New (to me) HIC design

Howzit all,

I was at the local surf shop this weekend and they had some fresh boards from Hawaiian Island Creations that intrigued me. From the HIC website it looks like it’s the Platypus design by Steve Morgan.

Here’s the part that caught my attention: Along the bottom from the nose thru the tail they had a 6" wide channel, about a quarter inch deep, very much like a bottom design that was discussed here not long ago. He calls it the “converter” bottom.

So can anyone shed some light or give some feedback on these boards?

http://www.hicconverter.com/

Thanks for the link, hackeysaky. Pretty interesting reading. So, has anyone tried one?

As intriguing as it is, I’m loathe to drop five bills to try it myself. And the copyright thing concerns me a little. Don’t want to step on a respected shaper’s toes or get myself in a legal bind by doing it myself, especially since I probably wouldn’t get it right anyways.

i have been wanting to try one. i saw an old 80’s board a few months back that had a similar bottom. thing that worries me is the glassing.

and i am pretty sure that the name is the thing thats copy righted. if it was the board there would only be a select few people shaping the boards we ride.

I shaped one. Same basic design, the bottom channel is not quite so drastic, but the same basic idea. It is a small wave destroyer, extremely quick in the smallest, sloppiest waves.

what i want to know is how in the hell are you supposed to glass that!! the exit out the back makes channels look like childs play

some of HIC team riders who sell them said they weren’t all that great.

felt more of a difference using Jeff’s original design that Steve’s trying to emulate.

Steve’s regular boards especially his Brewer/Morgan designs are great though…

Tutored under the master and being independantly wealthy now he doesn’t need to continue doing this for a living…

Check out Greg Griffin’s (Town and Country) quads and 5 fins though…

hot stuff!