Okay , I have been riding this for the last month , pretty much.
Today a mate brought down his camera , and very kindly took some photos of it in action …
[ I think I might try not imitating a gorilla’s head , and also , leave the ‘squid lid’ at home tomorrow …]
OMG!!!
Ben, I’ve been working on a Griff-insired design for about the same time now!!!
This is kind of like an episode from the original ‘Star Trek’…
…where there was this parallel universe.
You’re totally getting into my head right now. I wished I had better photos and surfing
photos as well. I use the fisheye so much it distorts everything, but you get the idea,
it’s like yours!
George
Great pictures Ben!
Maybe you could share your thoughts on how it goes through different turns/waves and conditions.
From my expirence on the board which i really enjoyed i found the board stayed close to the curl.
I caught a nice inside righthander and stayed in the curl practically the whole time. on another wave which i think you might have seen I pumped a few turns and got a nice cuttie/snap back where i could feel the 5 fins doing there thing. You can get the stability through manuevers as you could on a thruster but the back 3 inline fins were really unique and let you turn on a sharp different angle.
even though there is a whole lot of fin on the board it wasnt stiff through turns and was nice and manuverable both forehand and backhand. (as a kneeboard too).
more to come,
Josh.
…funky back fins George !
so , how does it GO , mate ?!
and what are the dimensions of it [and the fins] , please sir ?
cheers !
ben
it’s way looser than it looks. very pivoty which is what I wanted, and the bonus has been
the drive, it just goes and goes even in the complete slop we’ve had lately.
The board is 5’10" x 18-7/8 x 2-3/8
Photo is distorted, those vertical rear finlets are rather small. Can’t wait to try it in larger
waves if they ever come here again…
how small are the rear ones , george , like 3 x 3" or so ??
G10 material ?
Josh , you pretty much summarised it for me .
And George too.
HEAPS of drive , not the drag as I was expecting [the centre back fin is thruster sized]. If the swell drops tomorrow , I will do a smaller back centre fin , the same size as the back side fins.
I deliberately tried to take off deeper and sideways on it today , with the intention of trying to see where the tail sliding out would happen .
Yes , it happened …on one left , taking off COMPLETELY sideways , it skittered sideways to the bottom of the wave , where I was picked up and ceremoniously SLAMMED and pinned to the bottom , before the full rinse cycle happened again .
It felt REAALLLY fast . Made a few waves that surprised me and the other guys out there .
I definately need to crouch more , spread my stance , DRIVE off the front foot , and speed up my forehand late drop takeoffs [ate it on a couple today , that I “could” have made , had I taken one extra paddle , had my weight more forward , and angled in under the lip] Live and learn.
I still haven’t had a chance to do a decent forehand cuttie on it yet …
…hopefully tomorrow morning ??
we shall see …
kiricore , sandgroper , ?maybe popeye? maybe Lavz… hopefully we might get a sways photo session happening ?? … there are some varied boards there between us …shane’s ['kiricore’s] hws fish , my foam fish , lavz’s sunova , and popeye’s foam twinny !!
cheers
ben
Hi Ben,
smaller, 2-3/4 tall, and 2-1/2 base, all the same with symmetric foils. Vertical rear edge
with no rake to eliminate fin twist but still have longitudinal flex.
Fin material is the newer plastic from FCS (M-series fins) cut and ground down.
My intention with the vert trailing fins was to make them more efficient, yet quick to stall
at lower speeds. I envisioned the board ‘holding-in’ through hard bottom turns yet releasing
when up in the lip during pivot. The board does this better than expected.
Can definitely use more tail rocker since the board has so much drive, that way the board
can be “fast AND loose”.
Now to build a board that is 'light AND strong"…
With all that fin i expected the board to feel “cluttered” but it was fast and smooth. another bonus of the five fin setup.
yeah ,
for an analogy , to me it felt like a wide , concaved deck skatey , with wide trucks , and wide wheels , being ridden in a smooth bowl …that kind of feeling …
good work mate looks like great fun. i can only imagine ay.
after i make this longboard im thinking of striping my longboard back and reshaping it into something almost like the bushfire.
have to see what happens eh
this is only me , of course , George …
but I would like to see two more back fcs plugs (depending , of course on where your legrope plug on the deck is situated ) , so you can use one of those double foiled trailer fins as your back THRUSTER fin …I reckon that would go nicely as a “2+1” setup !
I have similar templates to yours, but mine are F.C.S. tabbed , whereas my fish has a back finBOX , of course ! (Maybe I can lay up another panel thicker to make a finboxed one , though …)
Well, that's just my aussie .05 , George ...take it or leave it I guess , but I just thought I would run that past you , anyway ...whaddya reckon , my friend ?
cheers !
ben
thanks Shaun !
Josh is doing the exact same thing as what you suggested , at this very moment …did you know that ??
maybe you can help each other out with templates eh ?
cheers
ben
greg griffin , look what you started !! [thanks …I don’t suppose ours are anywhere near as professional / tuned / good as YOURS , or your waves either , but heck , I’ve been having SO much fun on this design , it’s like being a grommet again ! I can kinda sense what Oneula has been getting excited about , now ! …So thanks , Bernie , for sharing YOUR stoke about this design too, mate … cheers !
Ben, love the pictures of you surfing. You are having way too much fun there.
And thanks for the report. Been thinking about a 5 fin myself.
thank you Greg !
I should ask my mate for the shot of my wipeout, I know he got at least ONE !!! hahah [it was a beauty , too ! headfirst into a shallow sandbar …I knew there was a REASON why I wore that ridiculous “squid lid” , after all !]
I’m really stoked to have had Steve there with his digi , he did a good job . [After all those years of getting shots of him , it IS nice to have him get a couple of me , I MUST say ! … geez , I hope that doesn’t sound too big headed or anything …]
cheers
ben
…I hope that tomorrow my mate Ian comes down , and Pascal , so Steve can get some god shoots of THEM ! …‘Kiricore’ … are you going to be into it early tomorrow , too, matey ? …I HOPE so …you missed some very FUN ones today …
" You’re totally getting into my head right now. I wished I had better photos and surfing
photos as well. I use the fisheye so much it distorts everything, but you get the idea,
it’s like yours!"
my god , Georgey boy , you can’t be SERIOUS , surely ???
… that , just there , just might be the scariest statement ever typed at Swaylocks ??
if your head is like mine [?!] , you better just do yourself a favour and swallow the cyanide pill now [especially in view of the fact of how MY head is looking in the above photos …I never realised I did the venus fly trap thing when I surf fishes !]
cheeers and "have a noice dayyyyy " !!
ben[t]
Quote:
I should ask my mate for the shot of my wipeout, I know he got at least ONE !!! hahah [it was a beauty , too ! headfirst into a shallow sandbar …I knew there was a REASON why I wore that ridiculous “squid lid” , after all !
cheers
ben
Entertaining and informative thread as usual. I had assumed the “squid lid” was an attempt at looking like that wetsuit clad S&M freak you posted a while back!!!
I recently made a 4 finner with a center fin option [being more traditionally placed (as in thruster setup)]. I’ve been toying with the idea of 3 similar sized back fins, maybe now I’ll do it!
Great stuff boys, it’s awesome to hear reports on this set-up coming from you guys riding it in non-Hawaiian waves too. Griff’s design is one of the design things that has interested me most in a while so getting to witness the r&d going on here is great. PlusOne, I imagine it rained down there yesterday too, but as soon as that water is good let us know how yours works- I like the remodel on the fins (I thought it was the fisheye making them look a bit wacky!)
…+1, what about the bubbles, the fizzy effects with the drag in toobs waves (for the speed I mean)…