Resinhead, I agree Boeing 727 is the look. Not to mention no one can stay up with you on a wave because of the drive with this set-up along with a water spray shooting out the tail end of the board blinding the guy behind you. Mahalo
Greek, thanks a lot for your answer. Can you keep me informed as to when and how I can buy one of the first “Maui Model” Collector? Will it come equipped with the original “tiger-tail” fin? Any possibility of a special marking or number? This board brings back so many good memories, I must have one.
Hello Greek ,
Welcome to Swaylock’s , I like the short longboard concept. Your Shorty hits the nail on the head. I hope you sell alot of these boards. I still ride my 10’ longboard about twice a month but my eyes are wide open to design now that I’m shaping my own. Eggs are my thing…too bad the Mags gave “funboards” a KOOK label. Saw Rob M at Del Mar on Sunday with a little egg , I think they said it was 5’2"…
What’s going on with the center fin channel? Am I looking at paint or a special router job???
Have a great day
Ray
Cool lookin board! I like the size, looks like my kind of boars… hrrmm… I got a blank about that size lyin around…
Anyway, this thread’s about the fins.
Larry, Greek,
Could you guys please tell me what the funnel (fin/tunnel??) does? Especially with so many of them on the board?
The archives are full of jabber about the tunnel, ranging from vortex theory to toilet rolls, but let’s hear it from the proverbial horses petuet, pardon my french sirs…
Balsa, that board in your picture looks awesome, you really where there Yesterday, weren’t you…
Quote:
Balsa, that board in your picture looks awesome, you really where there Yesterday, weren’t you…
That one board was a magic one, even though I may have embellished the memories with time, as you always do… I’ve ridden some of the biggest waves I ever caught with that board in Guéthary, things that I wouldn’t even consider today (you get much more careful with years, you know…)
Oh, and, many people on this site were there THE DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY, weren’t they? Mr Greek, for instance…
Quote:
Hello Greek ,
…
What’s going on with the center fin channel? Am I looking at paint or a special router job???
Have a great day
Ray
Ray, I saw that too. Looks to follow the same curves as Probox boxes…maybe they’re making a stronger center box now, to go with the small ones? It would definitely strengthen the install by adding width & curves… Robin or Larry?
Hi Balsa
The Maui Collector is available now. It is a beauty. I will try to post a photo soon. It comes with a Tiger Tail fin and is signed and numbered.
Greek
Hi Dave. I will give it a try. A flat fin can only do 2 things give you forward direction and horizontal control (keeps you on the face of the wave). Some flat fins turn easier than others due to their profile shape. The turbo Tunnel fin gives you forward direction and horizontal control, similar to a flat fin, but in addition gives you vertical control (keeps the tail on the water) which adds stability and speed. It even gives you stability in the white water. The only draw back we have found is that if a board has too much tail rocker the Turbo can cause a little drag. In addition the Turbo is so powerful that the 9.5" really does not like side bites as the side bites are angled in and they can cause drag when the Turbo is trying to pull the tail down on the water. We have designed smaller side bites that work very well with both the 7.5" and 8.5" Turbos. For the most part the only reason to add tail rocker is to increase the performance but in doing so it generally creates more drag which cuts down on the speed. Many knowledegable shapes who have ridden the Turbo have found that they can reduce their tail rocker when using the Turbo Tunnel Fin get more speed and longer nose rides with out sacrificing performance. One other thing is this. We have found that the water flow around and through the Barrel allows the fin to travel faster through the water. There is only one way to see if you like it and I will let you figure that one out on your own. We do reccommend that All size turbo Tunnel fins, if ridden as a single fin, be placed all the way dorward in the fin box. If it is ridden as a 2 + 1 then we suggest that the Turbo is placed just behind the side bites, and we reccommend that our turbo Thruster side bites be used. I hope this helps to answer your questions. By the way I generally mention to people that in my opinion a fin can be as much as 75% of the boards performance. Some think I am crazy, to those I say take your most favotite surfboard that was shaped by your most favorite shaper take the fins off and take it out in some good size surf and let me know how it works.
Greek
Hi Ray
Larry routed out the fin boxes. He initially routed the center box out for a Pro Box, When he called me I told him it should have been for a 10" standard box. After he quietly said*&^%%$^*&&^& he had to re-route the center box. He added another cut for a pro box to make it look even. Good eye we wondered how many would notice that cover up. Larry did a great job but you guys are sharp. Hopefully that is a one of a kind.
Greek
Cool, thanks for that!
Greek, It’s great having you contribute here. Love your boards. Always have.
Here is the “however” part. I just can’t get my brain around the reason for the tunnel. Seems to me that with the pitch/attitude of the board going up and down, the tunnel flow would get disturbed and become a drag. How about just plugging the tunnel and trying it to see if it is the bulge of the tunnel or the tunnel itself that give the effect you have described?
Am I hijacking or is this the thread to discuss this on?
Thanks in advance for your reply. Whether here or on a new thread. thx
I’m curious.
Are you suggesting that putting gizmos on fins might cause problems? That the truly, almost magical quality of a the classic fin, with its simplistic parallel-to-the-flow flatness is its ability to stay out of the way as much as possible until required? That some (testimonial based) benefit here, might cause (real) problems over there? Like turn your fin into a set of brakes (at the wrong time)?
I wonder, could things really be changing that much under a surfboard when you surf, that, maybe, just maybe – could less really be more?
Surely there are exceptions?
kc
Hi Greg
No worries. This is the perfect format for this discussion. I guess that you read my answer so here, hopefully is the answer for your question. Here is the story of my friend Bob Shlaudeman who took a trip, with some of our friends, to Nomotu a couple of years ago. The waves were great and they had a lot of fun. One day Bob went out and could not understand why his board was not working. slow, could not make sectons his boad was just was not working. Well his friends on the beach were just cracking up. He turned his board over and found out his buddies had packed his barrel with wax. He laughed removed the wax and the board went back to working. The barrel is a very important aspect of the Turbo Tunnel first of all how could we call it a Turbo Tunnel if it did not have a tunnel? The easiest way to see if one works, of course, is to really try one. not just for an hour or a session but for at least a week. The barrel speeds the water through the barrel if you could see it underwater you would be amazed. If you understand how an airplane wing works (Bernouli’s Principal) the air that travels over the toop of the wing has to go faster than the air under the wing (causing lift) well the water over the outside of the barrel has to travel faster than the water that travels through the barrel, due to the sleight difference in the distances, this allows the turbo to travel faster through the water than a conventional fin. in addition there is a sleight venturi action due to a larger front opening. Finally for some reason the water shoots through the barrel like a bullet in that the water is spun and comes out in a vortex shape. We have photos and have run videos of this phenomonen. it is a trip. Ust remember this in order for things to progress things have to be different. When Tom Blake forst put a fin on a board in 1935 the surfing world at the time thought he was crazy. The fin would never replace the foot for turns. According to Tom it took almost 10 years before fins were accepted into the surfing world. Well here we go again. We and about 45,000 surfers around the world know that the Turbo tunnel fin works. If you wish to seethe barrel in action simply put a turbo on your board. Turn the board upside down on a trash can or something that will elevate the board off the ground. Take an ordinary garden hose with out the nozzel on stand back about 2 to 3 feet and aim the fater flow at the front of the barrel. Let me know what you see. I think you will be a surprised as I was when a fgriend told me to do the same thing. Good Luck I hope this explaination helps.
Greek
Hi KCasey, Always dig your drawings. I have a ex-GIRLFRIEND that I would love to give a TURBO PLUG too.(-: After testing this 8’ Shorty for a couple of weeks now with different riders, it seems that this set-up using a 4-3/4" Turbo Front set with double sided foil, along with Robin Mair’s Hanalei 4-1/4" Elliptical as the rear set-up works the best off the bottom, nice cut-back with a quick response back around off the white water with a slight pump of the board and you are back up to the pocket of the wave. Not sure how the Turbo Tunnel will work on shortboards. But on this board the Quad set-up is magic by multiple people riding this board. I must say the Single Fin Turbo Tunnel some people love it and some hate it, and that mainly has alot to do with bottom rocker of the board which can create these different feels. But now these side Turbo Tunnel Fins are placed in part of the board that rocker has no negative performance effect. I have made some more fins for Greek to make more Turbo Tunnel Fins with different barrel sizes to see the effects, better or worse. Will post final results of Turbo Tunnel Quad set-up with in a few weeks or so of good surf to determine what direction to go with the mold for the 4-3/4" Turbo Tunnel fin. So KCasey not sure of what’s going to work or not work. But testing all these fins and creating new designs with Greek is alot of fun along with always pushing for that better ride feel, which is the HIGH for me. I always like going outside the BOX. (-: Mahalo,Larry
Hi Larry
Flash Update
I spoke with John Davis yesterday afternoon. He said he had put 3 turbo tunnels on his 6’10" thruster and was blown away by the speed. He said he was not really ready for the speed that was generated by the 3 turbos on his board. Hopefully the waves are still up so we can get more feed back later today. I will try to get some photos of his fin set up on that board for you later.
Greek
Your point about the relationship between the fin geometry and board rocker is an interesting one. The consideration applies to fins in general, not just tunnel or winged fins, which tend to represent the extreme end of a spectrum. It applies to the notion of rake, among other design elements, which include toe and cant, and of course fin position.
You can get ‘water’ to do a lot of things, but there is always a cost, and its never a zero sum game. I don’t wish to imply however that some design feature may not be worth it, it obviously depends on the benefit and the importance you place on that benefit with respect to the way you surf. But even then, even if the benefit seems desirable, at least equal, if not greater consideration has to be given to the downside, which is something ‘marketing’ generally doesn’t do very well, for obvious reasons. It is my impression that those design features that tend to survive in surfboard design are those that can handle change well.
On the matter of a TurboPlug for your ex, you will be happy to know that later this year, we at TurboPlug will hopefully be going public – i.e. we will be listed on the stock exchange. In addition TurboPlug will be releasing a number of new products, including plugs of different colors, different materials, different ‘Bernoulli’ tested tip shapes, and of course, what we believe will be our biggest seller, the i-Plug. The i-Plug will allow you to download more that a hundred of you favorite tunes and then vibrate uniquely to each one them, using our unique Venturi based software algorithms – it truly will keep you pumping in or out of the water.
kc
KCasey, Always nice to hear from you and read your creative posts. Thanks, Larry
There is a probox guy on Kauai right? any idea what he charges to install a set of quads?
Thanks
Hi Boots, Go to WWW.Proboxfinsystems.com and request a price from Mitch, who is the guy doing the installs on Kauai. Mahalo,Larry
Thought you guys like to see these Turbo Fins done in Quad form. Both of these fins are special made by Greek out of Fiber Glass in his garage. Who said great things don’t come out of the garage. The rear fins are done with the Turbo Chambers lowered to not effect the water flow from the front Turbo Chambers. Mahalo,Larry
