Following on from this thread ....
here are some more photos of the patent pending 'Blakka' board , by Federico Neri , an italian living here in Perth , West Australia .....
And , a bonus shot , that I include , especially for you , "mr. ghetto ..."
cheers !
ben
Edit: Cool fins!
.... his most recent board has a more pointy nose and tail , by the way .....
HHHHHhhhhhhmmmmm,…
…seems to me that this idea was around once before, the fins were on a hindge and they slipped back into the boxes with the water flow,…maybe pat. pending
But not original,…I’m sure some Swaylocker has the Surfer mag. article stashed in the attic.
Aloha, Randy
Rick Rock was doing this 20 years ago for Christian Fletcher
Been there done that, in 1970/71 @ Surf Systems. Mike Doyle did a similar thing @ Hansen, circa 1967/68. I’m sure others did, well before that. It’s not new. It was an interesting exercise, back in the day.
This is all kinda cryptic to me, so I’m sure I missed something here. You say the fins are retractable. So as he rides the board, he puts the front fins down and the back fins up, and then the board spins around?
How do the fins retract? Is that the point of all this - to spin the board 180 degress while riding? Is there any video of the board in action?
cheers jim !
and did christian ride switch that way ?
any photos , video , or link to that [?was it a mag article?] , please ?
Yep , Federico said in the early days of him working on this , that he got in touch with Ric Roc , as he was interested to hear his results , and what Fletcher thought / felt while riding it . [WAS that board a 6 finner , from memory ?! [ ie : a thruster setup , at each end ?]
As you can see in the photos , Fed's ones have 'tip bits' , too , but he talked to me about making fibreglass ones , possibly without the tip bits , at 'some stage'.
As I was telling huck , I watched [and photographed] some pretty amaaazinggg windsurfing this week [our 'seabreezes' have been STRNG in the evenings] .
I was very impressed / blown away by a couple of guys that were riding switch on a fair few waves [fin first , as well as switchfooting off the bottom , up the face , and again off the lip]
Of course , kitesurfers , skimboarders , wakeboarders , snowboarders and skaters have been doing that for YEARS , and possibly surfers may more too 'one day ' ? .... who knows ....I'm sure if the pros took it on board , 'some' may show interest [eg: al , rusty , darren handley , etc]
In answer to your question , Huck ...
I DO hope to get some footage of these boards in good waves at 'some stage' .
Fed has a few local guys in mind , who absolutely RIP ! [they skate , and kitesurf , and wakeboard as well as surf , so are well familiar with riding switch / reverse / finfirst / tailfirst [whatever you want to call it !]
cheers !
keep an open mind ....as a swaylockians signature here well says " a mind is like a parachute , it works BEST when open ". With TODAY'S modern , better blanks , rockers , foils , materials , and fins [ and surfing ] , some ideas ARE worth revisiting and will work a LOT better , second or third time round .
ben
.....the internet footage of derek hynd , finless , at decent sized to big j-bay , last year , shows similar switch and 'other stuff' style , but without derek having any fins in the mix , obviously .
hi huck !
thanks very much for your interest and questions !
I sent you a p.m. , in answer to your questions
enjoy !
cheers
ben
on the Rick Rock boards, the (front) fins had tiny tabs that would flip outwards, catch water and be forced into the slots, what ever set of fins that were at the front at the time