I grew up with Single fin surfing.When living on the North Shore (70’s) I was out at PIPE when Simon Anderson paddle out on a thruster for the first time. He out surfed everyone including Shaun Thomson that day. Don’t get me wrong I named Shaun after him! The kids today have really mastered them. People think that they are so easy to make? I think longboards and retros are much easier than a High Performance Shortboard to make. It’s not the board it’s self it’s more the rider it’s intended for. They need to be fine tuned to provide the magic these guy’s are needing to surf at the level they desire…
I shape everything however the biggest challenge is to make the Thruster that lights a fire under the feet of the surfer!
The beauty of the CNC and Digital Scan is the ability to reproduce the magic over and over and for anyone that desires to take their surfing to a higher level.
I just watched it again and I see what you mean, this brings me to my earlier comment of why I think concaves work - i don’t think the extra rocker curve in the rail compared to the stringer has much to do with it - that can be achieved with a V bottom where the v increases in the tail and nose. Instead what I think it does is make a board more reactive when tipped from side to side in small rail to rail movements. Looking at a cross section of a concaved boards the edges of the hull are “turned down” and thus require less banking to get a greater angle of sink. I’ve borrowed my mates McCoy Nugget which takes the opposite approach with its rolled hull - although i liked the board and it has its good points the downside for me was that it was a bit slow in the slop and didn’t react the way I normally expect when doing small rail to rail manouvres on a shortboard, despite the nugget being shorter and looser in the more definate turns than my concaved shortboard - i think these little manouvres can generate speed particularly in weak waves and the concaves help the board feel more reactive (but maybe its my imagination!). However everyone surfs different so Wildy maybe with you, the little manouvres are a 3 fin tracking thing?
there are a number of really good surfers where I surf and they are way ahead of the ordinary guys, I went surfing a few times while the pros were practising before the Easter competition (not the easiest way to get waves but I was reasonably lucky with my choice of moments) and the pros are way ahead of the really good locals! However even the ordinary guys like me can do small rail to rails (wiggling) in the slop so I think that the ordinary guys can get good use out of features such as the concave that the pros like
I started surfing on single fins, back when 6’6" was everyones board of choice. Post longboard, but pre 3 fins. Learning to do low leaning rail turns, fingers brushing the wave face and (trying to!!) get smooth transitions rail to rail.
When 3 fins took off, several times I tried the same board with one, then three fins. No doubt 3 fins were easier to turn, I mean the front fins were smaller and way forward compared to the single at the time, so it was logical. And compared to twin fins I had, and tried, they were much more stable.
But I always came across the tracking obstacle, every board. Present boards and fins are much better, I have to admit that, but there are alternatives that perform better for me that do not have rail fins.
The three fin thing made a lot of (sometimes bad) designs work, regardless the fine tuning. But my thoughts are that overall board design has now lagged a bit… a fair bit. Not all bad, they’ve just been fine tuned to get the most out of the three fins.
You seem like a top bloke SurfDing and your son is an excellent surfer.
Here is my honest feedback on seeing this.
Very standard underpowered modern thruster surfing.
Too much rocker in the board, not enough length in any turn.
Way too much emphasis on surfing off the fin cluster and tail concaves as opposed to full rail turns.
As Wildy noted, the pre-turn turn to keep water moving through the fin cluster and maintain forward thrust and drive is a common symptom of underpowered, over-rockered boards…notice how the top guys are now eliminating this from their surfing…in particular Joel Parkinson.
Would’ve looked current 5 or more years ago…now looks way too flicky and slidey.
he looks like a solid, fit bloke…I’d like to see some more beef and rail comittment in all of those turns…he’s obviously got the core strength for it.
Take that vid and honestly compare it to Taylor Knox and Parko in particular…then look at his dims and rocker measurments.
Don’t mean to offend…but there’s no point joining a group hug if it’s only dispensing BS.
I took Lennox’s advice and watched some video of Parkinson and Knox. Absolute ripping. Jeffries Bay and what looked like one of those perfect Australian points that line up and tube until your quads cramp up. The three look pretty similar in terms of power surfing in strong surf. Pre-turn turns by all and full rail turns. I can see what he’s talking about when surfding’s kid is surfing mushy California stuff. But, it looks like a talented guy having fun sliding around in mushy surf. When comparing apples to apples though the surfing looks pretty similar to me. I don’t spend a lot of time ‘studying’ this stuff, though. Mike
The thing that stuck out to me was the boat zoo in indo… good loyd… I’d be loath to spend a whole lot of money and have to deal w/all that… but then again… If I got a couple hand fulls of those sweet right hand barrels I may feel different.
On the rocker, I’v looked at enough new shortys w/the kick behind the front fins, and feel good about putting mine about about 5" in front of the front fins… Hmmm, maybe I should go w/4.5, just like the distance back to the back quad fins, but then agian… sorry to go “OT”
Damn! That kid of yours flat out rips. Even though I see this level of surfing in person all winter here on the north shore, amazing talent is just that, amazing. Proud dad should be beaming IMO
The thing that stuck out to me was the boat zoo in indo… good loyd… I’d be loath to spend a whole lot of money and have to deal w/all that… but then again… If I got a couple hand fulls of those sweet right hand barrels I may feel different.
Average wave count is 20 waves per hour x 6 hours of surfing = 120 waves per day x a 10 day surf trip = 1,200 waves per trip. Compared to surfing California it’s still worth every penny for a boat trip! You have to be fit as well!
is it really possible to make a thruster that you don’t have to keep doing turns on to keep water moving through the fin cluster to maintain speed? Or do you mean that he should always keep doing microturns instead of doing a ‘preload’ turn before the big turn? What would you change in the board to get it the way you want it, and next question wouldn’t that sacrifice some vertical performance and the ability to throw the tail around?
It’s funny you mention Taylor Knox, he is a very powerful surfer but on some videos I have there seems to be something really weird with his board. Even in long bottom turns the nose keeps bouncing up and down. To me it looks like the rocker and fins turning radius is way out of sync and both are fighting for control. Not good.
Surfding,
I think the vid is great. Wish I could surf half as good as that, you must be one proud dad.
Well - let’s see. I could easily do 4 hours, and if I only got 10 per hour, that only 40 per day, so only @ 400 perfect waves… Hmmm… I’m gonna keep saving then. What’a ya know about just staying at Lungadi Bay?
By land it’s way less money. Go for it. Even if you only got 200 perfect waves in a week it’s still most likely more waves than your home break after 2 years? Surf Trips to INDO? PRICELESS!
