If you have been riding your fav board for several months and than take it home and buff and wax the bottom of the board , the next time you surf it , it will IMO , " feel faster " .
True. I first experienced it in 1961. The difference was not so noticeable on the ride, but when paddling you could really feel it.
Huge difference in bottom coat needed at 3 mph or +20.
I saw the 45'ers up close at MarinaGreen, and have been looking at Aussie18's for 10 years. Both with diamond 60 degree, 600 to 800 sanded finish below the water line. If you read boating mags, they say the trimarans used for Spain to WestAfrica, averaging 33mph, topping out around 58mph, had the same sanded bottoms.
I competed in SpeedTrials windsurfing in the early '90's. Everyone sanded along water flow with 4-600.
Surboards do plane above the water, but water wraps around the rails, where the drag is. A huge anti drag is to get the water to barely wrap over the rails, so there is a release point. Something like a down rail shape that has a peak at the deck.
The people that ride the Coil Kick report easy speed; particularly on takeoff and after ‘‘re-set’’ maneuvers like snaps and cutbacks. The sooner you can trip the boundary layer in those situations, the quicker your board is going to be. More alien technology.
Here are some facts, and I’ll do my best to be sincere and not appear as a salesman. I found surfnanoproducts a couple years ago, and have been working with SNP as a startup. All sweat equity, and we have real jobs too. But it’s for real. I personally documentated a 5 percent increase in speed on boards and boats. We all agree that sanded is faster than gloss, but SNP also makes the sanded surface faster. It does not polish, but smooths the surface at the molecular level so water molecules don’t catch on the surface molecules as much. It is 30 nanometers thick, and a human hair is 10,000 nanometers thick. It shares electrons with the surface, so it is permanent until abraded. I gave a sample to Nev last year, and it didn’t take Firewire long to source it direct. But that’s business I guess. Molokai Crossing participants are using SNP, liking it, but not bragging about it. Word of mouth and limited development have delayed introduction, but it really works. So I believe the Coil boards could be enhanced by having it as a final finish, with no other changes to the surface. With a board already dialed in, 90 percent notice better performance. My old friend Peter Mendia tested it for me to be sure there was no speed wobble or spinout during a really hard rail turn, and he gave it a thumbs up. Doerner tested it at Jaws. Also no wobble or spinout. Distribution is via the Jimmy Lewis distributor (Fuacata Sports) in Miami. They have it in kits for surfboards and SUP sizes, so that’s the best source for it. I’m diving back into the business next month after a year long delay to take care of my mom, so there will be more news soon.
Is one mph worth the expense and hassle of prepping, adding, and maintaining a slightly faster bottom coat?
Would a correct board for the waves make a bigger difference? Or maybe a millesecond quicker decision to go? Is maintaining the same performance over a 2.5 hour session more important than the initial gain in speed, then as the coating is degrading, what happens?
I know I’m a true naysayer, a pessimist, but maybe that’s caused by living for almost 64 years and seeing all sorts of new “stuff” in multiple sports than ended up “questiionalble” at best.
Seldom in the course of mankind has a GAIN not been associated with a loss.
You guys have got to see this. If you haven’t seen it already, the application on a surfboard could make all the foregoing discussion meaningless. Simply incredible and, quite possibly, could make a surfboard feel like it’s flying:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IfUaKXasdD4
Really cool stuff…
Now how does it enhance your surfing? Maybe sanded 800 in a diamond pattern is close enough so whatever gain is esoteric.
And that speed crap is great in theory, but do any of you ever stall to stay in the tube?
The stuff should enhance shoulder riding to new heights.
you otta see what the navy is messin with on nuc sub hulls ! but I won’t say any more or Navy seals will be at my door comes night !!
I guess what goes through my mind is that there are already surfboard design tweaks known to increase speed by increasing “release” - i.e. flat bottom, hard down rails, finless or less fins - but not all surfboards are built with flat bottoms and hard down rails and no fins, because increasing speed by increasing release is a trade-off, and there is a point of diminishing returns when you start down that road.
I’m all for speed, but I think your dream scenario has already been
realized by the right guy at the right spot on the right board, even
without chemical coatings, but to each their own, if a hydrophobic
surface makes your surf session more fun for you, then go for it. Just a
bit skeptical that this could be considered a valid surfboard design
improvement, but curious to know how it goes.
ron,
that is the exact same stuff i am talking about. videos of hydro-bead and neverwet look identical.
I think it was you Bill Thrailkill that I got the info from about fins being sanded and bottoms being hydrophobic and glossed.
As for the ‘sharkskin’ suits(called fastskins)… they would act like a sanded surface which is good cause youre not planing. I have used them personally in swim competitions several years ago. I observed them underwater, and the 1" direcional slits along the suit seemed to encourage tiny micro bubbles to form along the fabric. That swimsuit technology is outdated now.
like we always say here…
buy it
try it
report back
there’s a good read on boundry layer manipulation by porpoise skin published in the 60’s-70s, i think other than me, only Y read and under stood its impact the military too. Maybe that’s why the Naval Weapons Lab was right next door to where I went to school.
if you think about it its kind of like manipulating radar waves with stealth only you’re manipulating surface tension at the boundry layer bewteen two surfaces one solid one liquid
surface tension causes drag which causes cavitation/turbulence, which causes severe boundry layer disruption leading to an escalation of of all the previous geometrically.
pure laminar flow is the goal, achieving that with hard surfaces is very difficult if not impossible unless you can redirect the tension elsewhere. That’s what these chemical sealers are trying to do. You do notice there’s no coherent direction that these liquids take as they splatter away. That’s just as bad for a moving object t rying to get someone under control
this was all applied physical oceanography 101 when i went to school for that stuff
chaos theory helps but mathematically calculating, describing and understanding the effects of of a single molecule of water in a variety of stages of its life can drive one to drinking, gambling, and even surfing now and then.
Faster and/or quicker accelerating surfaces will also allow allow for design tweaks that improve maneuverability, which is where we’re going in some of our testing. I enjoy hearing people’s arguments for the status quo, though 
The other upside to KIck is that it instantly forms ready-made wax bumps, and if you’re wearing booties you may not even need wax.
Maybe I’ll get flamed for this. I know nothing about hydrophobia or its effect on surfboard speed.
But my gut reaction is to think that I wouldn’t want a disconnect between wave and board - if the wave is the source of power / energy that I’m tapping into, I want to be plugged into it, not unplugged. Speed is not the only goal while surfing, and to my thinking, not even the primary goal. If speed alone were the goal, there are other sports that will take you to far greater speeds than you’ll ever reach while surfing.
Huck,
thats a good point…not sure either. I like to surf primarily off my rail and build my own boards to do that. My thinking was if i keep the fin(s) sanded as well as the rails, but polish and spray this coat over the bottom(up to the rails behind the fin where they are sharp) the board would stay in the wave with a round bottom and have control coming from the rail/fin. I thought that water would release WAY faster, and flow across the bottom faster, making an overall faster board. guess I’ll have to order some and let you guys know what the results are. thanks everyone!
Astevens, that was my thinking as well. Leave the fins and rail for control. The feel of a board coated with one of those on the bottom might be addicting. Please report. I’m going to check out sprayer prices.
Could provide a huge paddling advantage.
When paddling, isn't form drag still the biggest form of drag?
I think that’s what they said about SUPs & Gmac’s jet boards too =)
yeah but this is stealthy…no one will suspect it. haha
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