What about a raked fin with the “wings”? Has that been done? To provide drive and stability…
…years ago i rode a 6 3 (thruster shape) but with a single fin and a stabilizer behind that. it´s work really well for floaters or reentries where 3 fins don´t work fine. there is no transitions when you touch the bottom of the wave…never loose the speed. also it´s not uncontrollable…the fin is larger and have more vertical rake than the common ones.
Yeah, I made a raked one. The wings ended up looking like a little heart shape, very cute. It gave me back the characteristics of the raked fin with a bit more lift. I had scaled it down though, the starfin was too big for me. After two or three I canned them, not enough advantages to warrant the work making them. It did give me more board design input though, so I worked on that instead.
hey reverb…i reckon there could be something there…that same picture of a board has been on my mind for a while …i reckon besides a thruster ,something like what you described would generate speed if you worked it ,based on the same principals of how you derive speed from a thruster …lately i keep thinking about boards you could work for speed without even a wave…like a fish swimming around but on top of the water…and the board you described crossed my thoughts…
i think ill sleep on that one…
regards
BERT
I had a turbo tunnel on my ten foot noserider and couldn’t stand it. I took it back after three sessions. I did, in fact, notice a decrease in board responsiveness. Keep in mind that I am not a super strong rider. I turn more with finesse than with brute strength. Plus, it’s a big board, volan glass, etc, so it’s harder to turn than a Steward with 6 oz glass, etc.
The fin I like the best is the Wingnut Big Daddy. It not only helps with the noserides, but it turns sooooo smoothly. I love it. I also want to try one of Donald’s fins, those rectangular things. I forget what they are called. Anyway, I have seen Donald surf, in person, no less than fifty times growing up and as a young man, and he is really good (duh), so whatever he is using must be pretty damn good. I also admire Guy Takayama’s shapes and surfing skills. He is good all around.
I guess the best thing to do is camp out at Cardiff Reef on a good day and see who does the best noserides, then stalk them when they come in and see what they are riding.
Can’t underestimate tail rocker.
My girlfriend has a waterski with wings on the skeg… the wings can be adjusted to angle up or down and even have little protractor-like calibration scales to keep track of what you’re doing. I’d take a pic and post but the ski is on the boat up at the lake.
those waterski “wings” have been around for a pretty long time. we used to call them cheater wings, but i think they have a different role than what you would want out of a surfboard fin. on the waterski, you have to come way forward and overextend to make the buoy, and then have to immediately come back on the tail to take up slack and keep from blasting over the wake when you cross over. the cheater holds the tail in a bit from skipping out on the maximum extension of the flat turn. even more so, it pulls the tail back down and increases your drag dramatically on the way out of the turn so you don’t get killed by slack in the rope. plus, if you hit the wakes while forward on the ski, you’re going to sky and lose control.
it’s just that i see the waterski as opposite to the surfboard. you turn with more forward trim and pull out with rearward trim-- that is low drag in and high drag out. on the surfboard you usually shift weight aft to free the rail, slash the turn, and come forward to re-establish speed and momentum on exit. it’s more of a question of handling power delivered to you by the boat versus minimizing loss of power delivered to you by the wave.
an interesting observation (to me) is that lighter skiers tended to like the cheater more/more raked while bigger skiers generated pretty good drag on their own and didn’t depend on the downforce as much.
also interesting and likely only somewhat related, is that the fin on the waterski was a flat plate with no foil, and typically had holes through it, presumably to equalize pressures on each side and negate any pressure/foil related lift. of course, i haven’t skied in a few years, so some of this may have changed, but i don’t think so.
-church
I water ski professionally and generally everything that Church said is more or less accurate,
but the idea of an adjustable wing angle on the fin would solve the concerns that wing angle/trim
needs to different for front footers vs rear footers. This would address the concerns of one of the
previous post. It might even work well if the wing was adjustable and foiled such that it adjusted
its angle automatically based on water speed.
Adjustable would enable pulling the tail down for noseridding while also enabling tail lift for speed.
Auto adjustable would minimize tail drag one wave entry and achieve the desired wing trim for the
desired effect once in the wave.
–4est
Auto adjustable…cool put that in the glossary keith with C.L.O.R…may favorite musing is those little fins on the ridge back ok the AHI that go vertical high aspect low area at extension and low rake gint base when relaxed and completely retract at rest…auto adjustable ,oh yeah they twist off 180 degrees under load wholy shippy Captain Dynamic do we ever have a conundrum…all we need is the funds for a thinque tank in a tropical setting with fish and waves and a big shop w/ the photovoltaic power plnt and good sound system and a kitchen and maybe a couple of computer s linked back to Swaylocks…oh and a few chairs and a table and glasses …de salinator mmmmm.an give us between 8 months an a year …we might even tackle some world solutions and make a cook book…ambrose…
ambrose - when you get it set up, or I could help with that too, could I be the dish washer, I am good at that, or… I might even come up with an observation or two. “Auto adjustability,” I would settle for adjustabilty to begin with. My quest continues - Some day pics for sure.
Ambrose - if I knew what it meant I’d put it in there… same goes for C.L.O.R. ??
Yawanna do a cookbook,eh? Great stomachs think alike…
Automatically adjusting fins…
what will they think of next
articulated rake…of course …and nanotech connectors with snap in attenuators and all royalties sent to THE BILL HICKEY RETIREMENT FUND for ageing aquanoughts…and friends…like Jerry Neudeman and Gary Hileand the beach ball crrew…ambrose…where’s Ricky Walstrom
center of lateral resistance of course …check the archives…ambrose
aha…Center of Lateral Resistance = C.O.L.R.
C.L.O.R. is what you posted before… couldn’t figure that one out…Curiously Labelled “Other” Rail? Closely Linked Outside Rocker? Cleverly Obtuse Lateral Reasoning?
figure this one out: C.T.A.
we use it all the time.
clisdexic lord Onatop requisition…how about a glossary of missspelled words for challenged illiterate olympix…ambrose… under the influence of polyester resin fumes
aquanoughts!!!
spit out my beer on that one word…;
i think you owe me
ambrose - we are too busy working on the memorial to the former mrs ageing aquanought who recently succumbed to cancer - bill is kinda sad - not really in a bad way though…he’s riding his bike a little every day, and building a board a month - each a work of art - i’ll post pics when my hickey is done
GOD BLESS her quiet demeanor a mark in time of all the lives that had the chance to watch her go by…ambrose…aquanauts imerse as one
Buttermilk or is that milktoast? I really really want to try one! Oh please let me !
If you bend over we can find out how it fits and I promise to write full report with glossy photos charts and grafts.
I just hate spam on a biscuit
!