SUP Prototype Big Wave Gun

I stood atop half dome

and looked down valley

picked out a spot on el capitan

raised my portable urea sprinkler

and let er fly.

ahl be damned if’n I didn’t hit

above the laser red mark an’

let er run down across the dot in an

arching X

much to the chagrin of the disbelievers.

next stop mt. whitney

last year landed it in shasta lake from mt lassen.

I personally find it gratifying when friends and aquaintances

choose to get along and think compassionately

before allowing their sensibilities to be bruised.

surfing with less confrontation has been my goal

it can cross over into life in general.

I am so pleased when you share good will

and techniques.

when interaction devolves to familar

growling and snarling

the free exchange of information is tainted

aint it?

I have so much to share on this topic

it is unfortunate that the timber

of many of these threads doesnt encourage me.

I tried to be suportive in explaning

to our friend roy your point of view

and he responded quite tactfully.

too bad we couldn’t have gone on from there

without getting …la dat.

good luck with your new board.

…ambrose…

Quote:

CarveNalu,

You insult me by saying that I know nothing about the subject. . . that is going a bit too far. . . I have ridden some fairly large waves in my 40 years of surfing. . . I had something of a reputation for charging bigger stuff on the West Coast in Raglan and Piha back in the 80’s. . on my singlefinned shortboards. . … these days I am riding smaller waves because I have small children who like to get out there too. . . they are disappointed if they have to stay on the beach. … . so be a good chap, don’t make assumptions about what I have and haven’t done please.

Now regarding this width business, it is not my contention that wider is necessarily better in big surf, just that wider can work in bigger stuff, and that it is the tail width (or lack of it) which is mostimportant as waves get bigger. Basically by building a wider board for bigger surf you are saying that wide CAN work in bigger stuff. . . something I have been saying for years. . . I still think that your tail is too wide though.

BTW if RCJ ever tries a tunnel fin on a big wave gun I bet my bottom dollar that he will be sold on it !

:slight_smile:

Hahahahahaha!!!

Quote:

too bad we couldn’t have gone on from there

without getting …la dat.

Oh well…

Aloha! Howzit C.Nalu!?! Please keep your updates coming! Mahalo for sharing your positivity and stoke! I’m working on some SUP projects with my brother the Kaua’i Boy, and I’m sure that we’ll be into some large-wave designs by this winter. Hawaiian surf is a whole 'nother world, and pushing the design limits definitely carries a little more weight. A hui hou! Aloha…RH

Howzit rickholt,

Thanks for the good words… Show your SUP innovations when you make them! Speaking of Kauai… I have plenty friends there… In fact, I left my good, short paddle in Terry Chung’s truck the other week… I better get it soon because we got a nice series of south swells heading our way… I’ll probably fly over on Tue or Wed to get it… If it gets big there’s a spot that breaks like Sunset on the south side here on Oahu… I know you guys got unreal spots that fire too!

From Pat Caldwells latest update…

“Into the long range, a long wave jet stream pattern is forming downunder with a ridge (poleward loop) over eastern australia and the Tasman, and a trough (equatorward loop) east of new zealand. This is a pattern associated with consistent southerly swell for Hawaii. The first storm along this track passed south of new zealand Wednesday night with winds to 50 knots over a broad area in the 190-200 degree band relative to Hawaii. The fetch expanded toward Hawaii, starting at about 65°S and arriving at about 35°S latitude east of new zealand. Winds gradually weakened to mostly 30-35 as the fetch pushed northward. Long period swell of 16-20 seconds should arrive locally next Thursday, leading to borderline high breakers. The episode will likely peak next Thursday night or Friday in the low-end high category with 13-16 second energy from 190-200 degrees. Fetches of 40-50 knot winds are expected to track SE of new zealand with about a 1-2 day spacing starting today, but turning more zonal, or west to east in the flow, as it passes new zealand, yet keeping moderate to near high surf next weekend. Models suggest that the 4TH storm in the series, due SE of new zealand on Monday, could be exceptionally strong, with a sharpening jet stream long wave, meaning more northward orientation of the flow between an extra-strong high pressure of 1045 mb over the Tasman and a broad, deep low E to SE of new zealand. Such an arrangement could lead to extra-large southerly swell locally around 8/1. Long wave patterns change slowly, hinting at an active early August for south swells.”

Quote:
Quote:

CarveNalu,

You insult me by saying that I know nothing about the subject. . . that is going a bit too far. . . I have ridden some fairly large waves in my 40 years of surfing. . . I had something of a reputation for charging bigger stuff on the West Coast in Raglan and Piha back in the 80’s. . on my singlefinned shortboards. . … these days I am riding smaller waves because I have small children who like to get out there too. . . they are disappointed if they have to stay on the beach. … . so be a good chap, don’t make assumptions about what I have and haven’t done please.

Now regarding this width business, it is not my contention that wider is necessarily better in big surf, just that wider can work in bigger stuff, and that it is the tail width (or lack of it) which is mostimportant as waves get bigger. Basically by building a wider board for bigger surf you are saying that wide CAN work in bigger stuff. . . something I have been saying for years. . . I still think that your tail is too wide though.

BTW if RCJ ever tries a tunnel fin on a big wave gun I bet my bottom dollar that he will be sold on it !

:slight_smile:

Hahahahahaha!!!

Go ahead and laugh my friend, they laughed at Burt Munro too. . . . and Richard Pearce. . . . and John Britten. . . .the tunnel fin will be ‘discovered’ by big wave riders, and they will like them, that’s definite.

:slight_smile:

And when they do, I will be happy for you… I may even buy a bright orange wetsuit in tribute to the “Tunnel Fin Guru A.K.A. The King of the Pulled In Pintail A.K.A. King Pin” Its nice to be in the presence of greatness! Power to you ol’ Master of High Velocity

Aloha Carve:

I spent the whole weekend chanting the mantra: " I don’t know SHT but I’m having fun experimenting… I don’t know SHT but I’m having fun experimenting…I don’t know SH*T but I’m having fun experimenting…"

With this in mind, I took my other 12’3" blank to Charlie Wong’s place and templated the blank. We came out with something that will be 12’3" x 20" x 28" x 17" x 4.25". I am going to stick close to the Clark 12’3" natural rockers but just a little less kick in the tail. It should be shaped by this weekend. I wanted to make a sightly smaller SUP for my daughters to use and of course for Lilinoe (da drop in queen of Ali’i Beach). I can also use the board as a crowd control prone paddlers at Pops.

Questions: are you still getting your blanks from Charlie Price and what is the ball park cost per blank? Another question, for the fin set up, should I go 2+1, single or with this new tunnel fin??? (At my age, I could not handle all that speed!) Perhaps, I should not go there, yeah???

It is great to be in the experimental stage where everything is brand new and not quite absolute nor written in stone. I again thank you for being our SUP trail blazer and coming up with all of these neat toys that you share with us.

Mahalo,

D

PS: If your board does not work out as a SUP gun, it would the perfect Waikiki Canoe’s first break South Shore gun for me. Imaging dropping down those big lumps south swells outside at Waikiki and ridding it all the way pass the sandbar and kicking out in front of the pink Royal Hotel. As I ride that big monster from down under I will continue chanting, " I don’t know SHT but I’m having fun experimenting… I don’t know SHT but I’m having fun experimenting…I don’t know SH*T but I’m having fun experimenting…"

Hahahahahaha!!

Quote:

Questions: are you still getting your blanks from Charlie Price and what is the ball park cost per blank? Another question, for the fin set up, should I go 2+1, single or with this new tunnel fin??? (At my age, I could not handle all that speed!) Perhaps, I should not go there, yeah???

All my blanks are custom cut 10-8" and he charges me $220 for 2lb stringers, and rockers already in. Not sure what it would be for a 12 footer… If you do everything yourself, you can buy the block which you could make around 8 of them for roughly 800 something bucks. Hot wire your own rockers, cut out your own stringers etc, etc…

I’m a fan of 3 fins so I always put in 3 boxes… Sounds like you got it going on Uncle D! Can’t wait to see it! I just took 11 blanks down to the APS3000 so I’ll have another new board soon to ride. I’m making a 9’ one for myself and the rest will vary from 10-6" to 9-6" for sale… I been on my 9’-3" wood veneer board I shaped awhile ago and its soooo fun for small wave SUP surfing. Just got 6 days straight of little fun waves on the North Shore… In the middle of July no less!!! Ahwoooooooo!!! Have fun experimenting Uncle D and we’ll talk soon… Oh yeah, I almost forgot… Mahalo’s for the laminates!!! Classic stuff!!!

Sweet as Carvenalu, I’m a sucker for flattery . … any chance of some video action with your new board?

:slight_smile:

Quote:

I’m a sucker for flattery

What? Really??? Could of fooled me!!! Hehe! No plans for video…

If all this below comes together and I can get it done in time I may be able to at least test ride it in something decent… Do you guys get these swells or is it going in the wrong direction? If its good here it must be awesome there?

“Into the long range, two very strong pulses tracked SE of new zealand mid Friday and again late Saturday. These systems aimed mostly at the Americas, with angular spreading expected to bring in 15-20 second low swell, adding to the declining episode on Saturday into Monday, keeping local surf near high from 185-200 degrees. An extremely strong system tracked SE of new zealand Sunday night. This system was also broad, although it is not pushing north just yet. Moderate, very long swell from 185-200 degrees should arrive next Monday making for high to extra-large surf. Models show the system occluding, thus becoming stationary, by late Tuesday due south of Tahiti just north of the Aleutians, with a very broad, long fetch of 30-40 knot winds aiming toward the islands in the 175-195 degree band. A pair of reinforcement storms this Wednesday and again Friday could form just east of new zealand enhancing the wind speeds in the 190-200 degree range. The combination should be an extended period of high surf locally next week into the following weekend from 170-200 degrees. Tropical system Daniel should be west of the islands early next week with moderate trades locally. Long range estimates are subject to major changes. The next collaborative forecast will be issued on Wednesday, July 26.”

Yeah we get swell from those lows, more in Northland, Great Barrier Island and South of East Cape than in the Bay of Plenty though, in the Bay we tend to get biggish grunge and then it drops as it swins past the Cape. . . on the Barrier though those SE swells can keep pumping in endlessly, and clean too. . . amazing to think that you are surfing the same swells. . . in fact it’s possible that we have surfed the same wave, we would get it first, I wonder how much longer it takes the swells to get to Hawaii? . . . do those swells hit Makaha or is it just on the South shore?

:0

South Shores with select spots getting it full on on the west shores and even select east shore spots. Makaha gets some of it too. I’d say around 7-8 days later for us to see it. Usually really clean lines by the time it gets to us but probably a lot smaller and less consistent. Like this first one arriving Thurs will probably have wave face heights around 8 to10’ or so. Tahiti may be double that. If we’re lucky that big one coming will probably be 10-15’ faces. Bigger if we’re really lucky. On occasion we get some really solid waves from your area with 20’ faces… If its gigantic there then we’re in for something epic… In comparison to the North Shore these waves are very mellow at most spots but very fun! Some spots can get meaty though… The good thing about those swells, they are clean and groomed when they travel that far. All we need is local winds to be good then its a happy time in Hawaii for many surfers… The location of these present storms is very good for us!

CARVENALU:

I don’t know SH*T but I’m having fun experimenting!


I agree with UncleD, great sig line! Reminds me of the late bluesman Hound Dog Taylor (he of the 11 fingers), whose self-chosen epitaph is “He couldn’t play SH*T, but he sure made it sound good”… Yeah, I know, way OT :->

-Samiam