I have a great Loehr twin fin fish with a V bottom. Love it. I also have a longboard with V covering the back half. Love it too. But I also recall reading about early experiments in V bottoms, particularly as shaped and ridden by the Aussies. That kind of V bottom was said to “track” and otherwise behave badly. Can anyone explain the difference between V now and V then? Why was that V bad and what we ride today good? Better rocker line along the rail? This is not a test.
Those early boards had an excess of vee (anything is excess usually ends up bad) going all the way through to the end of the tail, on very wide blocky tails. This is a good formula for easier rail-to-rail transitions, but at high speeds (big waves esp Sunset Beach in Hawaii) realized some radical turning ability- up to a point-then highly visible (and then criticized) “spinout”. Just overdone. (Good artical by McTavish somewhere recently on this- he said these boards rode terrific at Honolua Bay, but big Sunset was too much for them). Slightly less vee, refined on narrower tails, and blended out before the end of the tail, became standard issue SOTA North Shore semigun equipment in ensuing years via Brewer, Diffenderfer, Turner, Reno, Parrish and others.
I had a yater “Pocket Rocket” that had that super wide tail with pronounced “V” in it–I lived in Carpinteria at the time and it was great fun in the beach breaks and small ::Rincon
we’ve been building displacement hull v-bottoms(similar to the old ones)with the vee infront of fin then dead flat area after fin.works great especially in bumpy conditions.
Much better idea to have vee diminish after the fin (s). That way the board can pivot or turn around the fin. Otherwise the pivot point is moved back towards the end of the tail, and turning pressure is not allowed to gradually ease off, hence spinouts after a certain point. The diminishing vee after the fins was a quantum leap when it was introduced (still remember). Diffenderfer shaped me my first. Same with concave by the way. In my opinion much better turning characteristics by releasing it before the end of the tail, otherwise stiffer turning and board rides longer than actual length.
No shit. I just gotta board with slight vee in front, and the vee increases dramatically behind the fin. The shaper said it wasn’t like that when it went to the glasser, but you can feel it when you drive. I have half a mind to pop the glass off the rear section and re-do it. Is it possible to do a good job at that? The vee is maybe 1/8" in front, and 1/4 to 3/8" behind covering about 6 inches of the tail. http://www.blakestah.com/surf/