?  Especially if you’re seeing it everyday in nature!  I guess though there’s a lot to be distracted by in nature and one’s fellow man.  People tend to want everything to be easy to do and my surfboard bottoms weren’t easy to make.

 

Thanks for the clarification nutman - I know that the Jick Bottoms and Jet Bottoms are related, but I also remembered that your particular method was a bit different that Erle's.  Have you done any lately?  Hope you are doing well!

Ben’s photo here is a board made by Erle Pedersen>a Jet Bottom.  I only made a few Jick Bottoms with channels in the tail or from the middle to the tail.  The important thing to note here is if you are going to put channels on the bottom, they should cover the whole bottom of the board.  In this case there would be more drag in the front of the board than in the back.  This board also had huge holes through the deck and the idea was that air would be sucked in and the board would be riding on a cushion of air.  I also made about five or six boards with Jick Bottoms and holes through the deck and they worked really well!

photo by Ben Chipper

Huh?

Let's see some pics and video?

http://www.surf1770noosa.com/

http://www2.swaylocks.com/node/1009217

http://www2.swaylocks.com/node/1009217

http://www.surfresearch.com.au/00000223.html

http://www2.swaylocks.com/node/1019416

http://www2.swaylocks.com/node/1019859

 

As soon as I can figure out how to upload an image to this site I’ll post a picture of the most successful Jick Bottom pattern that was ever produced. Until then just imagine you’re standing on the beach early in the morning and there’s a pattern in the sand left by the wind that was blowing all night long.  You’ll be looking at a wavy pattern in the sand.  I put this pattern on one side of the stringer from nose to tail and I matched it with an identical pattern on the other side of the stringer going from the nose to the tail.  Any pictures of this pattern are at least 10 to 15 years old as no surfboards with this pattern have been shaped since then.  That’s not because it didn’t work, but because it wasn’t profitable at that time to make them anymore.  Maybe it could be profitable now, but it is questionable. 

That board was shaped by my friend Earl Pedersen.  My pattern was different than his, although it was from working with him that I began to look at nature for the answers to improve a surfboard’s functionality riding waves.