Thanks for the photo put-up, janklow.
Finless fun from late 80s. Rode this standing up. Some may remember when Clark did the siamesed bodyboard blank.
This was made from the long half of one of those, and if people hadn’t stared at me when I took it to the beach, I might
have ridden it more.
Almost kinda worked in shoulder high shorebreak.
Sorry for the brief hijack, enjoyed the journal article, glad to find out there are others who share the madness.
Mike
No prob, dad.
Too much plane in the rail at the tail corner?
((Can you COIL people handle fat boy boards yet?))
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Too much plane in the rail at the tail corner?
I’d done one before with the ‘‘channel’’ all the way out to the rail, this was an attempt to get
some edge feel back, rather than just feeling the hook out on the perimeter - but you’re probably
right, this one didn’t hold as well as the other, but in some strange way it felt more like a surfboard.
Probably should have kept exploring.
Bottom line is reducing fin is reducing drag, dramatically. There’s a future in this somewhere.
Mike
btw, we make coils for oversizes too, we’re gonna get you one someday. Eric would kill me if I asked
him to bag one of those convoluted finless bottoms, though. He could do it, but he’d kill me first.
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Bottom line is reducing fin is reducing drag, dramatically. There’s a future in this somewhere.
I totally agree with the latter statement. And the former.
I just wonder if it isn’t gonna be with dramatically smaller fins like kiteboard size. And possibly including L fins/rail blades. I envision the treatment of your board above with less plane in the rail (bringing the outline in,) less depth channel, and something like two kiteboard fins mounted on the inside channel edge, no toe, no cant, inline, backward, with the upright edge forward, and both ends of the board symmetrical. Maybe just one fin and the corner all channel bite… ha.
I thought you thought they thought you were crazy…
I just read the Free-Friction article from this latest issue of the Journal and i believe Mr. Hynd has paid us lowly mat-surfers the ultimate compliment.
“truer-to-roots than board-surfers”
also that Warren Pfeiffer made everyone else look slow, and Sage Joske is a master of all crafts, except the mat.
“there is a flat-chat speed to the mats that no board possesses”
incredible. i thought i was crazy for abandoning the majority of my quiver sans spoons and one quad fish for these mats.
but now i’m feeling like Hynd has indeed paid us the ultimate compliment, and i’m no longer feeling bad for leaving boards in the dust…
feel free to comment, i’d love to hear what others think.
DP
yesterday in overhead surf, DM flying down the line on his alaya…conditions were less than stellar-lots of bump, sections, backwash,etc., but that board FLEW through it all …
The Bing Auga board was just about exactly like this
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The Bing Auga board was just about exactly like this
I remember a photo of that in Surfer …but beyond that nothing. I’ve been curious ever since. Didn’t know Bing was involved. Anybody have any photos or info they want to share? It’s too long a drive from where I live to Maui in the early 70’s…
Nels
You know, on a certain level its kinda clear what greeno and ambrose have known all along: fin surfing is ugly.
I don’t mean superficially ugly like bad style or not linking the most dangerous or critical turns
I mean spiritually ugly
I mean sometimes man’s creativity can reach the point of diminishing return
Sometimes man can go too far, like the beat poets who sold heroin and fucked eveything for their own enjoyment…all too human…corrupt
Were they incredibly creative and breaking new ground in thought and literature? yes
Did they do so at the expense of basic virtues pondered on by people like Dante centuries before? or Gibran? yes!
Did the modern shortboard break new ground in movement and expression on certain parts of more and more critical waves? yes
Did it do so as just another warped form of human’s longing to control what it cannot, competition, and even furthermore corrupted into an empty exhibition to
sell shit? yes
Are there good people that have still benefitted from that corruption and used the designs to surf alone and respectfully for personal reasons? yes
But on average where is the genuine thought and feeling today?
Look at southern california on the last swell.
Look at the apathy, disrespect, and ineptitude ‘freedom and ability’ (i.e. the leash, or the thruster) has bred in most. The selfishness, the look at me ness
Hear the silence or complaints from those that facilitate these abominations, those involved in the industry itself
that sold the idea of freedom to those who cannot handle it
whether retro or modern it does not matter
They know they shit where they eat
and owning the whole north shore wouldn’t make them happy.
whether retro or modern it does not matter
finless craft have an ability to take the uncorrupted part of surfing and amplify it.
ostricized, not taken seriously, messing up waves while learning or experimenting?
Is this not a taste of the true spirit of the surfing greats?
Experiencing new illusions of speed, opening up less crowded (albeit junkier) surf?
Are these not the pursuits of the greats we truly love?
Damn… you should post more often!
Yah Run, well said indeed!
i have to disagree with you there.
if the lineups were clogged with people on alaias or mats instead of thrusters, there’d just be the same old problems: hassling, greed, ego, snaking, localism, selfishness, disrespectfulness, prejudice. that stuff’s just the flawed side of human nature, unfortunately, not the fault of finned surfcraft.
fin surfing isn’t ugly. neither is finless. both can be beautiful. it all comes down to the heart of the rider.
here’s a bit of beautiful finless surfing:
I feel you on that human nature thing, Nathan, but the Surfing/Surfer/Transworld brand of new school rippershreddin’ style does attract jocks. Jocks compete and hassle and snarl and fight. It’s what they do. Alaias and olos and finless hulls etc just cannot be made to do what amping jocks want in the way of spray display, so they would go back to mixed martial arts or whatever. I think that would be a huge change for the better.
g
I like your post and respect your opinion. I used to feel the way you did a couple years ago, but my views on true beauty have become narrower for whatever reasons…perhaps someday my vision will broaden again similar to what you speak of, perhaps it will narrow to viewing surfing in all its forms as too self-centered, and nothing to argue or be proud about.
i hear you greg. i responded to the post because i’m just not into equipment prejudice of any kind. like i said, it comes down to a surfer’s heart, not what’s beneath his feet or belly, not whether he’s finned or finless. case in point: i’ve met a few bodyboarders over the years who’re jocks, & they don’t have any fins.
surfing with fins is not ugly.
we who ride alternative craft need to be wary of standing on any soulier-than-thou soapboxes.
I think you’re right, and watching Dan Malloy surf a fish or a hull ain’t ugly, there’s just no doubt of it. I definitely think there’s good lines being drawn by finned riders–I just do think the whole display mode of spray and airs attracts an element that has spoiled a big part of surfing–it’s definitely not that I hate all finned surfing.
g
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Alaias and olos and finless hulls etc just cannot be made to do what amping jocks want in the way of spray display, so they would go back to mixed martial arts or whatever. I think that would be a huge change for the better.
The readers may have to play with the notion a bit (I still do, constantly)…but I say finless surfcraft mandate a priority of riding the wave, not the equipment. You aren’t going to “overpower” the wave. Once you have a fin on a board you are on the path of “riding the equipment”, which is fine. As one progresses in experience and ability down that path, personal priority can lead many directions. Once simply making the wave isn’t the priority, then what is? The human ape can take this in many directions, some of them less than social. What are you going to do on a wave…and why? The unthinking just “rip, tear, and lacerate” as the old adage once went. Others explore their own universe…
Almost 30 years down the modern thruster road, the most derisive term one can give to a surfboard is “funboard”. Does that mean everything else is a “workboard”? A “hassleboard”? Those who have known happier days or places usually just want the happier vibe. A growing number of people are investing their time and energy in capturing the joy in more ways now than in the history of surfing. Kinda cool. The only real problem is when too many of us go to the same beach at the same time…if we could increase that capacity…
Nels
I’m currently fighting a loosing battle with creeping GOMLS (Get Off My Lawn Syndrome)and the last part of this topic sounds too much like our weekly 12 step meetings. “A man will never remain a hotdogger” (I can’t for the life of me remember the old coot from Santa Cruz that made this quote famous…another symptom of GOMLS).
The whole point is to have fun! Ride what you like on any given day. Ride your single fin in the AM 'till the tide turns, then slash it up on the battailfishquadthruster 'till the wind comes up, then slide a few on the mat. Despite all my hull ravings, I still love to try and toss some buckets with my fish (these days the buckets are more like tea cups but I digress).
There is a hell of a lot of skill involved in holding a line on a finless anything. But there is a hell of a lot of skill doing the stuff KellyAndyMickTaj do too. Enjoy it for what it is (or don’t).