Me, I learned to surf on a 5’11" Buzzy Kerbox wing-pin-single, and had a surf on a 10’ convex bottomed monster at Agnes Waters, but that’s the sum total of my single fin experience. This evening I watched Kelly Slater and co. ripping on a single on the dvd ‘thicker than water’, and then watched ‘morning of the earth’ and I was wondering if singles had evolved to their full potential, or did the thruster interrupt, and provide an easier way to manoeuverability. The projection that those blokes were getting makes me wonder if anyone has explored a combination of rails and bottom contours that would produce a single that the modern day pros could ride to the full extent of their ability, at a contest level.
i think the transition in recent years from the development of merrick’s machado single fin and then the refinement of the msf2 shows that someone out there is still working on the singlefin to make it better. who knows what we’ll see in years to come?!
I think it was a ?mid-80s/early 90s ? article by David Parmenter and /or Sam George that explored the whole idea of modern rails and rocker on the single fin [good] templates of the mid to late 1970s. [ There WERE some really bad outlines, rails, and rockers in the early 70s boards , here , at least . ]
I think the experimenting has been continuing ever since . For example, some of the McTavish "re-releases " I have seen here in Perth certainly have more modern rocker , rails , and foil.
ben
p.s. - Hyatt , how did you come across the Buzzy Kerbox board ?? [THAT would be nice to have today , to check what I mentioned against the "modern " single fins.]
Singles are fundamentally limited. The water flow is faster and more laminar near the rail on a turn, so you can get a lot more hold and drive with a rail fin than you can with a center fin. It may get better with modern rails and bottom contours, but fins matter a lot, and I’d be surprised if the best a single could do would ever win a performance contest against any board with rail fins.
That’s not to say you can’t have an awful lot of fun riding one, I sure ride one most of the time. But it is never going to pull short radius turns like a thruster.
Ah, my pet subject, modern single fins, with the in-line setup being a step further forward again.
Thrusters are so user friendly, which is why so many make and use them.
As said in other threads, singles need a little more effort and technique to find their full potential, but that potential has not been pursued, generally because the thrusters are so user friendly.
As far as design goes, it takes a more involved and better understanding of design to give a modern single a performance edge. You have to step away from the mainstream and think out of the box a bit. This includes not only the board design, but fins also.
When I pull my finger out and get onto it, I’ll post my version. All the input here about epoxy, sandwich, flex, etc has me watering at the mouth, as these factors can put characteristics into a board to that I’ve been looking for for years.
Yeah, I’m hundreds (a thousand?) miles from salt water, but it’s still flowing in my veins.
G’day Ben,
A boyfriend of my aunty gave me the board as a Christmas present 1988. It had a really nice green to bronze foam spray, with silhouette logo of a bloke doing a re-entry. Nice heavy glass. I gave it to a mate when I got my first thruster, and in a beautiful touch of irony, first surf, my mate threw the Buzz, and it speared a hole 3/4 of the way through my new stick. In hindsight, it was definitely a better board, but I don't know where it is now. It was Mint. From (hazy) memory, it was quite flat, with a bit of a rail lip, like a concave drawn out to the extremities, leading into the pins. What got me thinking about performance singles was the idea of an extreme concave/ spiral vee (1/2" or so) leading to pins, maybe substituting for fins. I don't know that ultra tight arcs are aesthetically better than a nice, functional carve, in the hands of an elite athlete. I can picture Joel Parkinsons surfing, but faster, and with less wiggles..
There’s a good point…faster with less wiggles. Not bad in my book.
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This evening I watched Kelly Slater and co. ripping on a single on the dvd ‘thicker than water’, and I was wondering if singles had evolved to their full potential,
I watched that for the first time last night as well and was wondering the same thing, in fact that what i came to post this morn…trip eh Im going to try it for board #2, doubt it will go as good as that green one though…
G’day cliffsloco,
What are you thinking? A traditional style board, or more modern outlines? The boards that Michael Peterson rides in Morning of the Earth look to have a full outline, with quite a bit of rocker, and he carves. Can't beat a bit of talent, eh?
if you want to see Joel Parkinson surfing a single fin , look no further than 1977 Surfing World magazine , and old movies with burleigh and kirra in them
Darryl Parkinson .
Yep, Joel’s UNCLE !!
ben
Yeah, I’ve had a few sessions at the ‘Superbank’, fortunate enough to have seen, amongst others, Darryl Parkinson, albeit on a thruster. One winter morning I copped a sly grin from Rabbit as he flew by about 6’ back in the barrel on a single, three seconds before I bounced off the sandbar. I have my doubts about paddle-out-etiquette.
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G’day cliffsloco,
What are you thinking? A traditional style board, or more modern outlines? The boards that Michael Peterson rides in Morning of the Earth look to have a full outline, with quite a bit of rocker, and he carves. Can’t beat a bit of talent, eh?
I love the traditional style but since im finishing up a traditional fish perhaps something with a little more modern design sounds fun, besides ill need all the help i can get on a single:) havent seen MOTE yet. But im into the flow thing at the moment…Im going to check the archives and see what people have done, ill post when I know more…what are you thinking?
The waves we get up here are, at best, pretty average in the power stakes. I was thinking something in the 6’-6’4" range. I’m 187 cm, 94 kg, so I was thinking about something flat, as turning a board is less of a concern than glide speed. Home break has a jacking take-off followed by a FAAAAT section, followed by a racy-hollow section about thirty metres length. Probably a fishy styled nose shape, maybe 12", through to something in the area of 19 1/2"-20" wide @ 2" forward of centre. I’m not sure about tail shape, but it won’t be a pin, maybe a round/square. There are plenty of fin templates to play with here. I’d like to have a play with a flat bottom throughthe front foot, fast transition to deep concave in front of the fin, to a mild spiral vee out the tail. All I need now is the bosses’ permission…
The single fin that defines all performance single fins began with the lazor zap and currently exist with nugget style shapes. The last singlefins to be ridden on the world tour all the way up to the mid nineties were Zap style singles. I am wondering why after that, guys like Al Merrick continue to work on a design that 95% of the surfing world saw as inferior even by the standard back then. In the eighties most guys that still made singles and put double bump swallows on them or wider rounder tails.
I like the outline of the little CI and Rob Machado’s surfing on them is something to behold. Beautiful to watch, but the wider tail, hull bottom, and soft rails of the zappy style singles seem to be able to give you a single that can handle a variety of conditions. Once the twinnie came out, many on the tour still road singles, but only used them in Hawaii or big surf. I also like that little boards Buttons used to ride with the fat tail and fat nose. The yellow one. That guy killed it on singles.
I would like to see some of todays shapers do their own versions of some of the wide tailed stuff. Maybe a new era of experimention will begin and we can kill the potatoe chip once and for all.
I am not against old school singles either. Nothing nicer to look at than mid seventies rounded pintail, but only good for certain types of waves.
…a modern thruster shape with a 6.5´´ single fin and a stabilizer behind (in the same line)… works really well in hollow beach break conditions, also its better than a thruster in a floater recovery (when you hit the bottom)…
i use this config for long time since 1998…in a 6 3´´
I’m glad to hear the in-line getting some use, Reverb.
I’ve made and ridden six footers in one foot slop, to a seven two in overhead waves. Definitely better than a single.
A young friend of mine had sadly never ridden a single, liked the way my 6’5" in-line looked, so he took it for a surf. You could tell he had trouble working out how to turn it at first, as he had learned on and only ridden thrusters.
After a few waves and working out his feet position, he took off on a bomb, backhand, and got a three second stand-up dry tube. I almost couldn’t believe my eyes.
He admitted it was not as loose and skatey as his thruster, but agreed the control of line, power, speed and acceleration was something he had never experienced. And the grin on his face after the tube was satisfying for me.
Maybe I’m just a junkie, but I have to admit, the feeling of purity and uncluttered simplicity of singles/in-line allowed my surfing to improve, both technically and instinctively. Over ninety five percent of all boards I’ve made have been performance singles, and in the last ten years in-line.
The other five percent were just confirmations.
I have had a couple of singles over the years . the most memorable was one I had made after watching curren on one in litmus. I had an outer Island shaped 6’8 and it was a rocket . loved it. took my surfing to another level.
however thrusters are more user frendly so to say . and that is what I ride now.
Chip there is an MP on ebay at the moment
…the secret is the thruster shape but without the 3 fins…these boards dont have the old singles shape problems… user friendly in a minute…
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…the secret is the thruster shape but without the 3 fins…these boards dont have the old singles shape problems… user friendly in a minute…
Like I said, original zap outline. Wider Tail, narrower nose equals more fun with singles. I thought the Hawks produced some really nice singles for Wind and Sea back in the eighties.
…in the end , Hyatt, I would say try a few different single fins. [Maybe NOT the one in my “avatar” photo , though ?!]
An inline, a thruster with one big fin [no sides] , a mid to late seventies original [if you can score / borrow one]…make a couple of different ones for yourself …over a period of time…
Scour the archives , talk to any single fin riding locals lurking at your home break[?], maybe draw up a few outlines for yourself…see what YOU like the look of.
Find what works …for YOU , in YOUR waves !
Everyone you ask will probably have their favourite design , and opinion , and that’s cool …I guess these forums are about that , too.
…but, in the end , have FUN ! …trying lots of different stuff ! [ I know I do !]
ben