hey jip …
yep it had glass ons before …i make all my own fins as im very particular about foils …when i made fins to fit the futures boxes the foils and templates were the same , there was some small differences at the base , but the fact the board was different was more to do with flex than anything else …
if you have glass ons or shallow boxes that dont tie to the deck your board can flex way more…
for your board to flex it needs maximum shear movement … when you tie the deck to the bottom you eliminate shear , so now you cant use flex as part of the equation …
stopping the flex in just the last 18" of the tail still meant it affected the overall flex even at the centre …
coz even if just the centre of your board flexes , itll still transfer load right to the tail …bend a book sometime and youll see what i mean …
speaking of flex …
check out the boxes im making now …
im doing a rockered version , for obvious reasons …thinned it down so the box is lighter , but best of all ive got the boxes to flex , to reduce the load where the box contacts the board , and also to flex and move freely with the skin of the board …
ive pretty much had to make these if i want my boards to work well and be able to offer a fin system …
not taking anything away from all the other systems , its just that none of them are designed specifically for high performance sandwich boards …
also tubedog , your dead right about subtle changes …
move a fin 1/8th or tweak your tail rocker 1/8th in the wrong spot ,maybe pull your tail in 1/4 and youve ruined your board …
my boards havent really changed in over a decade , once you work out exactly what works for you ,after that it comes down to real small changes , most of which dont make it go any better , just different in different conditions
that pin on the board you were talking about does make for a tighter tail hook in the pocket , once your weight transfers right to the tail of the board on the transition you start using the last 4" of outline curve , only when your hard up in the lip can you feel it working … it allows you to tighten the turn super tight without feeling like you cant push it hard enough into a tight spot , so no need for a drift to complete the direction change …that means you get to the bottom before the lip does , so your ready for another one straight away …
if you keep it running straighter all the way to the tail , like a swallow or square … you end up having to complete the final stage of a tight hook with a slide , once you get drift , it becomes lost recovery time, which quite often leaves you floundering in your next bottom turn , so your not powered up for another reo straight away …
not that i know what a wave feels like lately …
ive had 3 times as many sandboarding sessions as i have had surfs …
its been about 8 or 9 days without a decent swell , a few more days till we get one …
thatll be 2 weeks …
before sandboarding i woulda just surfed the knee to waist high days … but now the rush of a decent dune drop and long carves into a bowl or a bust off a vert section carved out by the wind ,means the not so good surf days become dune surfing sessions …i think in the last few weeks sandboard production has over taken surfboard production …im all amped to try out new designs every few days …
im so glad im not locked into running a production anymore …hm looks like i got sidetracked from the thread … um my sandboards have s curve tails as well ??
regards
BERT