Okay boys and girls…I got stuck having to overhear a conversation about the difference felt between the tail of a board…money paid to shave off .25" thickness on the back 14" and reglass the bottom with complications from chunks of foam coming off with the original glass job…
My personal opinion fueled tonight via Sky vodka is that under those circumstances I should at least be able to recognize the 20-something guy talking…we’re talking Southern California here…I’m pretty much of the opinion that this is less a situation of a cutting-edge cogniscenti than one of a guy with too much money…
What’s the General Opinion here? If in all honesty you can feel the difference in one quarter inch of tail thickness in California waves, does it make more sense to pay for adjustments or just shift your weight?
It makes a difference if you think it makes a difference.
But I think not, thusly: surfing is done (mostly) in planing mode, where lift generated depends on the angle of attack, wetted area and speed. Note that thickness does not enter into the lift situation (in planing mode) in any way shape or form.
I will concede that thickness makes a difference in the distance between the sole of your foot to the instantaneous center of your turn, so there will be a difference. But can you feel it? Only if you think you can.
What your heard was mostly ego and money - look in any magazine, it’s all there and more.
There’s your problem Nels - the real stuff is “Skyy”
I don’t know what you & your acquaintences had, but it seems to have clouded your (their?) judgement. 1/4" thickness off the tail? Quit burritos & cheeseburgers for a week - that’ll have a greater effect.
Now 1/4" width, that I could debate. But once at surfing speed - thickness isn’t a major factor, IMO.
I agree with Benny on this one, 1/4" thickness off the tail isn’t gong to make much difference… 1/4" of width on the other hand could make a big difference.
I think maybe he’s got too much of the folding stuff floating around in his wallet.
I like to think I can feel it. Thinner tails are easier to stuff into turns. If they have hard rails, they feel like they slice through the wave better. Thicker tails make the board feel a bit corkier. Less positive in turns. It also matters whether the thickness comes off the deck or rails.
The only way to really test it is to build two boards that are identical except tail thickness. Paddle them both out with a friend and switch them around.
Sorry, but I’m more interested in the vodka. Is that straight up out of the freezer? Kamikaze? Martini? Mike
Hmmm…actually last night it was mixed with Diet Pepsi over ice, because I’m watching my weight…keeping a bottle on ice would be too much of a constant temptation for a quick shot at odd hours, and I keep very odd hours (you’ll notice that although I had some fun last night I’m up and at 'em at an hour this morning many find un-Godly drunk or sober).
To address other comments…I wouldn’t call the conversation participants aquaintinces, as I don’t know them…Southern California affords many opportunities to overhear people talking with little choice other than to run screaming from stores/beaches/eateries/gas stations…and this can take place many miles from the beach.
I believe that one really can feel a difference in .25" of thickness in a board…but personally I think it’s insane to pay what was probably a fair amount of money to change it…it would make more sense to me to just adjust to the board as it was - but I’m open to the notion that my opinion may be off on this and in the pre-dawn light here this morning that I probably approached this mostly as an economic/ego issue. I can think of a board I had that would have been great of the tail width was less, and had that one been something I had built I would have been sorely tempted to modify it. For me width seems harder to adapt to than thickness especially since three fins pretty much dictate a static stance on small boards.
Ah well…time to spend another day pissing into the wind. Duck and cover!
I think that on a board that was reasonably thin to start with, removing a 1/4 inch could make a difference that you could notice… particularly since it was on the bottom of the board, and would thus affect the tail rocker. Not saying I would do it, though.
Imagine the tail is 1.5" thick, shaving .25" off is a 17% change. I’d have to say this would be very noticeable. Imagine changing the tail width by 17%. Add in the details of the sanding/glassing, who knows how much the flex pattern has changed. Where would one even start such a repair? Strip all the deck glass off? There will still be serious rail blending issues. Removing material from the bottom seems even worse. I vote no on the rework.
Of course it doesn’t make sense to rip up a finished board to change it. Let’s get that out of the way first.
If you mean 1/4" off the entire last foot or so, I think that would make a difference to me. I’m a light guy though. Think about it this way. If you’re making very sharp turns and gouges you’re not going very fast towards the end of the turn. Your energy is being transfered into a fan of water that’s impressing your friends and that girl surfing in the thong. So the boyancy of the tail becomes more important as your turn progresses.
If you mean 1/4" off the entire last foot or so, I think that would make a difference to me.
I don’t think anybody on here is saying it would make no difference… but as someone on here said, the only way to really know would be to shape 2 boards… the only change being that 1 has 1/4" less tail thickness inthe last 14" of the tail - then surf them both.
I don’t think changing the board by ripping into the tail and impacting the rocker profile is worth it… the shaper would have had something in mind to start with and how much would all this cost?
As I said previously - obviously too much folding stuff floating around in his wallet.
I just stripped an old bad attempt of a fish to reshape the rocker (mostly the tail rocker).
I must have cut off an inch or more to get the tail rocker. I’m just glad the tail was about two and a half inches thick.
I don’t think it’s worth it for a quarter inch.
I have a question sort of related to this…
After having an email conversation with Tom Wegener, I thought about making a board with thick rails and bottom from wood or plastic that you could easily make changes to. The goal is to see how the subtle changes in bottom contour or rail shape affect how it works. I’m worried that the weight of the board would also have an affect on how the board works. GL said he used bondo. Does anyone have any comments?