Don't miss it... it will be a trip to hear Levi, Dylan and Ronnie on the radio.
Cheers dudes.
Here's the Motors' video, Singlefins & Safety Pins. Be sure to check Levi's cameo appearance in the video at 1:49.
KOCI 101.5
The Japanese Motors were on 101.5 KOCI today at noon doing an interview and playing some live songs. AND... I just found out Gantez Warrior will be doing the same on Thursday night between 7 and 9 p.m.
Hollow Balsa mini Simmons by Nathan Grey
Nathan has just finished and road tested this little gem - " 5-7" 22.5" 2.5" hollow balsa simfish, with a S deck and underneath hull up front blending to single concave. I have surfed it a few times and the thing goes like the clappers."
Hollow Balsa mini Simmons
Nathan Grey has just finished this little masterpiece - " 5-7" 22.5" 2.5" hollow balsa simfish, with a S deck and underneath hull up front blending to single concave.
I have surfed it a few times and the thing goes like the clappers."
Nathan Greys latest little fish
Nathan Grey is a great wooden board builder out of Sydney and his latest little fish is 5-9" 20.5" 2.5" hollow cedar fish with solid balsa rails.
" It has got a bit of V through the nose and then flat blending into a single
concave that runs through the keels. I have not surfed this one since it is for a young guy in Perth, I have been
very tempted."
Mate I am sure the guy in Perth will be mighty stoked to have this little craft.
We look forward to seeing you up here with some boards in August.
Hollow Cedar fish with solid Balsa rails by Nathan Grey
Nathan Grey is a great wooden board builder out of Sydney and has forwarded these pics of this 5-9" 20.5" 2.5" hollow cedar fish with solid balsa rails.
" It has got a bit of V through the nose and then flat blending into a single concave that runs through the keels. I have not surfed this one since it is for a young guy in Perth, I have been very tempted. "
Mate I would think the guy in Perth will be mighty please with his board.
New Shape and Lotsa Foam
This one is modeled after the board Kelly won Pipe Master on this year. 5'11 x 18.5 x 2 3/8 with wide point and thickness forward - low nose rocker with wide nose - tail has a lot of rocker and is very pulled in and thin - like a marriage of a stubbie up front and a semigun widepoint back. Basically an updated single fin with modern bottom and rail foil. This one is going to be a thruster. I have seen some of the obx gang riding these when it is thick up there.
I have another ridiculously large block of 2# eps - so if you want a handshaped epoxy or a blank to shape yourself - give me a shout!
Ben's new 9 footer.
Here's some pics of Ben Hammant's new 9 footer which he has just finished today. The board is once again of hollow wood design with 7mm ply frame. It has strips of paulownia and western red cedar for the deck and bottom. The rails are solid and have been made out of the same with a little ply in between for looks. The nose and tail blocks and fin are the same, The boards dimensions are 9' x 22 3/4" x 3" and it weighs 10.4kg.
Plenty on fresh fillets waiting to be battered.
Another Rocket fish crafted by Dick's talented hands.
It just goes to show if you make what people want you will always be busy.
Observation...
I don't get it... every one of these guys, with the exception of the "artist" on the right, is like the quintessential ...LOST customer. Read.
More Happy Customers!
You don't have to be a professional Surfer to get a hold of highest quality, highest performance surfboards on the market! Have a go at some of our happy customers and Team rider Asher Pacey's new blade!
Thanks for dropping in! but remember... Don't Drop In!Stay tuned for this weeks upcoming swell...
In the meantime, add our blog to your RSS feed or in google reader!
What's Inside an Old Clark Blank?
Here's James, picking up his 7'10" Fun Gun that I shaped out of that crusty 7'11R Clark Foam blank. 
Good quality always endures.
Annular wing surfboard fin story part 2:
continued from part Yesterday we asked how one should compare the lift and drag characteristics of annular wings and flat plane wings, mentioned that they are typically compared only according to their planshape area, and suggested that this can lead to some misleading conclusions.It's like this: when measuring the planshape area of an annular wing one is not measuring the true size of the wing. . .. . unlike a flat plane wing, where the planshape area captures accurately the size of the wing.For example a rectangular flat plane wing with a span of ten inches and a chord length of 4 inches has a total area of 40 square inches, whereas a circular annuular wing with the same span and chord length has a total wing area of 128 square inches and a half pipe annular wing of the same diameter has an area of 64 square inches.This becomes interesting when we see that the official word on annular wings is that they produce less induced drag, but more skin friction drag. Then the conclusion is drawn that because skin friction drag increases with speed while induced drag reduces with speed that therefore the annular wing is only suitable for low speeds.That is the erroneous conclusion. . . .. . . it is erroneous because they compare wings of two different sizes. . . . and bigger wings have exactly the same properties which they describe: Less induced drag at low speeds and higher skin friction drag at high speeds.Now a bigger wing also produces more lift, so if my contention is correct then we should expect that the annular wing being compared should also produce more lift than the flat plane wing, simply because it is bigger than the flat plane wing which it is being compared with.Is this the case? Does an annular wing of a given span and chord lengthproduce more lift than its flat plane equivalent ? Yes it does, but this fact has been carefully hidden in the literature on the subject.Ok, so how is it that this has happened ? What has been done is that during comparisons the angle of attack of the annular wing is lowerd until it produces the same amount of lift as the flat plane wing. At the same angle of attack as the flat plane wing,the annular wing would produce more lift, so they simply lower the angle of attack in order to hide this. Since annular wings operate at lower angles of attack than flat plane wings anyway, this trickery is effectively hidden .There are several consequences of this lowering of the angle of attack of the annular wing during comparison:1) The fact that the annular wing is simply bigger, is hidden.2) The induced drag of the annular wing is lowered, this would be the case with a larger flat plane wing also ( when the angle of attack is lowered so is the induced drag and the lift.So in order to make comparison with a flat plane wing in this case we need to choose an annular wing with a smaller diameter and the same surface area. Doing so will mean that the annular wing has the same skin friction drag at high speeds as the flat plane wing, and thus will have no disadvantage at higher speeds.One might argue that in terms of lift the annular wing is effectively only as big as its planshape area, so therefore it is correct that it is compared on that basis. That is not correct however, as the evidence shows that the annular wing produces more lift than its planshape area suggests. . . .. . the total wing area contributes to lift because the wing is an enclosed tube.
A related subject which we will deal with tomorrow is that of fin size generally ( not specifically annular wing size, but all fins ) : At a first glance it might appear that small fins are better for high speed and large fins are better at low speed, due to the fact that large fins produce more skin friction drag and that this increases with speed, whereas at low speed they have less induced drag . .. . . and since induced drag diminishes as speed increases the induced drag advantage is lost at high speed . The answer is ' Yes for aircraft but not necessarily in the case of surfboards'. . . . . . . .. ...
A related subject which we will deal with tomorrow is that of fin size generally ( not specifically annular wing size, but all fins ) : At a first glance it might appear that small fins are better for high speed and large fins are better at low speed, due to the fact that large fins produce more skin friction drag and that this increases with speed, whereas at low speed they have less induced drag . .. . . and since induced drag diminishes as speed increases the induced drag advantage is lost at high speed . The answer is ' Yes for aircraft but not necessarily in the case of surfboards'. . . . . . . .. ...
Icy Offshores
Here are a few pictures of T. AL on his trusty Lumberjack, taken today by Jeff Aschieris.
Stylish
Offshore Trim
Superstall
Offshore assisted kick-out
Big Bastard
That there are cursed objects in this world is an undeniable fact. How else to explain the mummified corpse of Tutankhamun, terrorizing all that cross its path? Or the Hope Diamond, leaving a swath of suffering and misery in its wake after being thefted from a Hindu goddess in the 17th century? Or the tiki idol unfettering its chaotic influence on the Brady clan in the “Hawaiian” episode?
Or James Dean’s Car, Little Bastard, which took his life in 1955, then went on a mad spree of unprecedented injurious behaviors never before seen in the vehicular world.
After Dean’s death, Little Bastard was purchased by a mechanic, besotted with the notion of restoring the cursed auto. Not so fast, Rolf Wutherich! While unloading Little Bastard into his shop, the inauspicious German-American had his legs crushed when LB burst from its constraints and rolled onto his person.
Incensed, Wutherich sold Little Bastard off for parts.
The engine and transmission were purchased by to two racing-enthusiast doctors. They installed them into their cars, met out on the Pomona Fairground racetrack in 1956, peeled out of the starting blocks, then smashed into each other. One of the physicians suffered major bodily harm. He was the luckier of the two.
The tires went to a hapless young chap who bolted them on, fired up his ride, then smashed into a tree when the front two wheels, in his words, ‘sort of exploded.’
Other accidents followed: the kid who tried to steal the steering column (occult memento-seekers are always punished) gashed his arm and had to spend the night in the hospital. One feckless young lady, seeking only a photograph of her deceased heartthrob’s Porsche Spyder, stumbled unexpectedly, hit her head against Little Bastard’s hind quarters, and knocked herself unconscious.
Enough was enough. The cursed devil mobile was impounded by the fuzz, never to harm anyone again.
Until a few months into 1957, when it was reassembled in a Prometheusian grasp for fame by an imprudent auto show promoter.
But the show never happened. Wanna know why? A fire broke out in the car storage building, destroying every car but Little Bastard, who got nary a scratch.
Little Bastard, curse intact, was loaded onto a truck-with-trailer bound for Salinas, CA. Guess what? The truck hit a funky spot, the driver was thrown from the truck, and Little Bastard rolled off the trailer and crushed the dude to death.
I shit you not.
The ‘police’ impounded Little Bastard, and she hasn’t been seen since.
A cursed object, this time in the form of a humungous StandUp Paddleboard blank, made its way into my shop this week.
How do I know it was cursed? Read on, then decide for yourself.
First, the blank barely fit into my minivan. It’s possible that I got a bruise on my arm trying to load it.
Then, while driving, my visibility and comfort were compromised due to the sheer bulk of the thing. I couldn’t reach my beverage holder or iPod. I blame Big Bastard for my having to endure seven Counting Crows tunes in a row, which my wife must have uploaded when I wasn’t looking. During this time, I was also quite thirsty.
Unloading the devil-blank into my shop and onto the racks was no picnic for my ailing rotator cuff. I had about a foot of space on either side of the racks (nose and tail), and found it easier to duck underneath it while shaping, rather than walk all the way around it. This was not good for my back. Once, I hit my head.
Skinning Big Bastard took a long time. It clogged my vacuum system. I had to change garbage bags, an activity I don’t like, and I got very dusty. Curses!
Day two started off fine. I was lulled into security early on as foiling and truing the planshape went well. Then, in an unexpected frenzy, my brand-spankin’ new planer decided that it wanted nothing to do with the Big Bastard, skittered off the blank, hit the floor, and made a funny noise. I rushed to its aid. It seems fine now, but it could just be sucking it up.
I decided to get to some other orders and let the Big Bastard hang out for a while in my stairwell, the only place in the house where it would fit.
However, here it continued its carnage unabated. First, the stairwell began to accumulate stuff that needed to go upstairs. A box of new-baby clothes. Some books. Surfboards. It became unsightly, and I think my lovely wife, usually tolerant of my sloth, was displeased.
Then, my almost-two-year-old daughter stumbled on the stairs while playing hide-and-seek. On top of this, she ended up beating me at this game (she’s crafty!). Two things I again attribute to Big Bastard’s curse.
Finally, I fortified myself and committed to a final shaping session. I took a few Ibuprofen, steadied my nerves with a lukewarm Tecate, then had at it.
No problems, which I’m thinking is part of Big Bastard’s overall plan—lull me into submission, then strike when I’m not expecting it.
I will be watching.
Oh yes, I will.
Or James Dean’s Car, Little Bastard, which took his life in 1955, then went on a mad spree of unprecedented injurious behaviors never before seen in the vehicular world.
After Dean’s death, Little Bastard was purchased by a mechanic, besotted with the notion of restoring the cursed auto. Not so fast, Rolf Wutherich! While unloading Little Bastard into his shop, the inauspicious German-American had his legs crushed when LB burst from its constraints and rolled onto his person.
Incensed, Wutherich sold Little Bastard off for parts.
The engine and transmission were purchased by to two racing-enthusiast doctors. They installed them into their cars, met out on the Pomona Fairground racetrack in 1956, peeled out of the starting blocks, then smashed into each other. One of the physicians suffered major bodily harm. He was the luckier of the two.
The tires went to a hapless young chap who bolted them on, fired up his ride, then smashed into a tree when the front two wheels, in his words, ‘sort of exploded.’
Other accidents followed: the kid who tried to steal the steering column (occult memento-seekers are always punished) gashed his arm and had to spend the night in the hospital. One feckless young lady, seeking only a photograph of her deceased heartthrob’s Porsche Spyder, stumbled unexpectedly, hit her head against Little Bastard’s hind quarters, and knocked herself unconscious.
Enough was enough. The cursed devil mobile was impounded by the fuzz, never to harm anyone again.
Until a few months into 1957, when it was reassembled in a Prometheusian grasp for fame by an imprudent auto show promoter.
But the show never happened. Wanna know why? A fire broke out in the car storage building, destroying every car but Little Bastard, who got nary a scratch.
Little Bastard, curse intact, was loaded onto a truck-with-trailer bound for Salinas, CA. Guess what? The truck hit a funky spot, the driver was thrown from the truck, and Little Bastard rolled off the trailer and crushed the dude to death.
I shit you not.
The ‘police’ impounded Little Bastard, and she hasn’t been seen since.
A cursed object, this time in the form of a humungous StandUp Paddleboard blank, made its way into my shop this week.
How do I know it was cursed? Read on, then decide for yourself.
First, the blank barely fit into my minivan. It’s possible that I got a bruise on my arm trying to load it.
Then, while driving, my visibility and comfort were compromised due to the sheer bulk of the thing. I couldn’t reach my beverage holder or iPod. I blame Big Bastard for my having to endure seven Counting Crows tunes in a row, which my wife must have uploaded when I wasn’t looking. During this time, I was also quite thirsty.
Unloading the devil-blank into my shop and onto the racks was no picnic for my ailing rotator cuff. I had about a foot of space on either side of the racks (nose and tail), and found it easier to duck underneath it while shaping, rather than walk all the way around it. This was not good for my back. Once, I hit my head.
Skinning Big Bastard took a long time. It clogged my vacuum system. I had to change garbage bags, an activity I don’t like, and I got very dusty. Curses!
Day two started off fine. I was lulled into security early on as foiling and truing the planshape went well. Then, in an unexpected frenzy, my brand-spankin’ new planer decided that it wanted nothing to do with the Big Bastard, skittered off the blank, hit the floor, and made a funny noise. I rushed to its aid. It seems fine now, but it could just be sucking it up.
I decided to get to some other orders and let the Big Bastard hang out for a while in my stairwell, the only place in the house where it would fit.
However, here it continued its carnage unabated. First, the stairwell began to accumulate stuff that needed to go upstairs. A box of new-baby clothes. Some books. Surfboards. It became unsightly, and I think my lovely wife, usually tolerant of my sloth, was displeased.
Then, my almost-two-year-old daughter stumbled on the stairs while playing hide-and-seek. On top of this, she ended up beating me at this game (she’s crafty!). Two things I again attribute to Big Bastard’s curse.
Finally, I fortified myself and committed to a final shaping session. I took a few Ibuprofen, steadied my nerves with a lukewarm Tecate, then had at it.
No problems, which I’m thinking is part of Big Bastard’s overall plan—lull me into submission, then strike when I’m not expecting it.
I will be watching.
Oh yes, I will.
Blackies Footage
Here's some footage from Blackies last June. Fast Forward to 7:55, you'll see Al Knost drop in on Ludwig. Haha, it's funny...
Other than that, it's just a bunch of good surfing. I think King Rat even made an appearance.
Surfboard fin guide part 3: The fin/surfboard junction
Every piece of research we have seen on this subject has come to the same conclusion: The fastest fin/ surfboard junction is a half round fillet at the base of the fin with a diameter of between 2mm and 5mm, not bigger, and not smaller.Here are some fins with base fillets of 2 to 3 mm:
That's how we do it. . . the right way !Why? Because when one strives to do the best job possible, every detail counts.Today not one even one board in 20 million has the fin/surfboard junction done this way, they are almost all either fin boxed fins which have no fillet plus drag inducing gaps, holes and screws interfering with the water flow, or 'glass on' fins which have monstrous 'slow down' fillets many times bigger than the optimum . The manufacturers of these boards don't have the 'right stuff' . . . instead of making the improvement they would rather indulge in addle brained apologetics, in the hope that customers will swallow the hype and just keep on buying the sub optimal product. . . and of course they nearly all do.This should sound familiar, as it's the same tactic used to sell the fins with flat spots and bumps in the base: " Shutp and eat your potatoes johhny if it's good enough for kelly Slater it's good enough for you " . . .. . and maybe it is but it isn't good enough for us !Now, how much difference does all this make in terms of drag ?
That's how we do it. . . the right way !Why? Because when one strives to do the best job possible, every detail counts.Today not one even one board in 20 million has the fin/surfboard junction done this way, they are almost all either fin boxed fins which have no fillet plus drag inducing gaps, holes and screws interfering with the water flow, or 'glass on' fins which have monstrous 'slow down' fillets many times bigger than the optimum . The manufacturers of these boards don't have the 'right stuff' . . . instead of making the improvement they would rather indulge in addle brained apologetics, in the hope that customers will swallow the hype and just keep on buying the sub optimal product. . . and of course they nearly all do.This should sound familiar, as it's the same tactic used to sell the fins with flat spots and bumps in the base: " Shutp and eat your potatoes johhny if it's good enough for kelly Slater it's good enough for you " . . .. . and maybe it is but it isn't good enough for us !Now, how much difference does all this make in terms of drag ?
The Annular wing fin story part 1 : Why does this alaia board have a tunnel ?
Because they feel good
It's the experience !
We have lots of technical mumbo jumbo on the subject of annular wings, including the reason why the hydrodynamic and aerodynamic establishment are sometimes unable to understand them properly: Just how does one compare a semi circular or circular wing with a flat one? Do we compare wings of the same planshape area? Or do we compare wings which produce the same amount of lift in a given situation? Perhaps we could compare wings which have the same surface area ? The establishment tends to do the first i.e they compare flat and annular wings of the same planshape area. . .. . that leads to some misleading conclusions which have kept annular wings in relative obscurity , as we shall see. . .
It's the experience !
We have lots of technical mumbo jumbo on the subject of annular wings, including the reason why the hydrodynamic and aerodynamic establishment are sometimes unable to understand them properly: Just how does one compare a semi circular or circular wing with a flat one? Do we compare wings of the same planshape area? Or do we compare wings which produce the same amount of lift in a given situation? Perhaps we could compare wings which have the same surface area ? The establishment tends to do the first i.e they compare flat and annular wings of the same planshape area. . .. . that leads to some misleading conclusions which have kept annular wings in relative obscurity , as we shall see. . .
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