wild stuff!!! I couldn't imagine trying to sand one of those.
The photos you up loaded of sand dunes, clouds and the surface of the water are right on the mark. Any and all of these patterns are found in nature where there is motion and all of them offer clues as to what is possible. Yet who can shape this into a surfboard, or any watercraft and make it affordable??? I wish there was another way to apply it other than shapeing. Just ask Erle Pedersen…how long does it take to make a surfboard with one of these patterns on it? Believe me he isn’t going to say I’ll have it done for you in three days!!! The fastest I was ever able to produce a Jick Bottom (which covered the entire bottom surface of the board) was five days and in board manufacturing that’s way too long!
http://issuu.com/smorgasboarder/docs/smorgasboarder-november-2011-s3/98?mode=embed&viewMode=magazine
interview with Glen Cat Collins
If you do a good glass job on the bottom channels you would never have to sand it. Just put a laminating coat over the fresh laminate and a finish coat over that and go surf!
maybe make a general mold of that pattern, so you can cut it to any size, then vac it on the bottom of a board?
Knowing how most people like to strut down the beach with their finest looking equipment, would your idea really be acceptable? It would be nice if all people wanted to ride a functional surfboard…When I used to walk down the beach with my Jick Bottom board it really turned people’s heads, but only a few of the observers were ready to buy one. And even fewer could afford it!
I strut down the beach with the weirdest boards I can make....or so I thought, until I saw this thread. You've turned my world upside down and I'll never be able to look at clouds or sand the same... Though this design is different, if it hauls ass and works, people won't be able to deny it's validity. Hence the mold to make production a little quicker. Or a template that you could rout the channels out with and move so the pattern repeats? Or even better, find some sand that already has this pattern, take a mold off that in plaster, then make it out of glass..
I have a wooden pattern that I used to create the wave shape on any surfboard, windsurfer, body board or any type of watercraft. I would just draw the pattern on the bottom of the craft to be shaped and using a Makita Angle drill just shape it right into the foam. I could shape a bottom on a 6 to 8 foot board in less than one hour. I was even shapeing the wave pattern into boards that were already glassed…I did about 70 of them. The shapeing part is easy when you know what you are doing. It’s just impractical though when it comes to mass producing such a shape. You would have to mold the entire board and a lot of surfers really want something that isn’t mass produced. The only way to do this kind of manufacturing is to try to motivate shapers to turn away from smooth surface watercraft and embrace multi-channeled wave patterned bottom contoured watercraft. Anybody know if Kelly Slater would like to try one? That would be motivational…I mean wouldn’t that change the way everything has always been done?
I think that innovators have a different job from promoters. We design and build this stuff, we are the artists inventors visionaries etc. The advertising / marketing corporate interests will take it over and market it to the masses if and when it suits their purposes, and maybe reward the creator but probably not, so I don't factor that in to my explorations of new and creative approaches. I say build 'em, share 'em, refine 'em, etc, don't worry about whether anyone wants to strut down the beach with 'em.
Have you read the interview with Glen Cat Collins, or maybe you know him, since he's neighbors with Earl Pedersen. I think he's got the right idea - just take it and run with it, keep moving forward, regardless.
Yes I do know Glen Cat Collins. But I’ve never met him face to face. He works well with Erle Pedersen as Erle isn’t computer savvy Glen certainly is. Even I’m not really an expert on the computer. I still don’t know how to upload a photo to this site. Its still early here in Hawaii today and I have much to do. Unfortunately I’m not working with surfboards, I’m in the Macadamia nut business–hence “nutman.” There’s a lot to be said about any board design based on the shapes found in nature, in our everyday world. Erle Pedersen inspired me to make my contributions to surfers here and I’m sure there are many shapers out there who are ready to do the same. The medium we have all used is polyurethane foam, fibreglass and resin, and a lot of hard work. I’m not worried about who re-makes my patterns or how much money they make. If anybody out there wants to further surfboard performance by using natural shapes of motion in nature, I’m ready to help.
Here are pics of the Jick bottom sent to me from Nutman:
They look like pictures of pictures? Am I right Nutman?
Yes they are pictures of pictures! I wish I could do better for you all, but I haven’t any Jick Bottoms since 2001. A lot of things got in the way at that time and they derailed my ability to do anymore shapeing. Here in Hawaii there are still a few of them around, but nobody wants to see anybody else have one. Mostly it seems that the JB gives surfers an advantage over everyone else, so nobody’s going around showing anything off. Even North Shore Pro’s who got my boards weren’t going to do any promoting for me simply because they didn’t want anyone else to get one. In any case they are extremely hard to make in any quantity.
[quote="$1"]
...Unfortunately I'm not working with surfboards, I'm in the Macadamia nut business--hence "nutman."
There's a lot to be said about any board design based on the shapes found in nature, in our everyday world. Erle Pedersen inspired me to make my contributions to surfers here and I'm sure there are many shapers out there who are ready to do the same.
The medium we have all used is polyurethane foam, fibreglass and resin, and a lot of hard work. I'm not worried about who re-makes my patterns or how much money they make. If anybody out there wants to further surfboard performance by using natural shapes of motion in nature, I'm ready to help.
[/quote]
Excellent post, we are on the same page! I'm not in the surfboard business either, but as a remodeling contractor trying to prop up a dying business in a horrible economy, I find a lot of people say I'm nuts. I would love to try a Jick bottom surfboard, and probably will, now that you have got me curious. I find the concept interesting, and am glad you brought it up. I had seen the pics before, but never heard a ride report, or explanation of the concept.
I’m glad you are interested huckleberry. When you post that comment that Glen Cat Collins wrote, everything seems a little bit too impossible. The pattern I used and the explanations I have for its prospects pale in comparasion to what Glen Cat has said. I’m kind of speechless when I read his comment. I never had people freaking out on what I was creating. People have always said to me that the Jick Bottom could make any board even better. Even my greatest critics said that. To prove my point about making any board better, I have shaped 70 bottoms into surfboards that had already been made and surfed for years. Nobody ever said I wrecked their favorite board! So what can we do now about this? I haven’t surfed for over ten years and the beach is just down the street. I was thinking of returning to the action next week after having a stress test adminstered by a local cardiologist. A local shaper is looking for a good used board for me and I’ve asked a friend (who never ever surfed, but has a Jick Bottom on his wall) if he wants to sell his board? If I do return to the surf and I can still do it, there are going to be a lot of people wanting a Jick Bottom from me. If that happens…we’ll have to see if that happens…then I may start to make them again.
Here’ another pic from Nutman:
This is the first time I’ve heard them referred to as Jick bottoms… usually “jet” bottoms. Who’s Jick?
The term “Jet Bottoms” was created by Australian surfer/shaper Erle Pedersen who makes Kewarra Jet Bottoms from a location somewhere in Queensland, Australia. The “Jick Bottom” was created by Jick Mebane Jr. a surfer who was inspired by the creations and ability to work closely with Erle Pedersen in Australia from 1975 to 1981. The Jick Bottom was designed from observations of natural shapes and patterns found in nature when motion interacts with gravity. The Jick Bottom is not a Jet Bottom. The Jick Bottom was created and fine tuned in the Hawaiian Islands from 1983 to 2001 and it was the local surfers who rode those boards who called it a Jick Bottom–and the name stuck.
Very cool… thanks! Beautiful stuff.
“ripple marks”
Geologists and geomorpholgists have determined that the ripples are formed perpendicular to the flow of the liquid… air or water.
Inspiration I understand. Function I’m struggling with.