Hello.
I have been analysing video clips at 30 frames per second and have calculated that I have reached a speed of 27+ miles per hour on a head high, mushy, but fast breaking wave at my local beach. Would anyone like to post their own speeds? (estimates based on gps, video analysis, or just plain guesswork)
Zoom Zoom,
Roy
Honestly, I read your posts with interest, and I think you are intelligent and well meaning!
But now you are just so full of sh…
Guys dropping in at Wiamea say they go around 23 mph, max.
Your tunnel fin is just magic, eh?
Maybe you better need to re calculate your figures, and askew them more toward reality.
Well Lee,
I have been as careful as I can with my measurements, which of course may be a little inaccurate. The easiest way to get a really accurate figure is with gps technology.
Why do you find it so surprising that I can reach this kind of speed? a lot of people here have been very active in explaining that conventional boards are built with an emphasis on maneuverability. Speed has not been the main aim of surfboard design. We are the exception to this convention.
Guys dropping into Waimea are dropping down the face. The fastest position on a wave is angling across the wave, but you already know this.
I hope you are not questioning my honesty. That would be a mistake.
Motor vehicles used to do 10 mph. Things change.
Life is full of surprises!
Roy
PS sometimes I am going faster than I have claimed here.
WHY, you ask!
I have been a competitive water ski jumper for a number of years.
Can surf.
Been windsurfing almost at the top level since 1986.
Have some buds who are into the tow surfing thing.
All correlations seem to imply the average planing speed of a surfboard in “normal”, not Maalea Bay waves is around…15mph, going fast!
For a double glassed, 9’6" x 20" Wiamea designed gun to last more than 10 days windsurfing is IMPOSSIBLE! I broke TWO, one Steve Colleta, one Morgan Brewer. Both stressed fractured the bottoms, from in front of the fin to just in front of WP, multiple stress fractures starting 2nd day, first about 5" apart, then filling in rapidly.
Windsurfers travel around 26mph, in our area (SanFrancisco Bay). The pounding thru the chop, and such speeds, just tears up the surfboards.
And tow surfing practice at Cojo convinces me that normal funboards can’t handle much more than 13mph boardspeeds, and 6’8" x 18.5 semi guns maybe handle up to around 20 mph, then get sketchy, vibrating, oscillating, catching rails alternatively.
That’s towed behind a Avon with 40horse motor.
That’s why waterskis start to plane up at app. 23mph, notice they are narrow and thin!
But really, you are compromising your credibility with that statement.
Lee,
My wife photographs and watches every surf session we have. She has been telling me for years that when our boards are moving fast, that they are going three times the speed of the other boards in the water. This may or may not be true, but the fact is that I am going close to the speeds which I have mentioned. The point that I am making is that the difference is obvious with the naked eye.
Your scepticism appears to be based on two main arguments.
That I couldn’t be going faster than famous surfers.
That I couldn’t go that fast or my boards would break up or handle badly.
Neither of these are sensible replies.
You mention that "normal’ surfboards get ‘sketchy, vibrating, oscillating, and catching rails’ at 20 mph. This has been exactly my point about conventional boards, but please realize that my boards are able to handle speed very well.
I don’t appreciate any inference that my honesty is in question, but I do understand that your mind is having trouble accepting what is going on. That is to be expected.
27mph is not very fast. Closeouts at my local beach go much faster, and I am always trying to catch them.
Roy
perhaps a video can clear things up here. even better is a video with another surfer on a conventional board on the same wave as a reference.
We don’t need to question your wifes credibility here, do we? 3 times faster…eh?
OK, I’ll get off your case.
Let’s just say …your board and fin combo, combined with your skill, is considerably faster than most, OK?
I know every new step in mankind has to start somewhere, so hopefully, your’s is starting the moment other surfers see you surfing!
Them closeouts can be really fast, faster than most speeding cars…easily.
Hello J,
The best bet is a gps unit. I hope to have one soon. As far as having a surfer on a conventional board on the same wave goes, how do you keep both riders on the video screen when they are far apart? I will see what I can do about a video clip.
Regards, Roy
Bob Shepard in the very early 60’s, installed a marine speedometer on his Waimea balsa gun, he was reaching speeds of 27 MPH, but did this include the water rushing up the face? 27 mph isn’t that fast, sprinters almost reach that speed, so how fast can boards go? Ask the Jaw’s crew
to measurie the swimming speed of filter feeding fish (menhaden) in a 8 ft circular tank, we filmed them from above using a small 8 mm movie camera. we ran the film through a microfishe machine with clear acetate on the screen, and marked the fishes nose on the acetate, forwarded 5 frames marked again, and repeated (Fishery Bulletin, vol 78, 1981). Since the film was at 9 frames a second, we could calculate speed by measuring distance betwen the tic marks and doing math. We were able to film from an ideal view-point and had distance calibration marks on the tank bottom. Those calibration features don’t exist in the surf, so if really careful maybe accurate to within a few mph of the true speed. I have wondered about pitot tubes on a surfboard to measure speed, like used on aircraft, especially cool because pitot tubes would measure the speed relative to the water, not to the air.
Roy you can easily find your speed using a similar method. Have the wife setup the camera on a tripod. Then after catching a wave have her point it down the wave. Now keeping the camera completly still have you surf by with your board in full view. By knowing the length of the board you can use that as a reference. Measure how far it travels in the frames. The reference can be the board. And the distance the board travels can be calculated by using the board as a scale, OR simply paint two white stripes on the board that will be visiable from the beach and on camera. These stripes need to be say 5 feet from leading edge to leading edge. Now measure how far on each frame the stripes move. It’s imparitive that you be directly in front of the camera to get the max speed otherwise the angles start to come into play. I’ve got some video editing software that can be used to help out by rotating and slowing the frames down. I can make a video describing the process used and caculated speed if you can get me the video.
In the windsurfing world, we’ve been trying to measure our actual boatspeeds since 1984, and all the impellor speedos, electronic sensors, and marked poles in the world have never solved the problem of direction, current, +'s and -'s of electronic gadget equipement, their sensitivity to sunspots or current events until they decided to just limit the direction of travel…to a narrow pond!
Still, most “experts” regard the actual top speed of 54.6 mph by Finian Maynard to be just a close estimate, give or take 8 mph.
A fun exericise, but of no practical value.
Who really wants to surf a go fast, straightline oriented plank that…goes straight and fast?
Most makeable waves can be made by any board piloted by a competent surfer.
And perception is a funny thing. Didn’t someone on this BB say a softy 5’3" acrylic board is the “fastest” he’s ever seen?
I’m always skeptical of claims people make regarding any topic that seems illogical or counter intuitive. Roy’s claim is both in my opinion, so I am skeptical. Tell me. What is a mushy, but fast wave? In 32 years I have never ridden one. Mike
Another fun thread !
AH two points If you use a GPS you will get your speed over the ground not through the water, so the speed reading would combine your board speed and the waves speed
Good if that is what you want, Note that this would depend on the swell origin,bottom type ,peeling speed etc of the wave
Example a wave peeling along a shore line and a wave like tahiti which sucks up and then over a reef will both have differing speed of advance relitive to the original swell direction
If you want pure through the water speed you will need an impellor or sensor mounted on the board it self, so that all you are measuring is only the board speed and not including the wave speed
Have fun arguing this one guys
Me I know when im going fast my vision narrows,things get darker,my eyes sink back in there sockets my cheeks start to ripple and --ah what the hell no body would believe me any way
Hello Rooster,
A mushy but fast wave is one that peels very fast but is not hollow.
Where I live we get them all the time
Roy
Lee,
Um, sorry to disappoint you but a fast board does not have to go only straight. It is necessary to turn to position the board for speed. We are talking about longer curves, not straight lines. How do you decide what a makeable wave is? Here’s how, by making them! We are analysing video clips at 30 frames per second. I think that thrusters go a lot faster than has been realised, but only in hollow waves. Also commercial videos are speeded up so it’s hard to tell.
Excuse me for stirring everyone up Lee, it’s just a habit I have got.
Regards, Roy
I thoroughly enjoy the products of everyones labors, here at Swaylocks, yet I seem that the major design flaws in every board / theory / logic & perception is the introduction of SUPER EGO>
It makes my stomach churn. It just seems to insignificant little me, that a major setback in life is the extrovertive expression of ego. I apologize, I just would like to see the contribution to the greater good, not the school yard squabble that occasionally occurs. C’mon. It’s like watching my parents fight when I was kid> I feel a semi unconditional love for all the contributors here, Y’all amaze me with talent / insight / flow form thought / creativity, that it is poisoned with me! me! me! claims. I stood in awe today of a fighter jet screaming thru the sky and the thought to myself, all that engineering for… fear, death, freedom? Fast yes, who cares about records? Really…
Then thought of the biplane rolling flowing stalling in grace for…? A rant! I understand.
( YES the biplane was once a weapon too.) how I yearn some times for the expressive ability of Ambrose and others… brain too fast and muddled, fingers too slow… Bottom line, c’mon people. MY challenge to to everyone,to see who can enjoy themselves the most ,to feel inner satisfaction, and only brag to themself. Innerstoke with minimal outward experssion ( BESIDE SMILE HOOT ETC) brings the greatest reward for ones soul (IMHO).
I hope someone feels where I’m comin from.
Respectfully,
MY challenge to to everyone,to see who can enjoy themselves the most ,to feel inner satisfaction, and only brag to themself. Innerstoke with minimal outward experssion ( BESIDE SMILE HOOT ETC) brings the greatest reward for ones soul (IMHO).I hope someone feels where I’m comin from.
Respectfully,
I feel where you are coming from…when I’m surfing. But don’t forget, we’re in a surfboard design forum right now, and this kind of discussion is exactly appropriate.
as I read the various inclusions in this thread I reflected on my oppertunity to measure my speed on a particular wave… my study on my home made electro encephlograph reading of my photographic memory…and came up with the figure of 187,000 miles per second . which is at the threshold of the speed of light and that my friends settles the question of who may be the fastest human in the history of mankind…I would like to thank Kevin Breedlove for Inspiring me in that weekly reader article and thanks to the sun for going down to remind me of the difference between day and night… ambrose…cool crescent moon,what a planet we live on aint it great and exactly the oldest un answered un measureable topic in our adolescent sub culture…no I wasn’t riding my mat and I think I saw a mat pass me up…dont look into the laser when you go past the inside time gate Dora is aiming it at everybody’s eyes
Hey Ambrose you have done it man,only due to the complexitys of illusion of light you have exceded the light and miss read the dial
You see light only goes at 162,000 nautical miles per second which is just a shade under your 187,000 miles per second you think you saw quite understandable given the circumstances
well done the record stands long live the king