Surfboard design book

Can you guys recommend a book(s) on themes of surfboard design…specially interested on how design affects the riding of a board… tail, bottom, rail design… Regarding this I have read the recommended “surfboard design and construction from 1977” book… just checking if there are anothers out there.

 

Thanks in advance!!

I think you will find "Essential Surfing" by George Orbelian very informative.  There is also a section with photos and dimensions of a variety of boards. It was written in the 80s so most of the boards are a bit wider and thicker, but still a very well written with tons of info. 

i’ll look for it online… thanks a lot!!

Surfboard Anatomy Guide by Dave Parmenter

http://www.surfline.com/mag/features/anatomy/index.html

The purpose of the
Surfboard Anatomy Guide is to allow the reader to better understand the
basic types of surfboards and the isolated design components that comprise
them.

Much of what has
been written about surfboard design in the past half century can be marshaled
into two columns: vague or pseudo-technical articles, or manufacturer
advertising and infomercials.

Either way, we are
usually told that a certain board has a specific design feature or characteristic
– maybe its praises are sung or there will be a veiled sales pitch –
but we never come to learn exactly “why” a board has, say, a “slight panel
vee,” or “how” it works. We are merely informed that the board has this
magical component, and, like the impenetrable foreign film that no one
wants to admit they didn’t understand, we nod sagely at the Fellini-esque
use of single-to-double concaves or venturi effect.

But few of us seem
to know the “whys” and “hows” of it all. As a custom surfboard shaper
and designer, I constantly field questions that surfers pose about design.
After realizing that many of the most experienced surfers in my clientele
didn’t really understand why their boards had the features they did, and
why they worked, I decided to compile this resource.

The boards depicted
here are meant to be generic examples of the most widely used surfboards
of the day. Any mention of particular shapers or designers is not intended
to assign sole credit for a design’s development. That would be impossible,
as the true history of surfboard design often deviates from the published
versions. There are those who are credited with an innovation because
they were the first to do it commercially, but with a little digging,
you can usually find others who were on it earlier (or at the same time)
but worked in obscurity out of crude backyard workshops with no ambition
but to get a new board ready in time for the next swell.

Use the Surfboard
Anatomy Guide to learn more about your surfboard. The sole purpose of
the guide is to create a more informed surfing public. Many of us in the
surfboard industry – the only real “surf industry” – believe that the
more people understand the design and construction of surfboards, the
less prone they’ll be to pop-out charlatans or pitchmen squawking about
“new breakthroughs.”

    <a href="http://www.surfline.com/mag/features/anatomy/anatomy_textonly.html">
 
 

 

FLASH

 

thanks paul…had this bookmarked…had to read more attentively.

 

I saw these books… anyone read them? Opinions?

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9780593060735/The-Book-of-Surfing

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9780762746217/Surfboards

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9780977556915/Surfing

1977 Surfboard Design & Construction

Then just click on the PDF file at the top of the page (this is the HTML version).

 

Tom, I Googled that using “Surfboard Design and Construction 1977”. Did not find it. What I **did **find is a discussion in a forum that mentions the book. Within that discussion was this post. Can you guess who wrote it?

 

"Watch out the official surfboard design stuff contains many myths, and
is at least 80% BS. . . . follow it and you will never be able to
design anything, but will probably be able to talk ‘knowledgably’ and
copy what’s already out there.

The surf industry spends a lot of time mystifying that which is
naturally clear, and making the simple complicated and contradictory. .
… . this is so that you can’t understand it all due to it being so
full of anomalies that it is not understandable. What happens next is
that one assumes that one can’t undestand it due to a lack of guru like
knowledge and experience, not having met George Greenough’s cousin or
not having been born in California.

Once this happens you are stuffed, it’s like having been bodysnatched or having drunk the zombie kool aid.

If you can surf then try thinking about how a surfboard works
yourself. … . this won’t please the surfing vatican but will get you
somewhere eventually.

First surfing design myth: That you must want to surf how they surf."

Well, I see you’ve edited your post. And once again we wind up at Doc’s website. I’m not surprised.

If I’m not mistaken, that was posted in another thread here, recently.

 

Am I missing something here?  I was just trying to help Sammy…is there something about this book that’s taboo? 

Other books by Kinstle:

Chemical Reactions on Polymers (Acs Symposium Series)
Radiation Curing of Polymeric Materials
I'd say Stewart is probably correct and the book is over analytical... Maybe it's just his writing style? 
I dunno, I didn't mean to upset anyone...just trying to help. 
And... double oops, because I just re-read and the guy was looking for "other" books than the 1977 guide :)

 

No. I didn’t intend for you to take it that way. I was just making reference to the fact that it’s posted on Doc’s pages. And, since he’s a friend of mine and I know the guy’s background I am not surprised that he has it.

You are reading far too much into what I said. Relax.

Ahmmmm- a few things;

http://jfmillbiz.home.comcast.net/~jfmillbiz/swaylocks/Surfboard_Design_and_Construction_1977.pdf

is something I put up as a resource. The construction info is a bit dated ( you'd get better here) and the dynamics and design stuff - well, the approach has fundamental flaws. I don't agree with a lot of it, and as Sammy has quoted ( albeit not from me, though I do agree with the statement)

Watch out the official surfboard design stuff contains many myths, and is at least 80% BS. . . .

Or, as Shakespeare wrote in Macbeth:

Messenger

Gracious my lord,
I should report that which I say I saw,
But know not how to do it.

Much of what has been written about 'how a surfcraft works' is, charitably, silly. Or uninformed. Kinda like aerodynamics in the 1700s, or electrical theory in the same times. Little real testing has been done, just a whole lot of handwaving and 'whooooaaa, gnarly, duuude' level stuff. Those who actually do anything real tend to be voices in the wilderness.

Let me suggest a few ( 1969 ) articles on surfcraft hydrodynamics, to start with: http://www.rodndtube.com/surf/info/Hydrodynamics.shtml - Dr. Hendricks is alive and well and yes, posts here now and again.

Warning! There are numbers involved! Equations, Physics! As they said in Monty Python and the Holy Grail: "Run Awaay".

Haven't run off yet? Good.

Follow Dr. Hendricks with The Naval Architecture of Planing Hulls by Lindsay Lord ( another guy with a doctorate) , still the essential text on what makes planing hulls work-  that would be surf craft in use. Be careful in applying this directly: surfboards generally ain't symmetrical with respect to the water when in use. For what it's worth, Simmons used Lord's work extensively, waaay back in the dark ages. And did the math.

Now that ( hopefully) one has developed an appreciation for how things work rather than the half-baked 'theories' propounded by the surf industry, we have http://ocw.mit.edu/ which is a cornucopia, on line courses in all sorts of cool stuff.

Have fun. Me, I started out as this crazed kneeboard type, with an interest in maths and in building ships and finding out how things worked, which led me to naval architecture/marine engineering.  It's been a very twisted path from there....

hope that's of use

doc...

gee… the obvious answer is Swaylocks, as there is no book out there that has the breath or depth of Swaylocks. But that’s not the really important feature the existing books (those mentioned in prior posts and others) lack - it’s that they are not peer reviewed. Well, they might be by a selective few of the authors sympathetic friends. But on Swaylocks there’s usually some one around to rip you a new one - regardless.

If there is a book of surfing it’s, for the moment at least, remains a “living book” - all squishy and messy, but somehow robust and lively.

Browse the archives - if its been worth discussing, there’s a good chance it was… or is currently being discussed - or maybe you might want to start a new discussion.

kc

 

 

Another problem with all the existing books is they’re dated. I think Orbelian’s might be in a revised edition by now, but I doubt there’s any book that covers design and materials advancements from the last ten years.

Imagine a book written in 1968. It would have been obsolete in 18 months.

"Imagine a book written in 1968. It would have been obsolete in 18 months."

Absolutely.  By the time any technical book reaches the shelves, portions of it will be obsolete.  There is even lag time with magazines. 

Innegra fabric is a topic of recent interest here.  Does anyone think a book or magazine would have had it sooner?

God I love Swaylock’s…

John:

Currently Swaylock is on real time when it comes to Innegra. Nothing can really be written as to be current at present.

I just found a new material other than Innegra that is lighter, almost as strong and brillant white with UV inhibitors.

Information is flowing faster than ever. We are definitely in a Powershift into an age of information overload!

Has I prepare my builds they are becoming out dated within days of conception.

I have samples that are not available to the general public.

There are books explaining what has been done however not what is being done?

The future will bring more material and building methods to write about.

In the meantime let's make some history!

as I prepare my builds they are becoming out dated within days of conception.

Life in the fast lane,

 

‘Now that ( hopefully) one has developed an appreciation for how things
work rather than the half-baked ‘theories’ propounded by the surf
industry, we have http://ocw.mit.edu/ which is a cornucopia, on line courses in all sorts of cool stuff.’

 

So what sort of time frame do you think we are we looking at,  to see ’ all sorts of cool stuff ’ hitting our lineups (or has it already happened and I missed it…)?

please people… go on… this is becoming really interesting.

I understand the point of view of some people here… no book will be “up to date”… but for now what i was looking for was kind of a resume of all “big laws” in surf, or hydrodinamics. Yes information is spread on here… maybe my best bet than will be to search, read, bookmark. Because what i found on the internet rather than here is like “if it’s a wide tail, works like this… and if it has concaves, works like this” but i wanna know a bit further - why!

am i too curious?!

but for now what i was looking for was kind of a resume of all "big laws" in surf, or hydrodinamics.

For enlightenment I have read Lord Lindsey's book. It will open up your brain cells.

Lindsay Lord (1902–1991) was a naval architect who held graduate degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Pacific University. He authored several maritime books including Nautical Etiquette & Customs, Second Edition, and taught architecture at George Washington University.

Naval Architecture of Planing Hulls, By a Naval Architect (Hardcover)

~ Lindsay Lord (Author)

 

First Printed in 1946 reprinted in 1954 and a 2nd edition in 1963.

He inspired Bob Simmons.