dirt clip stalls at cutback, the continues a while before completely stopping…
yes the clip freezes momentarily when dirt cuts back, then continues … but later it freezes adn that’s it… don’t load no more. ( could be i’m using firefox – will give it a lash with I-Explorer)
I like the Davis/Wojcik and Peach clips too … i notice them riding further back too, but they also shift up and trim. cool style i think… all of it smooth and flowy. Refreshing and mezmerizing to me.
why do these damn movies take so long to be ‘released’? ( hydrodynamica, displacement, ‘movies found in a garage’) … well anyway, i got that One California Day dvd on order and it should be here soon… looking fwd to seeing the hull riding i’ve heard about.
dirt clip does the same thing with IE.
And Safari (Mac).
Wow Ryan! I really like the foil on that one. Is that board staying around SB? If so, I’d like to check it out in person some time.
Do you have any other photos of it? Nice work.
That’s great that Greg posted some more clips. Any new hulling footage we can get is nice considering how little of it is publicly floating around out there at the moment.
The Dirt footage (as to be expected) is impressive. His flow through sections and the radicalness of some of those turns are something to strive for. The slowed-down turn in particular… I’m really intrigued by his style and approach to riding these boards. It’s much more longboard oriented than you can tell from still photos. It has a definite Malibu/Dora “thing” to it, with the footwork, hand jive, etc. I was also interested to see how far forward he cross steps to trim through certain sections and carry his speed. I tend to trim from the middle or maybe slightly ahead of middle and then step back and widen my stance as I set up for a cutback. I don’t venture to within a cross step or so of the nose like Steve K. does in the film but perhaps I’ll have to try.
The Peach flex tail footage also really caught my eye. Maybe it’s because the waves were better, but after watching the Dave Lloyd footage, the flex tail seemed to be really taking off and much more “alive.” It didn’t look like it needed to be coaxed at all. One of these days I’m going to have to track down Tony M. and see if I can talk him into making me one.
On a related note… I’ve got two new Andreini Spoons on the way; a 9’8" for me and a 9’4" for my girl. I think they’ll have some hull characteristics to them. I’ll post photos after I meet up with Marc next week to pick them up.
it’s funny, and i know we’ve talked about it before how the hull seems to fuse long and shortboard styles… however to me ( and remember i’ve never seen anyone else ride a hull, 'cept for the videos) i think of a hull as a more of a performance-board influenced thing… or perhaps i should say, what ‘shortboarding’ should strive for. However i do agree strongly with you saying that Kraj’s style incorporates a lot of longboard moves and positioning… especially when he gets up in the pocket and kind of does the soul arch thing while trimming along.
can a flex tail be made out of a regular board, where you can scoop out the tail foam and then lay up more glass?
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It’s much more longboard oriented than you can tell from still photos. It has a definite Malibu/Dora “thing” to it, with the footwork, hand jive, etc. I was also interested to see how far forward he cross steps to trim through certain sections and carry his speed. I tend to trim from the middle or maybe slightly ahead of middle and then step back and widen my stance as I set up for a cutback. I don’t venture to within a cross step or so of the nose like Steve K. does in the film but perhaps I’ll have to try.
On a related note… I’ve got two new Andreini Spoons on the way; a 9’8" for me and a 9’4" for my girl. I think they’ll have some hull characteristics to them. I’ll post photos after I meet up with Marc next week to pick them up.
I’ve also noticed that Steve K. has somewhat of a longboard approach/style. Almost noseriding at times. Also, it you watch some old Dora footage from the 60’s (thanks Sean ; ) ), he surfs an old heavy 10’ board like it was 8’. Also to note that although Dora always has some nice cross-stepping footwork, he also shuffles a bit too. He’s not always cross stepping. Seems like many of the young cool longboarder rippers today ONLY cross-step with lots of little bity steps which looks unnecessary and almost artificial at times.
Steve K. mentioned to me at the “BOJO 58” show that he surfs a 7 or 8’ board like it was a longboard and Miki Dora made surfing a heavy 10’ board look like it was only 8’. I thought that was a very interesting observation.
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can a flex tail be made out of a regular board, where you can scoop out the tail foam and then lay up more glass?
Yes.
His spoons remind me a lot of the ones GL made, very similar lines, step, rocker and bottom contour.
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can a flex tail be made out of a regular board, where you can scoop out the tail foam and then lay up more glass?
The way I’ve seen it done in the past is someone takes their normal hull shape and basically cuts off all of the foam behind the fin box and then re-creates the tail section with just glass and resin. Very similar to the flex tail kneeboards.
Maybe Matt or KP can add some insight or correct me if I’m wrong…
There are three tricks. Trick 1 is how to transition the rail from foam and glass to glass only. You can build it up with resin (that will stiffen up the flex) or build it up with boogie board foam to keep some volume in the rail but still allow flexure.
Trick 2. If you are going to retro fit, you’ll need to reinforce the “hinge” where the flex tail meets the foam. A well engineered flex panel is useless if the hinge is the weak point. Do a combination of reinforcing the bottom and the top at the transition or you can use a thick resin rail to stiffen things up (I think that’s what Massie does).
Trick 3. Make it thick so you can sand it down to tune the flex. It’ll be like foiling a fin. You can really control the shape of flex by thinning out different portions of the panel. Go slow 'cause adding glass later never seems to work.
Lastly, before you start cutting, have an idea what you want the tail to do. Flex up and down? Twist? Up, down, and twist? That’ll help you put the thickness in the right places. Don’t skimp on your grinder. Lotsa different pads (diameter and stiffness) too. Do it right and you’ll find it was well worth it.
Lee,
Thanks for the tips. That all sounds like good advice. It goes to show how much care and thought you have to put into these types of boards in order to get it right. Too much flex or in the wrong plane (twist instead of up/down) or sand down too much or… lot’s of ways to mess up it seems.
I’m not all that gifted with resin work (many botched ding repairs will attest to that) to ever want to take this on myself for fear of butchering a perfectly good board but I sure would love to reap the benefits of someone else’s know-how.
Maybe someone a little more competent (than me) will take your lead and show us their attempt at a flex tail retrofit. Or in the meantime, maybe we can get Kirk to post a pic of the flext tail hanging from the rafters in his garage so we can drool some more.
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Quote:can a flex tail be made out of a regular board, where you can scoop out the tail foam and then lay up more glass?
The way I’ve seen it done in the past is someone takes their normal hull shape and basically cuts off all of the foam behind the fin box and then re-creates the tail section with just glass and resin. Very similar to the flex tail kneeboards.
There was a guy in Bali whose crew of friends, from Australia, I had met in 1978 who made flextails just as you have described. The boards were guns though. Mitchell Rae was his name I think.
I think what attracts me to these types of boards is there transition era riding style, straight out of longboards.Those videos show that well.
http://www.outerisland.com.au/articles/outerislandstory.html
sorry for the three fins
The glass flextails are REALLY fun to play with, I’ve done it to a few of my boards over the last winter with good results; mostly playing with stiffer panels for quicker burst of speed in beachbreaks.
Its a worthy experiment for anyone willing to grind out a perfectly good board!
From KP:
This one was shaped by Tim Bowler in 75 . i sold it
and the late John Bauer found it in Hope Ranch in SB
35yrs later never even used, same wax job I sold it
with, made a deal and got it back, The balsa is
vertical grain , super strong, we got that from
Greenough and Paul Gross. This one flexes about 3’’ up
and down and 2’’ twisting it. It had boogie foam to
blend the transition but I never put my foot that far
back so I took it off.
This is Kirk on the flextail in '75:
Lots of tuning and patching cracks with those . Tony Masial has it down , he pretty much foils them like fins on the one he makes now. Tim Bowler sent me a pic of his newest creation I will try and find it.
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Lots of tuning and patching cracks with those . Tony Masial has it down , he pretty much foils them like fins on the one he makes now. Tim Bowler sent me a pic of his newest creation I will try and find it.
I guess the real question is, how much better of a ride does it give? If you had the choice and it was a practical option, would you rather have a flex tail than not?
i would if it was a wide tail-16" plus. otherwise, i feel the normal tail area isn’t enough to benefit from the flex tail concept
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i would if it was a wide tail-16" plus. otherwise, i feel the normal tail area isn't enough to benefit from the flex tail concept
So I guess they’d work good on those wide trash can lid arc tails. Reminds me on the board LeeV wrote about. I think it was his first hull experience? That was an intriguing story.