The real deal. A 1+2 Burrito hull by Spence. Just picked up this morning...
Silver Strand Locals
8 hours ago
Another '68 Puerto Rico Vid ...
The footage from Evolution tends to dominate our memories of this event, but the US television coverage on ABC was more thorough. It shows some neat hull surfing here and there.
The waves were atrocious for the boards they were riding -- or vice versa -- and a lot of credit has to be given to the riders as they soldier on in the face of some shapeless, warbly junk.
This is Part One of the coverage. Not sure if Part Two is online...I can't find it.
Even though Nat Young and Wayne Lynch were riding first-gen, pulled-in roundtails, their boards still had V in the back half. You can see the V of Nat's board parting the water in the middle shot below...
From Spence ...
From The Net ....
A couple of on-line stirrings regarding modern surfboard design, found on the World Wide Web...
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Roger Kelly forwarded this treatise on the shortcomings of contemporary big wave design.
It's a long read -- and pretty technical -- but that allows author Donn Ito gets to the heart of the flaws of flat bottom surfboards in big surf.
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Glenn Sakamoto also turned up this short piece from the Surfer Magazine site on the fading grandeur of thrusters in everyday surfing.
It's interesting that it took so long -- over 3 decades -- for the media to catch up!
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From Roger ...
Friday at Rincon....knee to shoulder high waves with low tide, warm water and air. Moderate crowd with lots of kids due to holiday.
Nice glide in take off....
Just after take off...
Nice glide in take off....
Just after take off...
Last photo in series..... still long way to go...ended up past the pit
Greenough Flex Takes To The Sky ...
It's been 51 years since George Greenough built his first flexible kneeboard in a backyard engineering environment. That's a full half century if you're keeping score at home.
Now it appears that the super high tech aerospace industry is starting to catch up...
Greenough Knuckle vs. Nose Flip: Smackdown
One of the essential characteristics of the Greenough Knuckle is the distinct break in the rocker curve...
Slightly over half the bottom curve is straight (green arrows), followed by a moderately sharp break (red arrow), then a slight straight spot towards the tip of the nose (blue arrow.).
This approach is more sophisticated than the gradual, even-arc nose flip found on most surfboards (purple).
Flip is pretty, but it's primarily a defensive approach to nose rocker. True, it often saves you from pearling and catching, but you can't lean on it in a turn with the same authority ... because the curve is overly blended with the rest of the bottom, and therefore less effective than knuckle...
Knuckle really isn't rocker at all, but an integral element of the bottom hull ... as opposed to flip, which simply lifts the entire nose out of the water.
Along the center line, the knuckle is pronounced (red). But along the rail line, the rocker curve is flatter and more blended (green). The knuckle along the rail is expressed in the outline (blue).
-- Paul Gross
Slightly over half the bottom curve is straight (green arrows), followed by a moderately sharp break (red arrow), then a slight straight spot towards the tip of the nose (blue arrow.).
The inspiration for Greenough's bottom scheme comes from the lines of traditional boat hull design...
The concentration of the bottom curve in a relatively small area creates the knuckle which, like a boat hull, allows his board to aggressively bust through whatever bump or errant water it encounters.
Flip is pretty, but it's primarily a defensive approach to nose rocker. True, it often saves you from pearling and catching, but you can't lean on it in a turn with the same authority ... because the curve is overly blended with the rest of the bottom, and therefore less effective than knuckle...
Knuckle really isn't rocker at all, but an integral element of the bottom hull ... as opposed to flip, which simply lifts the entire nose out of the water.
Along the center line, the knuckle is pronounced (red). But along the rail line, the rocker curve is flatter and more blended (green). The knuckle along the rail is expressed in the outline (blue).
More From "The Greenough Knuckle" Files ...
One of Greenough's basic design tenets is: "Straight rocker in the last half of the board. "
He can get away with this extreme design premise because the tails on his boards are flexible...so he can have dead straight tail lift and still turn easily. This is a luxury conventional board builders don't have...and the reason he developed flexible boards in the first place.
The straight tail Greenough has utilized since the late 1950's sets up the forward knuckle perfectly, because by default, the rocker break already has to occur in the front 1/3 of the board. So, the two elements fit together without a fight.
Another aspect of this design synergy is that the straight tail wants to push the nose down in the water, and the knuckle (in both the rocker and outline) resists the tendency to either catch or pearl.
Additionally, when in trim, the constant 'power-on' push of the straight tail results in a high overall rate of speed...
-- Paul Gross
More On 'The Greenough Knuckle' ...
The 'knuckle' allows him to bury the rail without catching.
Here's a foam plug that I shaped for an edgeboard spoon. Same knuckle in the rocker and outline...
Ted Spencer's White Kite ...
In 1970 -- during what amounted to the second phase of the transition era -- down railed/flat bottomed boards were beginning to appear worldwide. Sticking to his faith in hulls, Ted Spencer began to tweak the radical, deep bellied stubbies of the previous few years into a more versatile hull design.
Shane Surfboards, located in the Monevale 'burb of Sydney, manufactured Ted's board as a model called 'The White Kite.'
Featuring a pulled-in nose, arc tail, mild belly, and soft rails running nose-to-tail, The White Kite handled a wider variety of wave conditions than most hulls of the day.
Not surprisingly, the subtle design concept never caught on in a big way...but with 20-20 hindsight, it's clear that these boards were a gem in the long history of Greenough-inspired hull design.
Bing Lotus: A Brilliant Mistake ...
The Bing Lotus was a forward looking transition era shortboard. Much like the hulls that flourished in good surf in later years, the Lotus featured a pulled-in tail, with a full nose and the wide point well above center.
So how did the Lotus come into being?
After the early wide-backed deep V's...
...followed by the double-ender small wave hot doggers...
...the idea of combining a full outline nose and a narrow tail wasn't on many shaper's radar.
The legend of the Lotus, as it is told, goes something like this...
Someone was riding a Brewer-built Bing Pipeliner and broke the nose off.
Rather than repair the now dated longboard, Brewer drew the outline of a full nosed stubby at the front of the now shortened semi-gun. A craftsman peeled the glass off, reshaped the nose conforming to the new template, then reglassed it. Whoever rode the board came back with rave reviews of the hybrid outlined board...and a transition shortboard icon was born.
Round the tail off, and you have the makings of a classic Liddle hull...
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