I’m about to start making a new mid length, about 7-6. I was inspired b the recent video of Torryn Martyn riding midlength, channel bottom twin fins. One thing I noticed is that he is riding the boards way back, his feet near the fin cluster even on a 7-5.
My question is what rocker would facilitate that? Flat tail rocker? Or is it purely technique?
I’m thinking flat tail rocker, but Mr. Martyn is also getting some pretty tight radius turns on his mid lengths. To me flat tail rocker equates to speed but not looseness.
…bear in mind that this guy is tall and no less than 90kg. I do not see any smaller person that can ride confortably a 7 6 standing up so back. Also the other boards in this clip look to perform better than this big one twin fin.
Then you have pretty difficult waves like Nias. First wave take off is really difficult; similar of what Slater did with that small board in the Pipeline master few years ago. Taking off inside the wave.
Then he seems the missing link between the hipsters and the pro circuit guys, regarding riding style.
Regarding if it s the rider or the board; well, as you see a plenty there s lot of boards that really do not perform so right but the surfer promoting the style, the brand and the board model is a great one, but still you can see that the board does not aid or help in their surfing; so the board is very important factor; the other important factor is the body training that induce to a better state of mind to charge big surf conditions.
Looking at the clip, I’d say definitely not flat rocker. Probably between 1.5" and 2". I think tail rocker equates to looseness, and flat rocker equals speed, but you also need the proper rail/bottom. His boards had channels, and that would add some speed. One thing I noticed was he had to nurse some of the bottom turns. His tails are probably on the wider side.
I’ve been using about 2" - 2.5" of tail rocker lately with a flatter mid section versus the smooth continous curve rocker, but I like both. This is the continous curve rocker I used a lot. It is 8’ and 2" thick.
There’s no way I’ll be surfing the likes of NIas, especially on a sub 6 foot fish. I’m drawn to good surfing on mid lengths because that is closer to reality for me. I’m 57 and have shoulder issues. When the waves get bigger our beaches close out and my go to spot is considered a longboard spot (and crowded). I’ll also drive to nearby Los Angeles point breaks and needless to say crowding is a problem there too. You need some length just to get waves. I’ve been experimenting for 2 decades with solutions. My most recent is a 8-3 twinzer which works fine but a bad FCS plug install has it leaking water and getting really heavy.
I rewatched the video and at the beginning there is a shot showing the board spin around and in the rocker shot you see it is really flat, especially in the tail. I’m thinkng I’ll go 5’ nose, 2-1/4" tail. Now I’m shoppng for the right blank…
FYI… I’m using a rocker that Bill Thrailkill gave me last year. I like it a lot. I think 3 of the last 4 boards I made have that rocker and I’ve adjusted it to make a 5-9, 7-2, and 8-0. One board was a pre-rockered slab so I had to work with what I had, which ended up having a little more tail rocker.
I just bought a blank- 7’-10" Charlie Smith/Tom Parrish, two names you can trust. One of my favorite boards was a 6-10 Charlie Smith. I took a template of that board when it died and still use it.
Board will be 7’-7and 7/10ths". 777
New question- channels ( I was going to do 4 between twin fins), do they work with a concave bottom? I’m thinking most would put some vee in the tail before cutting the channels, but is it OK to put small amount of concave down the middle of the board before the fins?
I surfed Haleiwa a lot in the 70s. Charlie Smith was one of the best at Ali’i Beach Park back then. I’ve seen him do things that seemed impossible. He was a very powerful and fearless surfer.
I’ve spent s̶o̶m̶e̶ too much time on the internet and often save stuff that looks interesting. Here is a cool photo I found on Todd Proctor’s (Ventura, Ca) website. I’m pretty sure a straight edge across the bottom would reveal a fairly deep concave with doubles and channels thrown in for good measure. I was also able to check out one of his ‘Monsta Chief’ designs in Isla Vista on the way home from Los Angeles yesterday. It looked like a pretty cool big guy shortboard design.
