Beaks, are one of the coolest things to look at on surfboards; in we spend more time looking at them paddling than any other part of a surfboard. Furthermore they function on a boards performance acting like a counterweight shifting the balance forward, especially when turning. They also shift the boards balance when dropping in. i say bring them back, in all there glory. Who made the best ones, in my opinion, Brewer, and the wildest, coolest, and hippest ones ever Shaun Stussy. What do you guys think or am I just talking out my nose? Always made me think of a predator, or a bird of prey.
i like boat noses..........you know with a underslung vee............and flipped...........gennie slipper style !
beekers are great on a fish ..............i must agree !
herb
I love them too, they look cool and add foam and strength to the tip. Didn’t know they affect performance. I have one on my single fin gun and one on my new 6’10" tube rider thruster. Will post photos soon.
Just don't ride wide nose funboards or logs.
On the negative side- they increase swing weight (you may or may not want it) and they add flotation where you don’t need it, not helping a lot with paddling but making the board more difficult to duck dive.
On the positive side- I still love doing cheater fives on shortboards and beakier boards are definitely better for this.
G-rat, i have a related question. When paddling boards with forward widepoint and foam, sometimes, even in decent waves, the wave kind of goes underneath me and i miss it. Very annoying. I do sit further forward to compensate for this, and sometimes it works, sometimes doesnt. I was thinking that a more "relaxed" forward rocker, with a tail kick might help me get in earlier on a board like this. What do you think?
dbl. P.S I do paddle hard and build up speed when on these boards.
That could be a pain in the arse on a bad wipeout ;)
Your on the right track, Beerfan. Its trying to understand how little changes effect a boards performance that not only challenge me, but fascinate me. I agree with your thinking here 100%
Beerfan....
The problem is usually in the tail thickness and volume....your paddling speed doesn't lift the nose, with the lack of forward momentum from the slow waves you normally ride. If you move to Oahu, paddle into Sunset, your tail would lift easier but......
It's a fallacy (in my not so humble imagination) to need to ride thin tail boards. Yes, iit's ok when you stand in trim position forwards, to have a thin tail...BUT... most surfer want to drop in early and bottom turn, go up off the top, and redirect back or straight down ...repeatedly. The thin tail does nothing for that, only draws out the turns.
With the advent of multiple fins around 1968, we can stand with our back foot 9" from the tail, the board will hold in on the biggest waves we really WANT to ride, and we need volume back there not only for wave catching (tipping over the hump), but for control, the concept of thicker rails holding in more positively, and thinner rails dropping out suddently.
Move your wide points back to center, add volume to the tail of your board, add enough fins to hold the tail in, and you will catch waves early and never spin out on critical takeoffs and positions.
I love a nice beak except on women. I have shaped rounded, flat, beveled, pointed, blunt and even concave and they all looked good as long as they flowed with the design. The rounder the nose the rounder the beak the racier the design the flatter the beak is.
As far as the nose changing the performance and riding characteristics of the board it does. I would have to say it only really comes into play on small boards. A gun or lets say an LB it wouldn’t make as much a difference as the foil and outline would.
Thick or thin tails? I always go thin except on some designs. My new 5’8 Twinzer has a whole lot of meat in the tail. After getting some fun waves on it I found a little extra beef in the tail helped in catching waves and staying on top of the water in the gutless waves allowing the board to skate over flat sections. I may have gone a little to thick but I did find what a difference it made in the crap. Hence it’s my Crap Buster. Everyone needs a Fat Corky with a beak nose for those flat mushy days.
Beaks friggin suck and always have. They had absolutly no purpose and did nothing to enhance the performance of shortboards during their era. The simple fact is most shapers were shaping a standard Clark blank that had a full profile and guys just flat didn't know what to do with or how to deal with a stock rockered blank with a thick nose. Eventually the trend moved toward a thinner and foiled nose at the deck, which resulted in Gordon Clark producing blanks of various rockers and thickness.
I am going to have to start calling you Mcsting, with your harsh criticism of the most aquiline feature ever on surfboards! What did a beak ever do to you, I am going to have to report you to the Mod Squad, Mcsting; where is Link, is he missing? I am so offended. I new something smelled funny, Mcstinker.
Bring back the beak!
Al Merrick has a small beak nose on the Flyer and Flyer 2 models and they are HPSB’s. Add thickness in the nose to help paddling, but maybe more swing weight?
I put my own style of beaks in 'cuz I like to get the most for the least when I make my blanks and shape my boards. Couldn’t find a handy pic.
I hate to disagree with LeeD, but I’ve only flet more speed and control from thin tailed sem-and guns, never had a “drop out,” what ever that is.
Well, Mr. McDingo Its true that it had nothing to do with performance at the time. It was just the look of all boards from the late 60’s through the 80’s. It wasn’t that shapers didn’t know how to shape it different. I remember a few shapers shaping thin beakless nose’s on boards. Then again when all boards made back in the 70’s and 80’s boards averaged 2 3/4 to 3" thick making boards with a flip tip look a bit funny at the time.
As far as it making a difference it does. Like I said in my past post in small boards it makes a big difference. Lets say you shape a 5’9 fish one with a beak and a one with a thin foiled nose. The boards paddling and surfing characteristic change. Try it and you will see what I mean
We can see many boards today trending back to shorter and wider thicker designs. Adding a little meat in the nose area will allow you to ride smaller boards.