…hello; I am seeing on the internet, not here live, that all the longboards made now have rails down or eggy (not a round 50/50) and finish like a blade near tail; no matter the type of tail shape.
The HP longboards always had the rails like a shortboard, but I am not seeing these types.
What s the basic point for that? I do not see an enhance in performance for those small days with these not HP longboards.
I have been having great riding reports with other types of rails and lines.
With few exceptions, I think you are correct. Somebody posted this image of blank diagram overlays a long time ago… a common theme perhaps? Of particular note is the tail on virtually ALL the blanks in question:
I am soo tired of design theory discussions on this sight so I will give NO explanation. All of the longboards I shape have at least a 60/40 rail that starts somewhere in the last 20” of the tail. Depending on the board, who I am shaping it for and in what wave or waves it will be ridden; the rail at the tail may be pretty hard and completely turned down. The idea that a 50/50 rail is the only thing that works on a longboard is Caveman thinking.
What I tried to say is that almost all what I see in internet have kind of a blade style of rails on the last 1/3 and that I do not see the advantage regarding those big wide longboards
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I didn’t understand the post regarding “blade style”. Is that like the older hard down rail with a curved down deck and a hard edge along the bottom? Or just having the hard edge on the bottom?
I’ve been making the majority of my boards with a defined edge on the bottom maingly to create a faster board. I also like the pinched 50/50 rail for longboards that are close to 10’. I’ll make that kind of rail all the way through the tail. I also prefer a pig outline for the longer boards in smaller waves.
The tracings below are from the tail rails of my 1960s 9’8" Bing Nuuhiwa Noserider. Blade shape?
Taken at 1" and (outer line of apex trace) at 12" from the tail tip. Widepoint/thickness of tracings are 3/4" and 1-1/4" at 1" and 12", respectively. Trend continues to at least 24".
The ones that I have been seeing are more flat on the deck and even thinner.
May be is due to they are heavy (bad resin/fiber ratio) and wide so you need to turn it with ease at some point if you are not big enough.
Looks like there is a trend to copy all over the world longboards that are inteneded to work in areas like San Diego (California) where the waves are very different than in most parts.
Not pig longboards work better in most conditions; conditions that you normally find in most countries.
The primary design influence on my singlefin midlenths and longboards were the Australian designs from the late 1960s. In my opinion it was a big mistake when everyone on the west coast of the U.S. moved away from the Austrailian track and followed the Hawaiians. The toob rider designs that work so well in the high energy spots were too specialized for use as a daily driver here where the conditions are normally weaker.
I surf the south side of Oahu, Hawaii, at the places I surf a lot of people have the modern performance longboards, but I’m also seeing a lot of variety compared to 10 years ago. Still seeing quite a few Wavestorm type of boards. A lot of people riding boards made by California builders, I think it’s for the “cool” factor. Like all the surfers that have a VW bus.
“The toob rider designs that work so well in the high energy spots were too specialized for use as a daily driver here where the conditions are normally weaker.”
Agreed. That seems to have been a common trend over the years. Last year’s Hawaiian designs being recycled on the mainland, for better or worse.
In the late 70s I recall seeing extremely pulled in swallow tail guns… in Texas on the Gulf Coast. Many surfers tend to follow fads and fashions. If surf star ‘XXX’ was seen riding a given design in a movie or magazine, it was a sure bet that copies of that design would soon be seen on the beaches of the mainland. The salespitch went something like “Ride this board and surf like ‘XXX’”
I guess the Kelly Slater glass slipper phase was kind of the same thing(?)
Those of us on the mainland would have been far better off to have copied the Aussies.
What time frame are you referring to? 90’s? Because Yes there was a period of time during which Stewart and Town&Country Progressive 9’0’s dominated the Surf Shops. But the Longboard resurgence also brought back 50/50 rails and 10’2’s. I do know that Australia and New Zealand were influenced significantly by the Stewart type boards. I have been told that the first Stewart went to New Zealand in the early 90’s and within a year every shaper down there was doing a lookalike. A good example of that influence in Aus. are McTavish boards.
It’s off reverb’s topic a bit, but the point I am attempting to make is that when it comes to Longboards or “Mals” I don’t see any originality in Longboards coming out of Down Under since Nat Young won the World Contest on that 9’4 in OB. That was pretty much it. Since then everything has been copied off of boards from HI and the West Coast. Shortboards and sub 9ft boards of course are the exception. Lots of innovation there from Down Under.
…yes, the cool factor as Sharkcountry is saying would be good with the people that want a board but do not know about them, but how about these new breed of shapers that copy everything, included these longboards; seems that they do not want to think about it for a second; and yes, like John is saying about to a given a great surfer one of these longboards, then the clips and know this internet craze to legitimize a design that is not better than a modern longboard for the conditions mostly used around the world,
Difficult to copy the Aussies due to they do not have enough “marketing power” regarding the surf culture, nor the Hawaiians
Also, McCoy is just sell out, McTavish is just a business, Mark Richards is a brand; almost all are machined, then these new breed of travelling hyspsters; all doing the same marketing aided by great glassers and sanders.
