Very Interesting. What exactly do you mean by “two mini surfboards in the tail end”?
Rocky that was a laugh and a half .And i needed it . Thanks.
mpcutback
So , um , How did you do it ? I can’t figure it out for the life of me.
Eli’s trip is interesting , for sure.
Kawika,
two surfboards on the back end was a weird little mental riff that happened when I held the thing- the tail ‘pins’ are so defined they seem like two seperate little boards- more so than a regular swallowtail or fish which has that integration in the rail line- even the Mackie sidecut has a smooth, continuous curve- the Porpoise has these little platforms, each bearing a fin. I may (and undoubtedly am) be way off base design wise, but it was just how the thing struck me. I’ll post a few more Mirandon pics when I get some time to struggle with the image deal- it was pretty cool at the Swift Movement party as Eli had a stack of boards and Ekstrom had brought a few and then there was a Lis and and a Frye so you could have a classic and an experimental side by side. Rocklobster, you’re a twisted man- funny, but twisted.
Back to the question about the original twin pin designs and what they were like to ride. My first Surfboards La Jolla team board was a 7'0" twin pin, back in Fall, 1968. At that time, most of the twin pins were around 8'5' to 9'0", shorter than the previous longboard version. I remember talking to Barry Mirandon about some of the reasons behind the design. One problem with the v-bottom boards being ridden around that time was the need for a really long fin to keep them from spinning out. The twin pin design allowed the use of a steep "v" in the tail, but the board was kept under control by the small fins. It was just about impossible to spin out on a twin pin - we tried, but the boards held in.
Bear put a lot of thought into the placement and angle of the fins. If you can find one of the original boards (or a good photo), you'll notice that the fins look splayed out at a wide angle, compared to modern boards. The fins were also unusual at the time due to the cutaway shape, with a very narrow base. I'm still using this general fin shape on my own twinzers, laying up the fins myself to get the right thickness and stiffness. The original fins were foiled very thick (always on both sides, I think), and had very little flex.
The overall plan shape of my 7'0" was pretty stubby, with the wide point a little behind the middle. The blank was made with two purple foam wedge stringers, one for each pin, and meeting at the nose, pretty unusual for those days. The rails were mostly rounded, with some sharpening at the tail.
My 7'0" twin pin was the first board that had the "skateboard" feel that was typical of the later twin fins. I really like the way it worked, but not everyone else agreed. It was a great contest board, but got a lot of strange looks outside of the La Jolla area.
The next generation of Surfboards La Jolla twin pins were a little longer, around 7'5", narrower, with sharper "down" rails, and without the steep "v" in the tail. They still seemed to work pretty well, but did not stand out so much from the other new shortboard designs. I stuck with the twin pins for a while longer, but went back to single fin rounded pintails.
One little known aspect of the longboard twin pins was that they were great noseriders. Those two angled fins held the wide tail into the steepest part of the wave. The boards would noticeably pick up speed when riding the tip, in contrast to a lot of other longboards. Even some of the shorter twin pins, in the 8'0' or so range, were good noseriders. I've been thinking of making a "twin pin" longboard to use in the club contests, just because of the noseriding potential.
I'm glad to see that the twin pin boards seem to be making a little bit of a comeback. Their original run was too short, but they provided a lot of fun for a few of us.
Thanks for all that info . I seem at this stage of my life quite comfortable to be happy riding boards at the 8ft lenght . How different to the original shape would a modern version be? .Would you include a lot of vee for example ?
Cheers
mpcutback
oops double click sorry
Cheers
mpcutback
For a longer board, I would probably try to stick pretty close to the original design. The original tails were often fairly wide and needed some "v" to loosen them up for turning. I also wonder about the deep central channel in the tail of some of the long twin pins - maybe that helped for noseriding. I should probably try to borrow one of the vintage twin pin longboards to see if they work as well as I remember.
Yeah - I wondered about that channel too. Almost as if each pintail had it's own belly? If you get an answer on that, please advise. Thanks.