I am not demanding anything.
There seem to be multiple design considerations.
Different designs have different functions. It is unlikely there is one true path.
I doubt anybody has tried all of the channel configurations that would work well.
I suspect only a handful of channel types, numbers, placements, shapes and orientations have been tried.
I am skeptical that the definitive channel design has been built…
Why do you have to say asshole? I don’t know what all this dissing is about. All we are talking about is surfboards (TOYS) not current events.
During the mid 90s, I rode a 7’8 channel bottom at Sunset that worked really in the OH to DOH range. Fairly deep slot channel bottom, with mild rolled V, running from the tail thru the fins, flaring off at 45 degrees to the sides ahead of them, then blending flat into the bottom…concept was when turning water flow is at 45’, so both feeding the fins and compressing the exit for more boost…board had lots of punch and acceleration off the bottom, and was way fast, as does any channel bottom that flattens the bottom rocker, which always works well at Sunset…at first the board felt promising but a bit stiff, so started working the fins over after each session, sanding them down a little bit at a time, until one session the board just lit up, and went from working good to working great…
yea, McD…board came out great, have taken a lot of King Salmon on it…rebuilt it bow to stern, and reinforced the hull so it could handle more HP without deflecting…Jamestown Distributors a great source for boat epoxy, materials, fittings, etc.
is that the same design Curren was riding during that game changing session in the Mentawai’s back in the day…?
Yes it is. That was how we heard about this design. My brother asked Jeff Bushman to make him something like it, but Jeff didn’t put the concaves in. He did make a really good board though, and I rode it in the biggest surf Ala Moana Park gets. It was around 1996 or 1997 and double overhead plus.
These are photos from that swell. The waves were breaking way outside the famous poles at the Ala Wai Boat Harbor and closing out across the channel.
Left out
Quick to attack
Talk design not forum theory
I never asked for the goods on anyones design , exspected it or belittled them or their concepts .
Its a huge negative the internet has created .
Anyone can read it here .
Hah, if Greg tried to explain his boards, he’d have 2 or 3 pages of text.
He has been really good about spending time with anyone willing to talk about boards. He showed me some of the longboards he was working on a while ago and took the time to explain his multi-plane bottoms and channels and all that. He has a reason for what he does, and he matches his custom fins with each board. I think Steve Mock was doing his fins until Steve got too busy. Most people getting a new Griffin board will go on about the custom fins and how good they are. Kind of like getting a custom Robin Mair board with his hand made fins, it’s a matched set. I don’t know of many shapers that do this.
I attacked and belittled you? Really?
I asked objective questions. That is part of interactive dialogue.
I do not begrudge anybody their proprietary tech.
Belief and substantiation are not synonymous.
Theory is at the core of almost all effective designs…
Just got back and read through all this.
I really appreciate all that You contribute Greg, across all the social platforms.
I have a limited understanding of channels and like everything else with board design, it seems the more I know - the more I know how much I don’t know.
Fourms can be difficult - I don’t ask many questions on here or question designs as it can often be the case of intensions not coming across correctly.
Even if I don’t agree on an idea or subject I still find it helpful to understand why people do what they do… Most people can’t explain why or never even question why. When I come across someone who can answer why, I’ll always try to ask questions. No harsh feelings on my end and hope to never convey that.
I just want to soak it all in and respect the craft.
(Ps Greg, I tried to send you a dm on Instagram after your first post on here - not sure it made it to you)
Back to channels, The Fireball fish brings to mind again the belly channels that were popular some years back. Brian Bulkley apparently still does them on occasion.
As in emails, its best not to read “tone” into these posts unless someone is obviously being a jerk. Even then ignoring questionable comments is a better path.
Fifteen or so years ago when I first saw a post here from the Esteemed Ambrose, I said something snarky (can’t recall what), and I soon regretted it. He gave me a very polite pass and I haven’t forgotten it.
Works for me. Maybe you, too.
All the best
I know of one, a crusty old sea dog who made me a magic stick with six channels and custom fins for west oz. Rode it out at Jakes and Half Moon Bay and have never had anything under my feet like it. Dont think I ever will again. Its now hanging up under my house to be maybe passed on to my son if he gets into bigger surf or to put up on the wall. Due to my back surgery and the risk involved with surfing larger waves Im not sure if she will get wet again. She has served her purpose and maybe, just maybe, caught the most powerful and solid waves of my life. Its all about speed my friends. As I say with motor bikes, speed equals safety in most cases.
I wondered who made it too and zoomed in on the deck photo. It is a Hewston.
Alan in front of my yard at Sunset Point before the internet and cell phones
We just surfed together , never asked him one question .
Great times -
Yes, it is, the one and only…
His fins are just as good as his boards I tell ya. Never have i understood how much difference fins made till I was blessed to get to know the man. As I will now always say, once you go custom from someone who knows what they are on about you will never go back. So I understand what customers of GG are saying about his fins, why, because I was blessed enough to experience it with Huei.
I’ve had the 6 channels, bonzers etc etc
seems like deep 6 channels like clean faces, when ever I got stuck behind and a bunch of white water got under those channels it was like riding a wild bronking horse. That always seemed their weakness nd why I gravitated to the gemini and then to Greg’s flat bottoms and hard edges.
Then several years ago I got a custom 8 channel quad from a shaper on Kauai named Peter Poppler which seemed to elimiate the foamy out of control problem because his channel were soft but also like allot of other wiser shapers, his channel were either in a single or double concave kind of like how Robin puts his “hump” in a subtle concave. Changed my mind about concaves so much I ordered another 8 channel from Peter a year or so later. Again like all the greats the bottom has to fit in with everything else going on with the board its not a single element that does it.
Below is the board I first saw and wanted after seeing Parmenter’s version, but he convinced me to get something very different a stubby quad fish
If you look at Digger’s board, you’ll notice the channels are also slightly towed in like Griffin says he does it. Must be something to it. Both of those guys have a heck of a lot of experience shaping boards. I don’t have any channel bottom boards, so I have no input pro or con.
My brother seems to like his Poppler boards (made by Jerrico Poppler’s brother). They look like concaves more than typical channels, very symmetrical, no hard edges.
I thought channels could give a board a wider speed range?
That is, connect slow and fast planing speeds, same as ribs on speed boards.
Can I confirm that this isn’t the case? If it isn’t faster… Why?