Not that I’m an expert, but if you ask me a ski or snowboard works with sidecut along the entire thing because it’s much easier to have the entire edge in contact with the snow. A lot of a surfboard is out of the water half the time. If anything I think the sidecut at the back third or so of the board makes more sense than the entire thing being sidecut.
I’ve always wanted to try that hayden board.
I always thought the loop on a Blake was a handle, not some sort of fin.
Just my $0.02. Mountainboards have similar shapes to snow boards. Wider front and tail for foot placement and leverage. Totally different dimensions than a surfboard.
Plus or minus value: a narrower center section should have more flex, logitudinal and torsional.
Overall maximum velocity and G force experienced on snowboards and skis would be greater than that exerted on surfboards. Snowboards and skis are narrower than surfboards.
Mountainboards use deck camber in combination with deck shape. I believe snowboards use camber too. Should surfboards have camber?
Wider front and rear sections on a snowboard will create greater nose and tail dig (drag) under the rider’s feet when up on the rails. Better traction under feet with less center drag?
Given surfboard dimensions overall, will this have the same efffect?
Sorry if this has been discussed before, but I think the shape of contemporary skis and snowboards is largely due to the fact, that a majority of them is used on groomed slopes, i.e. hard surfaces, which has nothing to do with surfing actually.
Snowboarding deep powder might be a different matter however, but snowboards built specifically to ride deep powder look different than regular (sidecut) snowboards.
Thats what i thought as well till i did some resurch about him when i was building one.
tsk tsk, you guys are worse than high school girl fashionistas when it comes to making fun of something different or outside the box.
Here’s the design philosophy from Trinity Technologies regarding their boards:
This system reduces friction, thus massively increasing speed.
1- BUOYANCY: Parabolic surfboard, based on enhanced nose width, allows an increase of buoyancy. This is an advantage for surfers of all levels.
2-STABILITY: The Parabolic Surfboard has two wide points (similar to skateboards or snowboards) rather than one as previously known on conventional surfboards.
3-MANEUVERABILITY: The parabolic rail makes turning easier by the cutting through the water in the same direction as the fins. This combined turning action reduces the effort needed to make turns and so enables a more manoeuvrable surfboard.
4-SPEED: The Trinity Surfboard’s rails help the water flow to spread the pressure along the board. The water accelerates down the tapered body of the board, causing higher planing speeds.
more from their website http://www.trinityboardsport.com/?lang=en
I’m an engineer by trade and a skier by obsession. I remember perfectly the day our trainer showed us skis with curved sides: “Try these and experience a miracle,” he said.
But to the surprise of the skiing world they were here to stay and became what we call ‘carving skis’. Although very few of in the sector recognised the potential at first glance, parabolic technology went on to revolutionise the world of skiing in the ‘90s.
With our expertise designing the sails of giant aero-generators we have mastered a technology that applied the ‘carving effect’ to surfboards, realising the same benefits that were seen in the skiing world: Easier turning, greater speed, improved stability, more tolerance for error, easier paddling and greater wave-catching ability
Thanks H’Skipper. I built one too and I have yet to put any bits on the tail.
1- BUOYANCY: Parabolic surfboard, based on enhanced nose width, allows an increase of buoyancy.
I rarely reject something because it is different. But I have problems with the first claim about buoyancy alone.
Buoyancy is determined by volume and density.
Haha what?.. You mean 100lbs of bricks don’t weigh more than 100lbs of feathers?
Pretty sure its the position of the buoyancy with respect to the the surfers body when paddling and the surfers feet when up and riding, that creates a different feel, so the paddle and the surfability could be effected by the points of buoyancy.
You can have a 35 litre board with a huge amount of rocker paddle like a dog and turn like a mini. and a 35 litre board with a low rocker paddle like a dream and turn like a semi trailer.
And yes the Board pictured above was made to look like a male appendage but the footage of him surfing it shows the board actually surfing amazing. So perhaps if you can look past the phallic nature of the boards you could find they also go amazing?
nicely said huck, open minds…
“Amazing”?
Looked like a dog being drug around. It didn’t want to do what he was making it do imo.
I wouldn’t write of the side cut compleatly if the board had egnough flex but i think the boards look like conventional construction their allso no shots of the rocker.
If there had some hair and two balls in a big sack on the back that might help.( not realy)
How would a board padde if the rocker was reversed?
It has been successful in sailboards, the flat water version
Sorry m8 ill try look past it tomorrow, lm a bit exhausted.
Gordof “regardless of any of these arguments, the “looks like a penis” argument wins, hands down : )”
Haha one must always revert to the science when seeking the truth!
Saw this on a surfersvillage blog/ review…
Interesting sums it up pretty well.
The design is based on side-cut principles. Side-cuts are nothing new to surfboards. From the designs of Y (Tom Morey) to Meyerhoffer, forward-thinking shapers have been borrowing from the snowboard for a while now.
The premise is that without a traditional eliptical outward-bulging rail line water will flow more smoothly around the middle part of the board, while the fastest planing, widest parts of a board’s template are kept under your front and back.
When the board is set into a turn, because of this sidecut, there is less resistance to water when the board is laid into a bottom turn or cutback. In video clips you can see a quicker direction change when a surfer leans into a turn on The Cornice.
I have to ask if those of you making the snowboard comparisons actually ride snowboards? I just measured mine and the sidecut is less than an inch. It also flexes a hell of a lot more than a surfboard.
When flexed and placed on edge on a hill, the sidecut essentially becomes a non issue and allows nearly full edge contact with the snow during a turn.
I don’t see that happening with a sidecut surfboard but I don’t doubt the ability of certain riders to make them work. I do however doubt the explanation often given for any success riders might enjoy, especially when the snowboard comparison is made.
When a surfboard sidecut is examined, it is easy to make the implication that the narrower portion of the outline recues drag but does it not make sense that the forward and aft sections experience increased drag, thus negating the effect of the narrow waist?
To the op: do an archive search using “Meyerhoffer peanut” to pull up several discussions from the past on the side cut rails.
Theory and talk are one thing, and it’s fun to analyze what we think will work or not, but in the end it’s just about shaping it up and giving it a try.
Too many variables and unknowns to ever fully analyze a surfboard design from an armchair without somebody paddling the dang thing out and riding a few waves.
Anyway didn’t you say you had a Meyerhoffer peanut and liked the shape?
