Roy- And, in all seriousness, why can Skip Frye turn a 13+ foot, 40+ pound board so effortlessly and it seems that you go more or less straight in line with the wave? I know you say you "turn" but stalling and releasing that stall isn't turning. I've seen several of your vids and I've yet to see a real turn, other than a sort of bottom turn. Eric
You are out of your tree Eric.
Those so called turns you see on 12 foot mals are stall turns or tail pivots, not rail turns.
They make me cringe because they are so inefficient, and inefficient equals ugly.
The problem with the longer mals ( over 12 feet ) is that the tail pivot/stall turn requires lifting the nose while standing way back on the tail , this becomes increasingly difficult as the board gets longer due to the leverage exerted.
Thye only cure for this is to make the board lighter in order to overcome the design fault, but it's a poor cure as the lightness causes other problems.
Twelve foot boards can still get away with a malibu ice cream stick shape, but only just. Once the boards reach 14 to 16 feet the bad design can no longer be overcome by rider effort or ultra light weight. . . . the result is a board which can neither tail pivot nor rail turn. . . . in other words a dysfunctional POS.
The same problems occur at 9 feet, but are overcome by bodily gyrations, the appreciation of which is a classic case of making a virtue of an unnecessary necessity.
My boards are a vast improvement on the icecream stick malibu shape, as they are able to rail turn and carve with ease at any length with minimal rider effort or movement. The keys to this are shapes which have a more central riding position in order to cut down on nose leverage and swing weight, and a sweet spot from which turning and trmming occur simultaneously.
Here's a video of a 13 foot 35 pound board which turns with the greatest of ease, its
sinuous lines and elongated proportions, create a lithe, teardrop shaped whole which has a snake like turning ability. This was the first session on the board and my first surf for three months, just a taste.
If anyone has video of Harry Frye surfing a 13 footer then please post it up.
Future Primitive 13 foot wooden surfboard from Roy stewart on Vimeo.
The Future Primitive 13 foot wooden surfboard being ridden for the first time, at Omanu, Mount Maunganui New Zealand.
