Frick. I come home from work and see what this thread has become. Brilliant! It’s best not to complain about others spelling when you can’t spell. My 16 year old daughter listens to my old vinyl. Good music, but I’'m over the scratchy, clicking sound. Of course, they’re 35-40 years old. I must have a shitty ear because I prefer the sound of CD’s. The old cassettes were fine, but did not always have the right pitch when trying to jam with them on my harmonicas.
I’ve never surfed one of the peanut shaped Meyerhoffers. The video I saw showed that they surfed fine and confirmed my opinion that just about anything will work. Plus, if John M. says they work, they work. He’s not full of himself or full of shit, either. The Meyerhoffers are ugly, though, and I do like to look at my boards when I’m not surfing them.
I hope we didn’t scare the kid (ricksurf) off. We need new blood around here. Don’t be a pussy, Rick, and wade back in. It gets kind of incestuous around here with the same old ‘voices.’ Mike
This is all off topic but so what? Vinyl is as John stated "snap, crackle, pop". Just fired up one of my favorite all time albums the other night (again); " The Doors". Turned up "Break on Through(to the other side). No way does plastic sound that good. John Dunsmor's(sp) drums never sounded that good on vinyl. Every single rim shot coming thru loud and clear.
Seems like all anyone wants to do here these days is dump on someone, or just argue.
John, I hope you didn’t take my re-direction as an attack, just trying to add some humorous truths to an impending train wreck. I thought it may have worked but I guess this one has to go all the way till the wheels leave the rails.
FWIW, at least i learned there are enough music geeks in here who know a thing or two about setting up a hi-fi, low-cost audio room hehe " )
btw any ideas how to convert cassette tape tracks into digital files? instead of risking getting bugs from file-sharing sites, i’d rather transfer tons of remastered classic stuff on cassettes to my dropbox account-- hendrix, doors, stones, santana, beatles, clapton-- that '70s bunch and some other fellas you may know. there has got to be a way to do it with just a basic tape deck, a laptop and some sort of cable to connect the two hmm ?
Howzit sharkcountry, I remember that 40 days very well and we got a lot rain and the roofers were in heaven due to all the work it created. One thing I noticed about 6 years ago was the trade winds don't blow as much as they did before and we have more variable wind days than before. But also Oahu seems to get a lot mors rain than it did before and you have had more flooding than in the past also. I heard that Oahu ahd another big storm a while ago and more flooding but since I am not there I can't say it is true for sure. Over here they hink a half inch of rain is big time and I just laugh at them since we would get more rain in one good storm than they get in a whole year, I miss the sound of pouring rain and can't wait for thr summer monsoons they get here. Aloha,Kokua
I'm not sure if this is the same Platypus mentioned in the Ireland "Borrowed Boards" travel series in Surfer Mag, but by the description, its gotta be related. Based on snowboard shapes. http://www.beachbeatsurfboards.co.uk/platypus_surfboard.html
description: Inspired by Snowboards and Grant Strober. A few years ago when Chops originally shaped the Platypus it was surfed with no fins but it has since evolved to have a tri-fin set up. The 'Babybill', Medium bill and the Long bill Platypus, pictured, has a parabolic template similar to a snowboard. This moves the wide point way further back, so the 'Waist' rail line in the center of the board is reduced which gives way less resistance. The 'Hips' give pronouced points to pivot on right between the feet and the long, drawn out pin tail gives excellent acceleration, bite and speed down the line. It paddles supprisingly well!
The board got some good waves and a good writeup by Lewis Samuels. The one he rode was not a longboard.
Again, not a Meyerhoffer, this design has been around longer than the Meyerhoffer, according to the article.
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BTW, the travel series "Borrowed Boards" is starting out looking like its gonna be a fun ride. Greece and Ireland so far. Surfing the world on borrowed boards. Maybe more Kerouac than Naughton / Peterson. The author has a blog http://borrowedboards.com/ - better pics than the article, but the writing in the mag articles is better. And the blog is behind, because the Ireland trip hasn't showed up on the blog yet, and its in the latest issue. I'd pre-order the book, if I could, I've been enjoying it that much.
After looking like it was becoming a trainwreck, this thread’s becoming rather fun!
Anyway, getting back to the original topic, I find it difficult to believe that there is no design connection between the Meyerhoffer boards and the Beachbeat Platypus boards. Whilst the “peanut” outline certainly was done before Meyerhoffer, the similarities between the Meyerhoffer and Beachbeat boards goes way further. Look at the tails, particularly: The earlier peanut boards (shown in one of the other Meyerhoffer threads) all have widely differing tails, whereas the Beachbeat tails are very similar to the Meyerhoffer. The Meyerhoffer tails are highly distinctive. Do any snowboards have tails like that? (I don’t think so, but snowboarding is not big in my country.)
Whilst I’m sympathetic to the Swaylocks narrative of “lone-wolf-tinkerer = good / ‘industrial’ = bad”, it seems to me that “credit where credit is due” is also part of the tradition.
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G'day Huck , actually I would say that they have more resemblance to a polski - ogorky girkin than a peanut , becuase of the small narrow tail. However , a shaper (and a good surfer) that I know , rode one at Noosa a few years back , and I don't think he would bother , if there wasn't something there that got his interest . Personally , I don't really understand them......
It takes more than just a cable, but not much. You’ll want to buy an interface box. There’s the Presonus Audiobox, M Audio MobilePre, and Lexicon Lambda. All priced at around $150USD. I have the Lambda. It allows me to plug in any 2 channel source, such as a CD player, tape deck, keyboard,etc. It also has two mic inputs. I simply connect it to my home stereo and can record anything to my laptop. Even things like TV audio and radio broadcasts. I use the free program Audacity to record and save as a WAV file, and another freebie called Switch to convert from WAV to MP3. It might sound complicated, but it really isn’t. I have even used it to make MP3s from old 8 track cartridges.
I do NOT recommend buying one of those USB turntables if you already have a working TT. An interface box allows you to convert more than just vinyl for the same price.
The only difference between what I recommended and what’s described in that link is the addition of an interface. The recording software is Audacity, same one I use. If you read the comments and questions there, you’ll see that many people had trouble with the method described. In many cases, there is no “line in” on some laptop sound cards. Using the mic input may work, but I doubt it. Line level signals are a mis-match for microphone inputs.
Thanks, Resinhead, for remembering that Ben Sparks board.
Good memory. I remembered that board (the visual memory), but couldn’t remember the shaper. At that time, as with the current crop, I just couldn’t get past the shape. At the time, I couldn’t think think of any marine creature with that outline that could swim worth a darn, seemed unnatural. Well, though, now that I think about, a platypus does kind of swim okay. Weren’t platypae just an assemblage of leftover parts anyway? I guess there’s room for everything.
What happened was originally this “old guy” who used to surf in the
early fifties than became a aeronautical engineer had these drawings of
a “coke bottle” shaped surfboard. He said he used to ride em and they
were the best of the bunch. A few months later I recieved a crude
balsa model from some guy in Oregon/washington? that wanted something
shaped like it the model. He felt that this was the way surfboards
should be even though he did not surf yet. We made the board than it sat
in the shop for weeks. He wanted someone to try it. Nobody was brave
enough. Than one day we talked Mark into giving it a go. He hide it in a
blanket as we crossed the beach. Mike Eaton, Carl Ekstrom and some guy
from a magazine went to the beach with us. I told Mark to just go out on
one of the side peaks not the main peak because we had no idea what was
going to happen. Mark paddled the thing REALLY FAST because he was a
competitive swimmer and could really extend his arms into the water. He
made a left turn and headed directly into the main peak. Carl said he
based everyhing he knew about surfboards that it would not work. Mark
made a bead on a bigger set wave, the wider tail lifted the board
quickly into the wave. We all held our breath as he made the takeoff
than laid out a full rail bottom turn headed for the top of the wave and
LAUNCHED IT than reentered the wave and made it. Ekstrom just said
“huh” and walked off. It actully worked really good. Sent it off to its
owner and never heard from it again.
Okay, maybe I’m biased, but…in the history of board innovation and/or modification, with respect to appelation:
Velzy looks at his new design, thinks of what it looks like from the top, and calls it a “pig”. Steve Lis comes up with something, calls it a “fish”. Anderson, thinking functionally, “okay, I’ll call it a thruster”. Ben Aipa, “Stinger”, Geoff McCoy, a “nugget”, the Campbell Brothers “the bonzer”.
