"Kirk and I usually shape that into boards with a little more width to keep the width from hanging up"
That would explain why I have had good sucess with it. My rides are all around 20.5" wide.
Thanks for taking the time to share your vast amount of surfboard knowlege with us. The learning curve for most of us has been drastically reduced because of your willingness to share.
Happy Holidays
Well, there's a lot of structural/composite/technology stuff I can't share (it's proprietary), so I really enjoy helping out with basic design and shaping technique questions. I'm very happy, and flattered, that you guys appreciate it. Keeping the underground/handshaper thing going is important or surfboards will turn into commodity products built by the lowest bidder.
We DO appreciate your input Mike!!..
The tip explaining the reason for ending the concave short of the rails on a wider board, should be written down in most board builders notes here…
I personally don’t mind sharing any composite structural knowledge that I’ve learned, but I can fully understand the reluctance from any Pro builder , with proprietary interests , contributing here…
I do this for fun , mostly, so I’m thrilled to tell all of what I’ve learned…
I was never very good at keeping a secret…lol
Hey Mike, this is one subject I have always talked about , never here though. I never really agreed with a full concave[ I have been using concaves since 76] and obviously all the while the young guys were proving my thoughts wrong, because of how great they surf on them, I now think that the young guys[ pros , good surfers, fit old barstards same] are over powering their boards in the top turns and when you have to ride what you have to because of birthdays[plenty] or weight or both , the board that you can catch waves on might have a bit too much foam in it to over power, well then I think the old vee comes into play, I put a double in to it. I get the speed of the concave and get to change direction , with power. Apparrently its the new thing to move the concave further forward, maybe some young gurus are having birthdays or perish the thought, putting on weight, not as fit as they used to be.I know my bottoms work in the good waves.
yes well remember the tri hull being a much more stable config than the cat?
good to see you back on here harry
cheers huie
What sort of foam pad is best to clean up the planer/surform marks in a deep single concave?
Yeah, harris. That's about the way I look at it too. As volume goes up, the concaves decrease or go away. Because you can't overpower a high volume board. The really good surfers need something ''submissive'' (one of my customers described it that way, I thought it was a good word), while us older guys need a bit more volume so we can get going. The double through a little V is one of my tried and true options, shaped thousands of those. I do more hpsb than anything else these days so I'm doing deep singles most of the time.
tubedemon, the foam pad is just for final scratch removal. I'd advise the diagonal blocking for taking out the planer marks.
Mike,
Does concave make the board sit higher or lower in the water? What about single vs. double? I, too, appreciate your generous insight, as well as all the other gurus’.
The shaper that helped me with my first board called diagonal blocking cross hatching.
Higher or lower? Static = lower; add dynamics and it should be higher. Put it on a rail and don't worry about it. I'm not real big on applying boat theories to a lot of surfing situations.
Single or double? That's a complex subject. Theories aside, practical experience indicates that double goes rail-to-rail a little easier (off the spine of V in center?), so it's useful on wider tails/higher volumes. For most low-volume hpsb, the big single is hard to beat for the way most people want to surf.
“double goes rail-to-rail a little easier (off the spine of V in center?), so it’s useful on wider tails/higher volumes.”
For me, doubles also go rail-to-rail better in big surf than singles. Even though they’re generally narrower boards with narrower tails, they go better IMO when you’re going very fast.