on the surfermag site there is a vid of tom wegener’s team rider or whoever riding the alaia boards and they look insane!!! They look SO FUN. so floin, you can ride them sideways and super slide around the white water.
i wish i had one.
you should check it out.
i give up what’s the title or ident of the buggin video
…ambrose…
(Gawd, the Surfer guy trying to pronounce paulownia “pollyanna?” Duh.) http://surfermag.com/av/flash/tomwegenervid/
I like the fact that they’re wood, but the rolled bottom and rail contours are a serious handicap to all appearances. To wit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI6AJold1Hk Flat bottom, bit of rocker, down rails. Which would you really rather ride? The alaia that takes a year to learn how to set a rail just to trim, and then apparently that’s most of what you’ll be doing, that and going helplessly sideways/backward, losing your board in the lineup, or something with an edge you can feel and turn on?
I’d just much rather see Wegener pay tribute by using something that obviously works way better like OBrien’s flat-bottomed downrailer, in wood, finless, than religiously recreate archaic round-bottom planks that take a year to laboriously learn how to just trim them–I don’t think the ancient Hawaiians even trimmed them.
Hey no disrespect to the hullers meant! Those flex fins are cool!
More oil needed for the old BS meter, it’s redlining again !
The team rider fell off every wave except the last one, the boards appear to be only marginally functional.
I think that overall, Tom’s T shirt said it all.
surfing made easy
over the last 100 years
to atain market sustainability
has not made surfing better
just more …
the veneer of competence
vacumebaged to the I can surf well
attitude ows its creds to the fin.
the finer things in and of trim
are for the most part invisible
to the untrained eye
in these photo clips.
too discount the value
of this young man’s perseverance
learning of the ALAIA *
is short sighted.
spinning out is a fin-centric
concept.
with competence
the dynamic of latteral trim
could be accessed only with higher-highest skill
perhaps the domain of the true esthetics.
the world will come to realise that w-san has only scratched the surface.
scoffing is easy
understanding is harder.
there are always more scoffers apparent.
many who understand dont say much.
why argue.
fins slow down
one end of the board
dynamic fact.
…ambrose…
mats dont always go faster
sometimes they do.
go figure.
pronounced
AAH La eeeee YA
chew that carefully
fins slow down
one end of the board
dynamic fact.
LOL
And here
I thought
a fin
was stabilizing
one end
a unification
of directional tendency
I’m going
to have
to pay more
attention!
So
there’s
some
s
t
r
e
t
c
h
i
n
g
going on
or
something
?
L
O
L
the rolled bottom and rail contours are a serious handicap to all appearances.... I don't think the ancient Hawaiians even trimmed them.
On what do you base your opinions?
The modern era of surfing is scarcely a pothole in time when compared to previous centuries of wave riding.
If they had been able to see into the future I wonder how the ancient masters of he’e nalu would have judged our generation?
Has anyone (that you know of) ridden one of TWegener’s traditional longboards. Obviously they look beautiful, and obviously he rides them like a master (but he could probably noseride just fine on a barn door)… Does anyone know how they work for the average surfer? Damn, they sure are amazing to look at, though, and envi-friendly, too? Too good to be true?
Everytime I start thinkin maybe Roy aint too much of a kook.....he opens his mouth and there ya go!!
Roger
rajah as spelled KUK.
…ambrose…
Quote:surfing made easy
What an excellent idea !
Quote:the veneer of competenceWhat you see is what you get mate, the guy is falling off on every wave, even though he is wearing a beaver tail and being talked up by a couple of cheesey yeahguys, it doesn’t change the fact that the board is a sub par wave riding vehicle. . . in other words it sucks !
Quote:the finer things in and of trim
are for the most part invisible
to the untrained eye
in these photo clips.
So the best part is invisible except to believers? The Emperor’s new clothes all over again !
Quote:spinning out is a fin-centric
concept.
with competence
the dynamic of latteral trim
could be accessed only with higher-highest skill
perhaps the domain of the true esthetics.
More double talk. . . . .
the fact is that the board has trouble getting down the line at all, and the rider falls off in spite of his skill
I reckon you could talk an elephant up a tree
Congrats
Quote:fins slow down
one end of the board
dynamic fact.
…ambrose…
Is that why my boards are so long ?
One end goes faster than the other I see it now lol
.
pronounced
AAH La eeeee YA
chew that carefully
Everytime I start thinkin maybe Roy aint too much of a kook…he opens his mouth and there ya go!!
Roger
I don’t type with my lips Roger
Just so that you know.
What Tom is doing is fascinating from a historical point of view, and IMO he deserves respect for taking the time and effort to explore those old boards to their fullest extent. . . but the still kind of suck from n terms of function.
yeah but ‘slow’ isnt necessarily a bad thing…
ok so maybe performance wise those boards arent up to the standard of more recent designs but i think its more about the appeal of doing something different, riding the wave in a different way, finding a new feeling.
i mean, people still drive and race vintage cars despite there being new designs and models that beat them in every way. why? i hear you ask…
well the answer is universal;
FOR FUN
T
yeah not everything has to based on performance roy
sometimes i like to just lie there
i think those boards look very fun.
and i think they are functional, if you want to ride the wave parallel with no reisitance from fins or rails. it looks like he’s floating in a cloud. and i bet they are a blast to ride. Modern surfboards aren’t better, they are just different.
So the best part is invisible except to believers? The Emperor's new clothes all over again !
Just like some people’s alleged high speed surfing is invisible to non-believers.
Altogether different because we measure the speed, whereas T. Wegener just says "The ancient Hawaiians went way faster than us " (total speculation based on nothing at all )
i think those boards look very fun.
and i think they are functional, if you want to ride the wave parallel with no reisitance from fins or rails.
Yeah and if you want to fall off as soon as the tiniest section appears, then it’s the ideal board 
Right. Just like some people’s measured high speed surfing is invisible to non-believers.
Cheers to you ambrose, for taking the time to see what others missed. O’Brien’s surfing on the finless, downrailed waveskimmer is amazing. The surfing on the alaia is amazing. Both are experimenting with finless design. Shit, it all looks fun to me. Open your mind and shut your mouth once in a while and sometimes the picture gets a little bit clearer.
Keep goin for that wave speed record, Roy. Keep reachin for that star, baby.