The Ultimate custom!. Designed! for surfers!, by surfers!
We hope this would be of interest to surfers, that want a choice in moving the designing and performance bar higher, for this great and ancient sport of Kings. Please contact us for more information on this revolution in the sport of surfing. Surfing has gone “Mechanical”, its a flying machine ,with spring loaded tails for more speed with out sacrificing its maneuverability, Now with the surfers ,all new ability ,in tuning their own boards for speed and more powerfull turns. Designed by surfers, for surfers.
TinklerTail: A Revolution In Surfboard Technology! Interview by Ray Bergman .
edited for more design clarity by SSXSco.for this post.
Cool concept, . That’s the initial impression one gets when first seeing the Tinkler Tail. Bob Tinkler a Canadian/New Zealander, first started working on perfecting flex in stand up shortboards after living with George Greenough and Bob McTavish in 1967. Since then, he has taken it a step further and this summer, re-introduced the world to the concept of Flex-tail surfing. SurfingTheMag.com sat down with Bob in order to see exactly what he was raving about.
SURFING: What is the basic concept of this double tailed board?
Bob Tinkler: Well the double tail is basically a false bottom. The deck is part of the stiff molded board and when you apply pressure during your turn, the flexing tail will move from its straight speed line rocker into various curves. It actually solves the huge, age old problem,of designers/shapers, of how do you getting both speed “and” manuverability, in the one surfboard shape, that has the needed speed with a straight tail rocker and also makes turning easier. Now the TinklerTail has solved this design dilemma with its adjusting tail rocker and with its springs in there, you can actually interchange them to ‘load up’ the tails flex compression in order to get more thrust out of your turns.
Does it work specifically with any type of board? For instance; a shortboard or a longboard?
Reinventing the surfboard.
A Revolution, using the Sciance of Flex
Anybody can use it. It’s very user-friendly. You can use it on nose-riding longboards to guns ,toe-ins and high-performance shortboards.
So what is the basic premise of this tail?
With it, the surfer can fine-tune his or her surfboard in the water for that particular surf session. Depending on different factors such as body weight and wave power and conditions, the surfer can swap out the springs for higher or lower tension springs that can alter the performance of the board.
Basically this sounds like a potential innovation to the surf industry not unlike the fin systems that have become an industry standard over the past 10 years or so.
Exactly.It’s like the mountain bike of surfboards. And the boards are not exclusive to one kind of fin system either - we work with almost all of them.
The sample board that you have here is a Surftech molded board. Is that the only way they are available or are they possible to do with your standard foam and fiberglass boards as well?
The original design was always centered on mass production to make it cheaper, lighter and durable for the customer and it continues to be that way. With the flexible tail, you can now make those stiff epoxy boards flexible and easier to use. It improves what a molded board was lacking ,for the performance minded surfers
Is the board re-enforced in order to make that split tail section stronger?
Yes. There is carbon fiber and its specialized tail construction in there and there is also a tether in the design to prevent the tail from moving back in the wrong direction.
Is it easy to adjust in the water?
Yes, it’s designed so that you can adjust all three tail control regulators and springs to suit the current surf conditions. If you are doing a lot of powerful turns on bigger waves, it can be dialed up for more torsional resistance. And if you are just speeding down the line, it can be adjusted for less torsional resistance with your choice of a more softer spring compression.
When will boards with this design be available to the general public?
We are working very hard to get this into a molded board manufacturers production line, for the surfers next summer. So by next year, you should be able to get one. It’s the first unique surfboard ,designed for the surfers with a totaly new end user concept, for a truly first, off-the-rack, custom tunable surfboards.
Does the split tail in the back cause a any water drag?
No. The split tail has no negligible effect on smooth water-flow whatsoever. There is no increased drag at all.It actually decreases drag and increases the boards drive through a “G” turn. And when you go into the turn with this design, the two decks become one and compress together. Therefore causing no drag there either.
If our viewers want to learn more about the TinklerTail, where can they get more info?
They can soon go to our website for its R&D history. at: www.SurfSyndicate.com
