Haha, that’s funny about the FireWire Machado sales pitch. Maybe designed to offset the “high tech” aspect of the firewire brand with a little folksy spiel. From what I understand, Firewire is another compsand type build, with a light core and a vacuum bagged composite veneer. I notice the word “proprietary” pop up on their website, and like I said earlier, this is the direction I see the industry heading. ‘Its our secret, and advancing the sport is secondary only to making money and preventing others from doing so’, kinda thing. Yeah, its business, I get that, and guys like Simon Anderson and Tom Morey be damned. For what its worth, I think Firewire is probably a leader in producing lightweight, strong, durable boards, whose performance is praised by the guys who ride and love them. I guess if you want to talk about state of the art tech, that’s not a bad place to start.
The problem I have with demystifying the surfboard design process with technical data, is that I don’t really see it working that way. I think technical data is useful after the fact, in analyzing certain aspects of fluid dynamics, structural properties of materials, etc. But there are some very real caveats when dealing with technical analysis of surfing and surf craft.
One, is that to begin with, the best scientists in the world who study waves and their properties, can’t really explain exactly what a wave is, and what is happening when a wave breaks. I recommend the book The Wave by Susan Casey, where she describes the lack of consensus on even the most fundamental aspects of wave study among leading experts. The ocean waves we ride are just too complex to be fully analyzed and understood.
On top of that, add the factor of riding a surfboard in the wave, and the complexity increases exponentially. Heck, there was a thread on here awhile back about what makes a surfboard go, and there was no clear answer. Some said gravity, the downward pull on the surfer on a slanted wave face, but that means the power of the actual wave isn’t really a factor, and others said the surfer is tapped into the power of the wave’s energy in addition to any gravitational factors. And so on.
How about fins, how do they work, and why? I don’t think we fully understand that, people talk about “lift”, and the fins tapping into the waves energy. We used to hear about the Venturi effect of rail fins and channels (i.e. bonzer fin setup), and sometimes still do, but a venturi only works in a constricted application, like a pipe. The bottom of a surfboard is open to the ocean, so there is no constricted application - hence, no Venturi effect.
But the bonzer was designed with the Venturi effect in mind, and there are many people who love them and swear they work great, without the Venturi explanation. If they work, we still don’t know exactly why. Its not medieval sorcery, but its not a clear scientific model either.
At the end of the day, surfboards design has been empirical, anecdotal, intuitional, trial and error. Again, its not mysticism, but not science either. In his recent podcast interview, Richie Collins talks about designing surfboards in his dreams. Its not witchcraft, but it obviously involves a subconscious element. A lot of people find sometimes when they reach an impasse in solving some difficult problem, the answer will come to them in their sleep. The human brain, and the human subconscious, work that way. The brain processes as we sleep. So I’m not willing to say its magic, but I will say it is still outside the realm of measurable, provable, science.
Speaking of magic, we call a board magic when it just comes together and works so well that we can’t explain exactly why. Some guys describe replicating a magic board exactly, but the new board doesn’t have the magic. I don’t think the implication is that magic is really involved, its just a way of saying that there are too many unknown and complex factors at work to be able to break it down into all its knowable and measurable components, we just have to accept it for what it is.
All that being said, it then seems to me that designing surfboards just based on what has worked so far, and what you feel ought to work, or what your imagination can picture working, is completely valid. Enforcing that process with some technical data is well and good, for sure.
I really wish there was just more discussion on the empirical effects of different design elements, but even that turns out to be very subjective. Case in point, some guys add concave to the nose for “easy entry” into the wave. Other guys add convex, or belly, to the nose - for the exact same reason. Go figure.
Then there’s the confusing terminology. Tri plane bottom. Spiral V. Chine rails. Etc., etc.
Remember Hollow Wave surfboards? State of the art at the time, so they told us.
So yeah, the technology of resin, fiberglass, and foam is old, but it works, it has worked for a long time, lots of surfers have had fun rides and lots of surfers are still having fun rides on foam and fiberglass. Technology has advanced the raw materials, and high performance boards can be made that are strong and durable, using those components. It allows for a wide berth of creativity in shape and design. Its like cotton shirts, clay pots, porcelain plates, and metal silverware. Its been around, but that doesn’t mean we have to be looking to replace it with something more technical.
Just my thoughts on the matter.
